To be amazed at the entitlement?

[80Dodgeballs]

I advertised a toy on FB. In pristine condition for £1 (would normally sell new for £8).

Someone living in a very wealthy area has asked me to deliver the toy to them when they know it's a 15 mile round trip. They don't want to know now that I've suggested a few pounds delivery charge for petrol and my time. It would still make the toy half of what it would cost in the shops.

AIBU to be flabbergasted at how some people expect the world to owe them something when they're already getting an amazing deal?

They seem really miffed at my suggestion of a delivery charge. Why on earth would I deliver something for £1 when it would cost me more than that in petrol let alone my time? CF!!! I can't believe the gall of some people.

Laetitia maybe. But sometimes it's just easier not to engage with people if you sense they're going to be a pain. And asking for a reduction on something which is already reasonably priced is often a warning sign of that!

@isthismylifenow

My dd sold some of her clothes recently, she wanted some new jeans, so I said as she has no shortage (and its a want, not a need) that she needs to sell some other clothes to raise the money for new ones. Which I think is fair. So she takes ages photographing each item, all different angles and lists each item. But for very little as she just wanted them gone so that she could get the money to have the new jeans by the following week.

There were about 20 items (all branded) and one of them was a pair of trainers (also branded) which cost a fortune new, but she didn't really wear them much as they hurt her foot. If they were worn 5 times it was a lot. Not in UK, so converted she was asking about 5 pounds for a 50+ pounds pair a nearly new shoes. Woman replies straight away and wants to buy the shoes. Due to where we live we have to do courier transport to the buyer and get electronic payment. So the woman says she wants them, and pays the money. DD packs up the shoes really well, including in the original box and sends of via the courier to the woman. Dd gets a message the next day and the woman says she wants a refund as the shoes are not as DD stated. . Thankfully she took pics and resent them to this woman, who then sent pics back of one shoe with a sharpie pen mark on the side. She then says its disgraceful DD would sell something like this and she wanted her money back, they were not worth the money she has asked, started to threaten dd etc. I was at work and didn't know any of this, DD had got such a fright and refunded her, then asked her to sent the shoes back. Of course she didnt, and DD was left with no shoes and no money. About a month later DD sees the same shoes (no sharpie mark on the side) being sold for equivalent of 40 pounds.

DD was devastated, and the whole process of selling off her things was so bloody stressful. She sold to about 15 people, 10 of them I would say were really nice, but a handful were just awful.

She did manage to get enough together to buy the jeans she wanted to, but we both said, never again.

She is a teenager so not worldly wise, and was scammed. That I suppose is a life lesson, but I do wonder how some people sleep at night. The woman buying knew she was just a young girl as they had been chatting on messenger re the sale.

This is awful to read. Your poor daughter.

This thread is such a horrible snapshot of what society can be like.

It seems a lot of these people are almost looking for a fight. The sort who will become aggressive because they think you've looked at them in a funny way!

I do think there are some people who feel like they're only succeeding in life if they've somehow got the better of someone else. It's very odd to me and sounds like a miserable way to live.

I think it’s fine to make an offer but rather than sending a blunt ‘£10’ to someone who has advertised something for £50, just send a polite message saying ‘I’m interested in your item but my max price would be £x. Please do get in touch if you decide to lower the price’. They might be happy to do so if it hasn’t sold (and let’s face it, some people’s initial asking prices are pie in the sky!) but it’s polite and reasonable and doesn’t smack of being a demanding CF. I would never mind getting a message like that in response to an advert.

I do think there are some people who feel like they're only succeeding in life if they've somehow got the better of someone else. It's very odd to me and sounds like a miserable way to live. What an awful way to live one's life!

@smoko

Hear you OP, this kind of cheeky fuckery gets my goat!

Recently I sold a vintage stained glass front door on FB for $100 - worth a fair bit more, but had found it by the roadside & enjoy putting up a good deal which is a quick sell in an hour or two

Had a message from someone offering $50

Messaged back & said no, price firm

Then they message back to offer the asking price!

So text them back & said no, on principle I won’t sell it to you now, because you’ve taken the piss with such a lowball offer.

They apologised & offered $150!

I still said no - based on your rudeness to offer such a low asking price when you can obviously afford me pay more, am even less inclined to sell to someone like you.

Think people like this need to be called out on their cheapskate attitude.

Oh look at you and YOUR cheeky fuckery!

@AdobeWanKenobi

To be fair, when OP herself said:

It's just those CF who are in their 5 bed detached houses wanting something for nothing or don't want to pay the already bargain price that gets my goat!

