No-show buyers
Discussion
Does anyone find it really amazing how common practice it is for buyers/viewers not to show up? Maybe I am being unfair- or maybe I have just had bad luck and other people have not experienced this but I have personally had 5 people arrange to view one of the 2 cars I have for sale and none of them have showed up. Three of them disappeared off the face of the earth without any further contact, the other two contacted me back to say they could no longer make it AFTER not showing up.
Have I had bad luck or is this the state of the used car market now? I am sure one or two could be genuine reasons but it just feels like a complete lack of awareness for how this wastes people's time and I am beginning to see why people use webuyanycar or motorway.
Have I had bad luck or is this the state of the used car market now? I am sure one or two could be genuine reasons but it just feels like a complete lack of awareness for how this wastes people's time and I am beginning to see why people use webuyanycar or motorway.
Yes I had it too recently. Incredibly rude and completely unnecessary - one text is all it takes you can't be angry at someone for changing their mind if they let you know. Even had one guy not turn up, then the next day text me to say 'Sorry, ended up staying away last night, anyway, I'd want 1k off'.
I tend to only provide my address once we have agreed a time and spoken on the phone too - So you'd think that would weed out more idiots.
I tend to only provide my address once we have agreed a time and spoken on the phone too - So you'd think that would weed out more idiots.
vikingaero said:
You should try advertising stuff on Facebook Marketplace. 95% of people are a PITA. The other 5% are lovely. The advantage of FaceBook is you can build up a database of no-shows. I had one guy make 4 appointments to buy a pair of snow socks and no showed each time.
Oh gosh, don't even start! I advertised my mum's VW Polo on there earlier this year and let's just say I won't be doing so again.Yep, it happens, a lot.
Basic courtesy to either turn up, at the time agreed, call to cancel, or have a legitimate reason such as being lost or traffic.
You know you have a good buyer coming when they let you know they have been delayed.
I have sold so many cars over the years, its endemic, and strange. I have never not turned up to a viewing of a car.
We were selling our VW Sharan, had a woman ring, she was so enthusiastic and was making me promise not to sell it before they get there, just what they want, so excited as it had built in child seats. She did sound a bit rough but so enthusiastic.
They were due at 3PM (was a Saturday) so I waited in, washed it, made sure everything was in order and ready to be viewed. 3PM rolls past, 3.30, 4, 5 you get the idea.
Anyway, I give it up as a bad job went in and had a beer and a moan about it to the wife, watched telly and stuff, was up until 2AM binging Sopranos and had a couple of large Whiskys. Was faffing with my phone and there was her number in the call history, so I clicked call and it begins ringing.
"Hello, who is this"
"Its Mark selling the Sharan, just sat here wondering what time you were coming as you are a bit late ?"
She was f
king raging
"Its fking 2 o clock, you woke me up, I though me mam was ill"
"So you arent coming"
"No I am fking not you tosser"
"Ahh ok, no worries, cheers bye !"
Sold it a few days later to a nice couple who turned up.
Basic courtesy to either turn up, at the time agreed, call to cancel, or have a legitimate reason such as being lost or traffic.
You know you have a good buyer coming when they let you know they have been delayed.
I have sold so many cars over the years, its endemic, and strange. I have never not turned up to a viewing of a car.
We were selling our VW Sharan, had a woman ring, she was so enthusiastic and was making me promise not to sell it before they get there, just what they want, so excited as it had built in child seats. She did sound a bit rough but so enthusiastic.
They were due at 3PM (was a Saturday) so I waited in, washed it, made sure everything was in order and ready to be viewed. 3PM rolls past, 3.30, 4, 5 you get the idea.
Anyway, I give it up as a bad job went in and had a beer and a moan about it to the wife, watched telly and stuff, was up until 2AM binging Sopranos and had a couple of large Whiskys. Was faffing with my phone and there was her number in the call history, so I clicked call and it begins ringing.
"Hello, who is this"
"Its Mark selling the Sharan, just sat here wondering what time you were coming as you are a bit late ?"
