Craigslist is basically a great tool, a free service that is easy to use and gives people the opportunity to browse classified ads as well as post some themselves. A great way to buy and sell goods, offer or find services, find a job or meet people.

Unfortunately it has also become a place where you can easily lose some of your hard earned money to scammers who sell faulty products or who make you pay in advanced for a service that will never be provided. Frauds witch checks and money orders are common and some of the scams are quite elaborate.

Now I’m not here to warn you about scams, plenty of other people have done so already. There are some other things that bother me and one of them is that very often I have to deal with people who are just rude and inconsiderate. A while ago I offered some items in the ‘free stuff’ section and I got replies that said something like: ‘Where can I pick it up?’ They didn’t ask if they could have it and in most cases there was no name either. Another type of response I got was: ‘Call me’, followed by a phone number. I don’t have to call anyone and I certainly won’t do it if you can’t say ‘please’. At some point I had 5 or 6 ads and a guy emailed saying: ‘I will take everything’. No you won’t, I’m not giving it to someone greedy like you. I appreciate a little friendliness and courtesy, people who don’t show any I won’t deal with.

Another thing that bothers me is that some people never show to pick it up, even after making a specific appointment. I have canceled other activities to accommodate buyers and takers of the free stuff. They didn’t cancel and didn’t even respond to my email in which I kindly asked if they still wanted it. Sometimes I’m inclined just to throw things in the dumpster because I don’t want to deal with that kind of behavior anymore.

Someone offered me something in response to a wanted post. I made an appointment for a specific time and date. After 21/2 hours of walking and riding the bus I found out he didn’t have it anymore. He had my phone number and didn’t bother to call. And a lady I bought a bed frame from just went ahead and sold it to somebody else, not telling me until I was there to pick it up. Can you blame me for being skeptical (understatement)?

It has happened several times that my for sale or free stuff ads, that were perfectly legitimate and in the right category , were flagged. I suspect some people who want the item apply for it, then flag the post in order to eliminate competition.

May be less irritating, but still annoying, is that after I respond to a wanted ad I don’t get the slightest acknowledgement. A few weeks ago a lady offered to trade toys for converting some computers documents to a different format. I told her that I really have no use for toys and I would be happy to do it for free. No response, not even a simple thank you for the offer.

I always skip ads that are written in uppercase only, in many cases they don’t have proper punctuation either and are hard to read. I can deal with bad grammar and spelling errors. Not everybody masters the language perfectly although, with all the tools available, it should not be hard to find the correct spelling. Some of the mistakes are just funny, a while back a lady was trying to find ‘tubber where’, instead of ‘Tupper Ware’.
And I can’t count the ones that used the word ‘labtop' instead of ‘laptop’.

Some people insist on posting ads in the wrong category and advertise items that are strictly prohibited, such as pets for sale. The last couple of days I have been flagging a post for a handgun. The ad is being removed but reappears a short while later; I guess he can’t take a hint.

These days, with the economical problems we’re suffering from, some individuals and businesses try to take advantage by wanting to hire people for ridiculously low wages. Just the other day someone wanted to hire a person to babysit and do other household chores, full time, for $400 a month.
Wow, a whole $2.50 an hour. They want to hire experienced and qualified people for less than the state minimum wage. And I get tired of businesses wanting to get their work done by unpaid interns. ‘If you do this for free we may have a paying job for you in the future’, yeah right!

I don’t know what it is like in other parts of the country but out here there are some users (or should I say abusers) who find it necessary to write comments about other people’s posts. Sometimes it is a friendly warning about a suspected scam however most of them are just outrageous and totally unnecessary. They use foul language and curse for no other reason than to be obnoxious and to insult the owner of the original ad. And then of course those comments elicit more comments and in most cases the writers show very little taste, to say the least. If you have a problem with a post, contact the owner and tell him. May be he made a mistake and advise him to adjust it.

Craigslist ads are not moderated, and I can understand that would be undoable for a free service that size. The drawback is that people can just post anything, and it will be in the open until it is being flagged. And since some of those posters don’t seem to have anything better to do they just re-post, may be hoping that people will get tired of flagging. The anonymous nature of the site makes it so attractive for people with
less that honorable motives.

I know that Craigslist is not the only place where bad behavior shows up. You see it in traffic, in stores, on TV, just anywhere where there are people. Craigslist unintentionally provides them with another opportunity to show off their lack of good social skills. I guess I just have to deal with it.