It's just as judgmental. Nobody knows other peoples circumstances. You can live in a 5 bed detached and be on the bones of your arse just the same as in a 1 bed council flat.

Yeah, but it's less likely innit.

A couple of happy ending stories with FBMP.

Was gifted a hideous papier-mache cockerel ornament type thing. I put it on FBMP as a bit of fun thinking everyone would get a laugh looking at it. A very nice lady immediately messaged asking if she could please take it for her elderly mum, who grew up on a farm with chickens and now lives in a little bungalow with a small garden. I said yes absolutely and she took the cockerel away. A couple of hours later I got a picture of elderly mum sitting in her outdoor chair gazing lovingly at cockerel. Still warms my heart.

The other one was when I offered a bunch of Xmas baubles and a fake tree as I'd bought a new one. Offered for free and a lovely lady contacted me asking if she could take it. She came on time and said she was so grateful as she'd fled domestic violence with her young kids and her parents were helping her buy presents, but the kids would be in a strange new flat and she had no decorations. She sent me a pic of the tree decorated as well about a month later.

I've had a whole bunch of rude, aggressive, timewasting CFs as well, don't get me wrong, but those two stories are what keeps me going back to FBMP. There're some lovely people in the world.

@TurnUpTurnip

Was about to ask the same, can’t understand selling something for a pound I mean is it really worth the headache?

We had a big exercise bike, really good condition but not wanted. No charity shops would take it and it seemed wrong to take it to landfill. Put it on gumtree for £1 just to get it out the way.

AudacityBaby - that's lovely. I've given loads away on Nextdoor and never had any feedback at all. Dh got 1 man asking what else we would give him when he came to collect a free freezer.

I also once gave away an almost brand new computer desk on freecycle, the bloke who turned up did not even say thank you and was really rude. So I won't use that site again either.

I've used FreeCycle loads - mainly to give stuff away, but also gratefully received a few things - and I've mainly only experienced decent folk. Some are quite matter-of-fact: put stuff in car, say thanks and leave straightaway, but still nice enough. I once gave a load of surplus sheep's wool loft insulation to a lovely, slightly eccentric man who had his own micro-brewery - profusely thankful, had a really nice chat and he insisted on giving me a bottle of his finest cider!

It's a great platform, with lots of fantastic folk, in spite of all the horrible people on there too. You do get to know the signs in their messages to you - ignore the ones who put "Mine," "Yes" or "Will have" and also those who reply within 5 seconds of you posting it - they tend to be the ones who say yes to everything, presume they've 'bagged' first refusal and then take their time to decide if they actually want it (never bothering to let you know if they don't).

I agree with PP that some people are so hard-nosed and brazen, they think that they've somehow ripped themselves off if they don't walk away with the item having upset/offended/insulted you.

There are also a lot of so thoroughly egocentric people who see the whole world as basically being made up of: 1. them; and 2. people who are only there to facilitate and make their world nicer.

It seems a lot of these people are almost looking for a fight. The sort who will become aggressive because they think you've looked at them in a funny way!

Indeed - they validate themselves by having got one over you, regardless of how much they might have actually gained.

In some bizarre way, I also think that, in their screwed up mindset, they almost see a general advert on a platform they happen to see as a 'challenge' or 'invitation' to a 'who's the best' contest. You want to sell a coffee table and have advertised it for £20, to anybody who might be interested in buying it for that price or making a reasonable, polite offer (assuming that everybody else will ignore it); but they oddly feel affronted, like you've called their mum a cess pit troll or something.

We see a slightly lower level of this on MN, where some people see a thread that doesn't interest them at all and, instead of just ignoring it and scrolling on like a normal person would do, feel the need to go on and belittle everybody on it for wanting to discuss such a 'boring' or 'stupid' thing and berating them for wasting their time!!! Like it's a waste of your time to talk about something that interests you with likeminded people, but oddly not a waste of their time to choose to get actively involved in something they dislike!!

@TeeTotaller1 not sure I understand

@Sweetpeasaremadeforbees

I do think there are some people who feel like they're only succeeding in life if they've somehow got the better of someone else. It's very odd to me and sounds like a miserable way to live.

Yes. A specific type of 'scarcity mindset' that plays into the well-peddled myth that if your neighbour has something, you are obviously not only missing out, but being actively defrauded.

Hence benefits snitches.

