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.

Was selling a bike on ebay and a bloke messaged. I checked his profile and he buys/sells bikes, so clearly a dealer. When he turned up, he gave me a story about how it’s for his granddaughter who has never had a bike (adult size bike). I just can’t be arsed with the crap people come out with! I politely smiled and took the money. I had no sentimental attachment, I just wanted the money.

My DH spent ages restoring a motorbike and the buyer offered £1800. His employee then turned up 3 hours late to collect it and immediately said ‘I’ll give you £1500’ and gave us a bullshit story about how he was a partner in the business etc. My DH refused the offer and got on the phone to the buyer who tried to give further bullshit. 9pm at night, the employee was standing trying to be intimidating, big bloke with tats and piercings galore, very threatening body language! Asshole. My DH stood his ground, he’s used to dealing with violent/threatening people in his job. Such shit behaviour, tho!

I was selling my son's bike during first lockdown. I got innundated with requests, mostly polite but one guy actually wanted me to drive 60 miles to deliver it when we were in full lockdown. When I said no he replied 'c'mon love, do me a favour'. Go f yourself just for calling me love you cheeky twat!

Bike eventually sold locally but buyer stood talking about all the very expensive and exotic holidays she missed going on then proceeded to try to knock £200 off the asking price.

Folk these days have such a sense of entitlement, probably because of the example set to them from what they see from our politicians and the immediacy of social media - they come to expect instant responses in all aspects of life.

I'd add here that having worked in impoverished communities and being painfully aware of how little so many people have, I tend to want to give stuff away and I do deliver on occasion.

A lot of takers seem to want to nab things without any idea of how they are going to collect them. But having seen inside a lot of struggling households, I tend to think that often the intention is good, that they need said item or it's something they could never afford to buy and are just hoping against hope that a friend will give them a lift or similar. Their lives are so precarious.

So sometimes I do deliver and honestly the living conditions I've seen are sad. Maybe I've been taken for a ride at times but I'll take that if it means I can make the odd person's day.

The other day we ended up with too much food because I'd forgotten to cancel a meal kit delivery. I posted a photo on a local page and within minutes was swamped with requests. The need is huge.

The woman who picked up was so blown away. I didn't meet her, I just left the box for her to collect, but she seemed genuinely thrilled when actually she was doing me a favour because else I'd have wasted good food. So sometimes it's a really nice experience to give stuff away.

@80Dodgeballs It might be an idea to just sell the toys as a bundle for £15. That way you’re less likely to have a load of time wasters get on your case, plus you’re able yo clear it all out in one go and get your money all in one go too.

I love the ones that give you a sob story as a bargaining tool.
Sold a PS4 on FBMP.
Someone offered me £50 for the whole thing.
Then when I didn't respond came back pleading as it was for his sick nephew that had cancer.
Subsequent messages, increasingly abusive, had the poor nephew change age and illness a few times...

The reading comprehension of people on FB is dire (how much is this?) Er- £20 as stated in the listing.

But then the reading comprehension on MN is also shocking.

@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.

It's hard to know who's the CF in this scenario.

Sounds like DP's best mate. If he buys from market place he will always barter the seller down on price.

He thinks everything should be given to him for free but gives nothing away for free, always sells it and wont shift on price.

I could understand if he was short of money, but he is always bragging about how much money he gets from his job - cash in hand so the taxman doesnt know.

@IntermittentParps

I'm not sure it's worth anyone's while, buyer or seller, having something for £1 once you factor in delivery or collection costs. It's going to end up being too expensive for what it is for one or the other party. I'd try selling them as a bundle.

What? The buyer gets an item for £1 and pays an extra couple of quid for petrol which is probably still less than the actual value of the item, whilst the seller gets rid of it and has an extra £1 to spend. That's a win win to me.

It's the sob stories that get
Me. DD sold a phone - very good condition and good value( looked at what they were going for on e bay.) She got someone offering about half the price she had it up for when she said no the woman said "but I can't afford what you have it up for!" Erm then don't buy it- I am not running a charity!

I always put "collection only" in the the tags, in the description and the title along with ticking the box. Still get chancers expecting you to deliver a free item. I will often put an item up for £5 as you tend to get less mucking about than for free. If they turn up and don't make silly demands I often let it go without payment.