She was f
king raging"Its f
king 2 o clock, you woke me up, I though me mam was ill""So you arent coming"
"No I am f
king not you tosser""Ahh ok, no worries, cheers bye !"
Sold it a few days later to a nice couple who turned up.
vikingaero said:
You should try advertising stuff on Facebook Marketplace. 95% of people are a PITA. The other 5% are lovely. The advantage of FaceBook is you can build up a database of no-shows. I had one guy make 4 appointments to buy a pair of snow socks and no showed each time.
I have found the same buying from facebook. Either multiple delays "going to be out, come tomorrow" type thing followed by silence or "Oh, who are you, I sold it yesterday" if I actually turned up when agreed.On the other hand, if you persevere I agree, 5% are great and will often sell something cheap just because you turned up when you said you would
J4CKO said:
Yep, it happens, a lot.
Basic courtesy to either turn up, at the time agreed, call to cancel, or have a legitimate reason such as being lost or traffic.
You know you have a good buyer coming when they let you know they have been delayed.
I have sold so many cars over the years, its endemic, and strange. I have never not turned up to a viewing of a car.
We were selling our VW Sharan, had a woman ring, she was so enthusiastic and was making me promise not to sell it before they get there, just what they want, so excited as it had built in child seats. She did sound a bit rough but so enthusiastic.
They were due at 3PM (was a Saturday) so I waited in, washed it, made sure everything was in order and ready to be viewed. 3PM rolls past, 3.30, 4, 5 you get the idea.
Anyway, I give it up as a bad job went in and had a beer and a moan about it to the wife, watched telly and stuff, was up until 2AM binging Sopranos and had a couple of large Whiskys. Was faffing with my phone and there was her number in the call history, so I clicked call and it begins ringing.
"Hello, who is this"
"Its Mark selling the Sharan, just sat here wondering what time you were coming as you are a bit late ?"
She was fking raging
"Its fking 2 o clock, you woke me up, I though me mam was ill"
"So you arent coming"
"No I am fking not you tosser"
"Ahh ok, no worries, cheers bye !"
Sold it a few days later to a nice couple who turned up.
This is exactly what has happened to me. Wash the car, park it in the visitor spot and make sure you're going to be home, and then the time goes past and that's the last you hear of it. It is so strange that people do this and ruins it for the genuine buyers out there.Basic courtesy to either turn up, at the time agreed, call to cancel, or have a legitimate reason such as being lost or traffic.
You know you have a good buyer coming when they let you know they have been delayed.
I have sold so many cars over the years, its endemic, and strange. I have never not turned up to a viewing of a car.
We were selling our VW Sharan, had a woman ring, she was so enthusiastic and was making me promise not to sell it before they get there, just what they want, so excited as it had built in child seats. She did sound a bit rough but so enthusiastic.
They were due at 3PM (was a Saturday) so I waited in, washed it, made sure everything was in order and ready to be viewed. 3PM rolls past, 3.30, 4, 5 you get the idea.
Anyway, I give it up as a bad job went in and had a beer and a moan about it to the wife, watched telly and stuff, was up until 2AM binging Sopranos and had a couple of large Whiskys. Was faffing with my phone and there was her number in the call history, so I clicked call and it begins ringing.
"Hello, who is this"
"Its Mark selling the Sharan, just sat here wondering what time you were coming as you are a bit late ?"
She was f
king raging"Its f
king 2 o clock, you woke me up, I though me mam was ill""So you arent coming"
"No I am f
king not you tosser""Ahh ok, no worries, cheers bye !"
Sold it a few days later to a nice couple who turned up.
J4CKO said:
Yep, it happens, a lot.
Basic courtesy to either turn up, at the time agreed, call to cancel, or have a legitimate reason such as being lost or traffic.
You know you have a good buyer coming when they let you know they have been delayed.
I have sold so many cars over the years, its endemic, and strange. I have never not turned up to a viewing of a car.
We were selling our VW Sharan, had a woman ring, she was so enthusiastic and was making me promise not to sell it before they get there, just what they want, so excited as it had built in child seats. She did sound a bit rough but so enthusiastic.