We had a nice fridge spare after closing an office down last summer.
I put it in FBMP for £60 as it was almost new and immaculate through no use as the office had been shut due to covid regulations.
I must have had nearly 50 messages about this fridge. But the one that stood out was a chap who said he would give me £30 right now, and in CASH. Now where did I live because he wanted to pick it up NOW.
He could not seem to understand that at that point the advert had been live for about 30 minutes and I wasn't taking offers at that stage. I said I may consider offers towards the end of the week if it hadn't sold by then.
So I declined his kind offer and his response was he'd give me £20 on Friday because it wouldn't sell and that I should be grateful that someone was taking it off our hands. CF!
It sold within a day to a lovely lady who didn't quibble over the price at all. Seeing as we had paid £150 just before lockdown for it I think it was a bargain.

It goes the other way round too I think, single parent moving into my first flat at only 19 and I asked my dad if he would help pick up a washer I bought for £50, we got it, plumbed it in and there was a huge leak and not useable at all because it would go into downstairs electrics if I left it leaking, they blocked me, clearly they knew there was an issue but that money was my 'allotted money' for a washing machine and I was really upset. Since then I haven't used it really.

@ohtwatbollocks that's awful for you

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll re your last paragraph, you are spot on. I don't want to derail the thread but was wondering about this earlier today. Also intent on getting threads taken down. Why? Ffs, why don't they just move on if they don't like what they see?

@ohtwatbollocks

It goes the other way round too I think, single parent moving into my first flat at only 19 and I asked my dad if he would help pick up a washer I bought for £50, we got it, plumbed it in and there was a huge leak and not useable at all because it would go into downstairs electrics if I left it leaking, they blocked me, clearly they knew there was an issue but that money was my 'allotted money' for a washing machine and I was really upset. Since then I haven't used it really.

Oh, that's so mean. Can you report the seller at all? BHF sells washing machines and electronics that are fully tested second-hand for future reference. I've seen quite a few in there for £40- £50 near me.

There are also a lot of so thoroughly egocentric people who see the whole world as basically being made up of: 1. them; and 2. people who are only there to facilitate and make their world nicer.

That is so very very true.

@smoko

Hear you OP, this kind of cheeky fuckery gets my goat!

Recently I sold a vintage stained glass front door on FB for $100 - worth a fair bit more, but had found it by the roadside & enjoy putting up a good deal which is a quick sell in an hour or two

Had a message from someone offering $50

Messaged back & said no, price firm

Then they message back to offer the asking price!

So text them back & said no, on principle I won’t sell it to you now, because you’ve taken the piss with such a lowball offer.

They apologised & offered $150!

I still said no - based on your rudeness to offer such a low asking price when you can obviously afford me pay more, am even less inclined to sell to someone like you.

Think people like this need to be called out on their cheapskate attitude.

Find this a bit annoying tbh - it's normal to haggle a bit, no matter how rich or poor you are, and fair enough to make an offer under the asking price, perhaps with the hope of meeting somewhere in the middle. Seller isn't obligated to accept, as you didn't - totally fair enough - but when they then offered you what you wanted (for something you found for free at the side of the road) think you were a bit rude and judgy not to sell it to them if they were the first in line.

Not FBMP but a local facebook group - someone asked for some specific, expensive textbooks. I was the only one to answer, and said she could have them for free.

We arranged a collection time and date that suited her...she never turned up, and no message. People can be so rude.

Add to that the ebay buyer who hounded me everyday about a package she had paid 96p, untracked second class post for. It wasn't even late, but she expected me to 'chase ebay' and the 'delivery company'. She was a regular seller as well, she should have known better.

So I declined his kind offer and his response was he'd give me £20 on Friday because it wouldn't sell and that I should be grateful that someone was taking it off our hands.

We had this, only on a much larger scale, when we were selling a deceased FM's house. If these people are really so confident that you've way overpriced it, then they'll be content to wait a little while until you've had no takers, they've been proved thoroughly right all along and they can then swoop in, vindicated as an expert, with an even lower offer that you'll be glad/desperate to accept. I wonder why they don't just do that.............

I always think the same when companies/tradesmen etc. bombard you with sales calls and leaflets and insist they are the best AND the cheapest and tell you how amazingly stupid you would be to waste your time with anybody else and not to sign up with them instantly. Meanwhile, the genuinely reputable and competitively-priced ones will happily wait for you to call them and then put you on their waiting list!

I was selling a half-size violin which DD had grown out of using.
A woman contacted me and made a half-hearted attempt to bargain over the price before saying instead of buying it, could she just borrow it because "it was important for us mums to stick together"