ot. bait and switch sales

[guitar sam]

went to buy a 16 foot used boat.  owner had it listed on craigs list for 3900.    he told me i couldn't come on Tuesday because he promised another guy he could look at it first.  that guy never showed.  owner called me and said to come Thursday night.  got my truck ready to pull a trailer and drove 65 miles to this guys place.  he insists i pay cash, so i have 3900. in my pocket.  get there, its a clean boat.  now he tells me someone in Ohio will pay him 4500 for it unseen.  he asks me if i can match that price. so i told him i had another 100 in my wallet and would go 4000.00.  then says will i split it?  i told him no and walked.   on the way home i looked at my face in the mirror and it was as red as my victory red truck.  he had my phone number and his wife had my email.  they could have contacted me prior to the drive.  if the price would have been 4500 to begin with i would have payed it.  but i don't like being scammed.

thanks for letting me vent.

gs

[Deye76]

Is there a way to let everyone on Craigs list know this person is a scumbucket? If so, do it.

[Glenn W]

went to buy a 16 foot used boat.  owner had it listed on craigs list for 3900.    he told me i couldn't come on Tuesday because he promised another guy he could look at it first.  that guy never showed.  owner called me and said to come Thursday night.  got my truck ready to pull a trailer and drove 65 miles to this guys place.  he insists i pay cash, so i have 3900. in my pocket.  get there, its a clean boat.  now he tells me someone in Ohio will pay him 4500 for it unseen.  he asks me if i can match that price. so i told him i had another 100 in my wallet and would go 4000.00.  then says will i split it?  i told him no and walked.   on the way home i looked at my face in the mirror and it was as red as my victory red truck.  he had my phone number and his wife had my email.  they could have contacted me prior to the drive.  if the price would have been 4500 to begin with i would have payed it.  but i don't like being scammed.

thanks for letting me vent.

gs

I've heard similar stories on bikes for sale, be fun to see if the boat's still being advertised. One Crag'slist problem has been folks laying in wait for peeps they know are showing up with a wad of cash. Best to show up with a friend(s), etc.

[Clintster]

Several summers ago, I drove from Ohio to Missouri to pick up a BMW motorcycle I bought on e-bay.  Yes I have service records, yes it is in perfect mechanical condition, yadda, yadda.  Pics showed a fairly good looking bike and I wanted an airhead for a serious duty bike, salty roads, when hog is apart, pouring down rain type machine.  Well drove out there none of the above, pics can be decieving.  I don't do much e-bay anymore for much of anything.  It was a nice drive and saw some sites in St. Louis, lesson learned.  I have a freaking question check list and do not waiver from it for any deal.  I understand your aggravation, what I may be tempted to do is pull his freaking chain.  He made you jump through hoops, pull his chain get him hooked and then drop him like a bad habit.  Maybe then he will learn to treat his fellow man with some respect and courtesy. Oh I'm sorry does that seem hostile...   crg

[Panzer]

Glenn W has a good point guys.
With the economy getting tighter, there are scum out there that will try these tricks to get your cash.

Like he said, take a friend or two with you and holstered heat would hurt either.
Just saying.

[willymax4]

post the craigslist ad here and we can all f*ck with him.

[guitar sam]

let me cool down for a day or two.
i can give you his name, phone number address, craigslist posting. wifes name, phone number and email at her works.

maybe i wll just calm down.  good thing i am not in my 20's.

ps. always have my kel tec when i carry money.

gs

[Princess Butt]

Give it a couple of days. If he calls you back and wants to do the deal, it's now $3500. If he balks, tell him to call back, he's got your number.

A month from now, it's down to $3200.

I know someone who did this with a car. He rode that thing down to about half price before going to pick it up.

BnEUC

[Snuff™]

If he contacts you, settle on a price and have him come near your place.  When he meets you, offer him less and if he doesn't take it, tell him
"THEN EAT IT MF!"

-Snuff

[TooLow]

I would think he is doing this to several others also, stringing them along hopeing someone will bite and offer more cause they spent the time and effort to go see it. Most times it backfires on the seller and he ends up pissing off all the potential buyers.   Back in 93 I had a guy try this with a 92 gsxr750. put it in the local auto locator for $1500 [bike was worth $4500 at the time]. I load up the truck and drive 1 hr to get to the bike shop where its at and find out he ows them $750 in storage fees ??  Then call him back and he says a buddy tells him  he will give $4000 and there are 2 other guys comming from a long distance to buy it. I made sure he had my # and left it go.  4 days later I get a call "will I give him $1500 for it ?"  seems he played his game and pissed everyone off and they left him high & dry. [he ended up throwing in 2 brand new helmets a bike cover, tank bag and tie downs. Till he payed the storage and gave me everything he learned an expensive lesson. 

I do however like the idea of messing with him, having a bunch of us email or call and strike a high priced deal and then never show up. or just flood his email with crap offers.    TooLow.

[Glenn W]

yeah, anyone got a disposable email addy to make him a big offer with?

[guitar sam]

he just revised his listing on craigslist.  it is now priced at 4700.
it is listed under Pittsburgh boats tracker 16 foot pro angler.
looked up the price on nada and they said 2900.

gs

[Glenn W]

Mind posting the link so I can offer him $4500 sight unseen

[02roadcling]

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/boa/1055711828.html

[Jeffd]

just flag it each time and he will get tired of reposting it.  you can also run your own scam declaring him a scammer and explain what he did.

[verson22]

If he calls you, tell him deliver it to a neutral ground shopping center. Then don't show up . Do this as many times as you can!

[guitar sam]

i think he pulled his ad.  i wrote a scam warning in craigs list.

[zj1182]

GS

Thanks for posting.  I have little experience with Craig list, and learned something from you.

zj

[guitar sam]

if i can be of any help let me know.

gs

[Glenn W]

crap, went to offer him 5 billion rupees if he'd deliver it to me in the Emirates, and it's been pulled

[guitar sam]

since we all deal with eBay and craigs list and the like, maybe we should have a section for these sites.  this way we can warn each other of some of the problem you may encounter.  questions i have is "what is wrong with a personal check?"  if its bad, i go to jail.  never dreamed i would go to buy something and the seller would refuse to sell at the advertised price.  it usually works the other way.

just my 2 cents

gs

[verson22]

The only way I'd take a pesonal check is if I keep the merchandise until the check clears. When you deal with strangers you  can have strange dealings, When I bought my shovel I had $7000 cash in my pocket--- and a brother backing me up.

[Glenn W]

The only way I'd take a pesonal check is if I keep the merchandise until the check clears. When you deal with strangers you  can have strange dealings, When I bought my shovel I had $7000 cash in my pocket--- and a brother backing me up.

Absolutely!! I have them meet me at their bank if they want to write a check, and write the check to the bank! Then they hand me the cash and I sign the papers right at the deposit slip or courtesy counter. Same thing on Bank Checks and/or Money Orders, Postal or whatever. I have to tell folks it'll be possibly 2 weeks extra for a fairing if they want to pay by check or MO, since I won't ship until the bank has actually cleared things and taken the hold off. I hate doing it, but there's just too many good fakes and good fakers out there. They have all the time in the world to plan the scam and you are coming in cold. Just not worth it. I like Craig's but it's totally different than eBay, more like a classified in the newspaper and you're totally on your own in all ways.

[guitar sam]

just learned that the boat is still for sale.  so the little ploy backfired

gs

[Big Dan]

Call him up and tell him you'll still give him the original 3900, but he's gotta deliver the boat (not at your house). When he arrives, make sure you have only 3500 in your pocket. He can take it, or haul the boat back home with him.