They were due at 3PM (was a Saturday) so I waited in, washed it, made sure everything was in order and ready to be viewed. 3PM rolls past, 3.30, 4, 5 you get the idea.
Anyway, I give it up as a bad job went in and had a beer and a moan about it to the wife, watched telly and stuff, was up until 2AM binging Sopranos and had a couple of large Whiskys. Was faffing with my phone and there was her number in the call history, so I clicked call and it begins ringing.
"Hello, who is this"
"Its Mark selling the Sharan, just sat here wondering what time you were coming as you are a bit late ?"
She was fking raging
"Its fking 2 o clock, you woke me up, I though me mam was ill"
"So you arent coming"
"No I am fking not you tosser"
"Ahh ok, no worries, cheers bye !"
Sold it a few days later to a nice couple who turned up.
Oof, Madone!Basic courtesy to either turn up, at the time agreed, call to cancel, or have a legitimate reason such as being lost or traffic.
You know you have a good buyer coming when they let you know they have been delayed.
I have sold so many cars over the years, its endemic, and strange. I have never not turned up to a viewing of a car.
We were selling our VW Sharan, had a woman ring, she was so enthusiastic and was making me promise not to sell it before they get there, just what they want, so excited as it had built in child seats. She did sound a bit rough but so enthusiastic.
They were due at 3PM (was a Saturday) so I waited in, washed it, made sure everything was in order and ready to be viewed. 3PM rolls past, 3.30, 4, 5 you get the idea.
Anyway, I give it up as a bad job went in and had a beer and a moan about it to the wife, watched telly and stuff, was up until 2AM binging Sopranos and had a couple of large Whiskys. Was faffing with my phone and there was her number in the call history, so I clicked call and it begins ringing.
"Hello, who is this"
"Its Mark selling the Sharan, just sat here wondering what time you were coming as you are a bit late ?"
She was f
king raging"Its f
king 2 o clock, you woke me up, I though me mam was ill""So you arent coming"
"No I am f
king not you tosser""Ahh ok, no worries, cheers bye !"
Sold it a few days later to a nice couple who turned up.
I love doing stuff like that but not if they have my address!
My favourite was a guy that wanted me to deliver a smart watch to him worth about £80. 100 miles away.
I replied sarcastically "Yeah sure, that sounds totally reasonable, I'd love to travel 1.5 hours to deliver this watch at no cost".
The sarcasm was lost in translation, long story short, he had a very cold 2 hours waiting for me at kings cross - I couldn't stop laughing I got constant abuse via gumtree messenger for a few days before I deleted the account and set up a new one.
aceofspades1 said:
Does anyone find it really amazing how common practice it is for buyers/viewers not to show up? Maybe I am being unfair- or maybe I have just had bad luck and other people have not experienced this but I have personally had 5 people arrange to view one of the 2 cars I have for sale and none of them have showed up. Three of them disappeared off the face of the earth without any further contact, the other two contacted me back to say they could no longer make it AFTER not showing up.
Have I had bad luck or is this the state of the used car market now? I am sure one or two could be genuine reasons but it just feels like a complete lack of awareness for how this wastes people's time and I am beginning to see why people use webuyanycar or motorway.
100% this has been my experience. I've taken to just chucking stuff in the bin rather than selling it due to timewasters being awful. I think it's why WBAC/motorway (and similar) are so successful. You know you're going to get lowballed for nonsense reasons when the car arrives at their yard, but you also know that you can make one trip to their yard and, depending on your own magic number to make the car go, it's over. You're in charge.Have I had bad luck or is this the state of the used car market now? I am sure one or two could be genuine reasons but it just feels like a complete lack of awareness for how this wastes people's time and I am beginning to see why people use webuyanycar or motorway.
Your time/patience/attention is worth money, it may be worth the delta that WBAC/others undervalue the car by. (btw, I have seen some WBACs where the car actually went to them for more than the private sale was potentially worth..)