Agree about landfill - much prefer to put up with a bit of mucking about than take it to a tip.

I read all of these tales agog - I know these people exist, my DH is always huffing about FBMP morons annoying him. But I've advertised loads of stuff and generally only dealt with ordinary folk - sometimes slightly batshit, sometimes a bit rude or lacking in social skills (one with the smelliest car I've ever had the misfortune to lift a tumble drier into), but otherwise just normal! Never had any trouble with payment. There was once an incident with a mobile phone, but it was my fault and all was sorted.

I've given away a rake of things for free because I just don't want it hanging around - mainly dog food or dog beds I could no longer use, once a knackered old bike in need of serious repairs, but they are often of use to someone out there. The way I see it, I can either add to landfill and use my time and petrol getting it there, or somebody can come and pick it up from my doorstep for free and make use of it.

I tend to cautiously assume people are arseholes and then I'm pleasantly surprised when they're nice. I've had loads of messenger chats with all kinds of folk.

DH says I'm too nice.

@AudTheDeepMinded

Oh, and the woman that asked if I'd accept half price for a posh pair of wellies I'd advertised. 'Certainly, which one would you like?' was my response. Reader, she blocked me!

Quick thinking! 🤣🙄

I had a couple of really bad ones.
About 20 years ago I bought a treadmill that at the time cost over £3,000 - a gym type one with loads of settings and inclines and stuff. The dogs bollocks. We'd had it maybe 7 years and wanted to sell it. We asked for £400.
Woman said she wanted it and came to collect it. once there she started complaining about it and offered £300. We said no thanks, bye. The bloke she was with looked mortified. She looked fucked off.

She was just a piss taker but the next one was horrible. I put a rowing machine on FB for £100. A bloke messaged me and offered 50. I just wanted rid of it so I said fine. He then said he'd only give me 20. I said no.

He then set up a group messenger thing with me and two of his equally revolting friends. Took a picture of my husband off my FB (I was very stupid about FB security settings back then!) And added text "I fuck kids".
Then they proceeded to send me obscene messages, really disgusting stuff. I replied to say your mothers would be ashamed of you. They said they wouldn't. I just blocked them but I really wish I'd screen shot their revolting attack on me and and sent it to everyone on each of their friends lists.

I get hacked off with a particular person on one of our "free" sites. Asks for stuff and then also replies to free stuff posts by others, virtually every one, with I'd like that please (is always polite) but followed by "where are you?" again reasonable but most posts say where to be collected from. But, then i get irrationally annoyed because the next bit is always a sob story about how it's too far or that she could get the bus if the weather is ok etc, obviously then guilting the person into delivering it.

I appreciate it's hard when you don't have a car but surely it should go - hi, I'm interested in your item, where are you? Person replies and then you either reply "great, when is best for collection?" or "Sorry, that's too far for me, thanks anyway"

I'm probably being very unreasonable but she just does my head in!

I admire your stance, but I do think you cut your nose off to spite your face there somewhat, I don’t think the guy was such a CF actually. If an ad doesn’t specify “no offers” then I think making an offer is fair enough. If I’ve gone back and said no it’s a fixed price of £100 ans thru continue to try and lowball, then that’s a different story. @smoko

Another one made me laugh. We had an assortment of tiles to get rid of- put them on FBMP for free with sizes and amounts. Some guy offered me £40- "no"I reiterated "they are free". What he meant was me give him £40 to take them away! Erm- no thanks.

A charity that trains people with learning disabilities to do building work/ tiling collected them in the end along with a beautifully hand made card from the students to say thanks!

@50ShadesOfCatholic

I'd add here that having worked in impoverished communities and being painfully aware of how little so many people have, I tend to want to give stuff away and I do deliver on occasion.

A lot of takers seem to want to nab things without any idea of how they are going to collect them. But having seen inside a lot of struggling households, I tend to think that often the intention is good, that they need said item or it's something they could never afford to buy and are just hoping against hope that a friend will give them a lift or similar. Their lives are so precarious.

So sometimes I do deliver and honestly the living conditions I've seen are sad. Maybe I've been taken for a ride at times but I'll take that if it means I can make the odd person's day.

The other day we ended up with too much food because I'd forgotten to cancel a meal kit delivery. I posted a photo on a local page and within minutes was swamped with requests. The need is huge.

The woman who picked up was so blown away. I didn't meet her, I just left the box for her to collect, but she seemed genuinely thrilled when actually she was doing me a favour because else I'd have wasted good food. So sometimes it's a really nice experience to give stuff away.

Great post.. important to remember the other side.

Pointless aside but two of the saddest homes I've ever visited... the house of a recently deceased old man... there was a hole in the floor where a man would stand when using the toilet, about two foot across and offering a direct view to the kitchen below. The other one was a small one bedroom flat, albeit the kitchen was a reasonable sized kitchen diner with space for a table where 4 people could eat with a degree of comfort. One couple living in the bedroom, a second couple with a kid living in the living room, kitchen diner being the kitchen and living room for all five of them. Horrid.

So easy to express frustration with frustrating people... but vital to remember the other side of the coin.

I always give all stuff to offload to charity shops, often good labels and hardly worn. By MN standards I wouldn't say we're well off but I'm not sure I could be doing with the hassle of selling stuff.

It's often the way that rich people stay rich by being 'sharks' when parting with their cash. And often the ones with least are most generous.

I think people like the idea of a bargain but may knee jerk react to buying/collecting and then think the better of it, once they've reflected on it.

Maybe there is something about having to hand over cash (rather than doing an online transaction) that psychologically makes it more difficult to do?

Or people turning up at a house and making a snap judgement about their perceived wealth (or not), then deciding that the seller can afford to accept less than has been agreed!

I've had a few bad experiences selling stuff.
I listed a large flight case on ebay, gave the dimensions in inches. Had a man message me saying I'd got it wrong, it was 63 cms long. I said no, the measurements were in inches. This went back and forth a few times, until I got my partner to take a pic of me lying in the case, which I sent back with a message saying I'm 5'3", HTH.
He said he wasn't interested in buying it, just wanted to point out my mistake
I advertised a cabinet on FB, had loads of "is this still available " messages about it, sold it to someone who said they'd collect it now. Then got a string of abusive messages from one of the earlier "ITSA" people, who took 3 hours to come back to me, claiming she had rights to it as she was disabled and I'd wasted her day.
Someone advertised a guitar on FBMP, I was the 2nd person to comment, politely said if the first person changed their mind could I have it please.
Got a nasty message from the first responder, saying I was out of order, she needed it for her disabled son, who did I think I was trying to do her over.
Then got another message later that day from her, asking where I was. I said "on my sofa. The CF then asked me to collect (and pay for) the guitar and deliver it to her. Err that's a no love
Same CF tried to sell a split bag of cement that had hardened for £15 "lovely garden feature".

@MichelleScarn

It's worse when you offer something for free.. You get a 'drop 2 me 2mro at 2, wat els u got. Needz be perfect'

I gave a tv away for free once. I posted that it would go to whoever could collect it first because I wanted it gone asap. Some guy contacted me pretty much immediately but faffed and faffed about collecting it. And I told him repeatedly, that I would be giving it to whoever could come first. So when someone else contacted me and said they could come in 20 minutes, I gave it to them. The first guy kicked off when I let him know it was gone and even reported me to the platform.

@LynetteScavo

The reading comprehension of people on FB is dire (how much is this?) Er- £20 as stated in the listing.

But then the reading comprehension on MN is also shocking.

Yep, I have put stuff on facebook marketplace, 'free to a good home' and within the first 2 or 3 responses, I get someone asking 'how much?'

@trancepants

OMG what an A-hole that guy was. I hope you didn't get into trouble.

@Glitterandunicorns

I seem to recall reading a study whereby people were more likely to show up to buy your item if you sold it for £1 as opposed to giving it away for free because this gave the buyer the perception of getting a bargain rather than taking an item that someone didn't value enough to charge for it.

Yeah psychology of it. For free school meals students they offered this for theatre tickets

Ignore the people pooh-poohing the idea of selling something for £1. It all adds up, I do the same!

How privileged are people not to not care about £1 😩

Also FBMP is definitely full of CFs!

I was so intrigued as to what he could possibly have needed it for at 11pm on a winters night

Maybe he’d bumped someone off and needed to get rid of the evidence.