WBAC/Motorway doesn't work for everything, unfortunately. They value my exige V6 at just over half of the lowest price I've ever seen one sold for.
Yes unfortunately - doesn’t only apply to selling cars. As others have said, FB marketplace is classic territory for no shows.
I remember looking at a car on a dealer website and asking lots of questions on the chat facility then the dealer ringing me and me asking further questions.
I told him we would look at whether we could work with two 2 seater cars and get back to him (we were actually flying out on holiday when he rang).
Pondered the idea and actually rang dealer from Italy to say we couldn’t make it work so would not be proceeding with the sale.
The guy was genuinely shocked that we had come back to him and said no one ever does that.
Hate stringing people along - it’s just basic manners in my mind. So many time wasters in life generally.
I remember looking at a car on a dealer website and asking lots of questions on the chat facility then the dealer ringing me and me asking further questions.
I told him we would look at whether we could work with two 2 seater cars and get back to him (we were actually flying out on holiday when he rang).
Pondered the idea and actually rang dealer from Italy to say we couldn’t make it work so would not be proceeding with the sale.
The guy was genuinely shocked that we had come back to him and said no one ever does that.
Hate stringing people along - it’s just basic manners in my mind. So many time wasters in life generally.
I sold my 2018 c class estate through motorway.
I got £2k more than WBAC offered, £4k more than Mercedes offered and about £500 less than I bought for 18 months ago (in my stewardship it attained a scuff on the front spoiler and a chunk out of the NSF wheel from when a kid ran out into the road and I had a choice between hitting him or going up a high curb)
Completely painless process that I would repeat again if required.
I got £2k more than WBAC offered, £4k more than Mercedes offered and about £500 less than I bought for 18 months ago (in my stewardship it attained a scuff on the front spoiler and a chunk out of the NSF wheel from when a kid ran out into the road and I had a choice between hitting him or going up a high curb)
Completely painless process that I would repeat again if required.
Lots of timewasters but I don't think I've ever had someone not actually turn up. Still, I've got a car up for sale at the moment and are getting bullst offers... been weeks now and starting to drive me mad. Yes I know it's not the ideal time to sell a car, but I can see me clicking on Motorway's website very soon.
t offers... been weeks now and starting to drive me mad. Yes I know it's not the ideal time to sell a car, but I can see me clicking on Motorway's website very soon.The Sharan in my tale of woe netted us £800 more than the Ford trade in offer, so worth doing, less good was the back box snapping off during the test drive, having not given any indication of being on its way out, still, £200 later it had a new back box and buyers went away happy.
Had one guy for an A class Merc turn up four hours late, was a nice chap, Iranian I think, turned up in an S class and was very apologetic and couldn't find my number has his phone had gone flat, but had written the address down and was struggling to find it, paid the full asking price as well as his wife specifically wanted one in the vibrant purple shade it was in.
Had one guy for an A class Merc turn up four hours late, was a nice chap, Iranian I think, turned up in an S class and was very apologetic and couldn't find my number has his phone had gone flat, but had written the address down and was struggling to find it, paid the full asking price as well as his wife specifically wanted one in the vibrant purple shade it was in.
J4CKO said:
The Sharan in my tale of woe netted us £800 more than the Ford trade in offer, so worth doing, less good was the back box snapping off during the test drive, having not given any indication of being on its way out, still, £200 later it had a new back box and buyers went away happy.
Had one guy for an A class Merc turn up four hours late, was a nice chap, Iranian I think, turned up in an S class and was very apologetic and couldn't find my number has his phone had gone flat, but had written the address down and was struggling to find it, paid the full asking price as well as his wife specifically wanted one in the vibrant purple shade it was in.
That's the kind of buyer you want to deal with!Had one guy for an A class Merc turn up four hours late, was a nice chap, Iranian I think, turned up in an S class and was very apologetic and couldn't find my number has his phone had gone flat, but had written the address down and was struggling to find it, paid the full asking price as well as his wife specifically wanted one in the vibrant purple shade it was in.
Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff