The New And Improved Unofficial R65 Forum V2
General Category => Totally Off-Topic Discussions, Rants, Tire & Oil Threads, Etc. => Topic started by: wilcom on April 23, 2017, 12:31:19 AM
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I've been told that I have pretty lose connection with the real world and this might be one of those times where it is true.
I have been pouring over Craigslist nation wide and 75%+ of the folks do not put their telephone number in the ad. WTF is with that? If you didn't want them to call you why did you place the ad in the first place?
Now I have to email them requesting their number or ask that they call me to chat about the bike.... wait ... wait....wait for them to get an email and maybe answer. I'm in Craigslist to buy something and i want to buy it NOW, not wait hours to contact a seller for gawd sakes.
What am i missing? Why wouldn't you include your phone number if you were wanting to sell something?
While I'm at it... what's with the jokers that black out their license plate in their ads. Did they use the vehicle while committing a felony? What are they afraid of? They don't black out the plate when they go to the store or to work or drive across country and thousands of people see it. Why when they place an ad do they think it should be a big secret.
My wife says my brain is just a sack of rocks at times but stuff like this REALLY annoys me when I see no sense at all in what they are doing.
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When I started looking at Craigslist about 10 years ago, most ads had a telephone number with the ad .
What I think may be driving this, is if you have to send an email to get contact info, it may weed out the tire kickers that don't show up to look at the bike .
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I'm with you Joe - some sellers are just plain stupid.
Here in Oz we have gumtree.com.au which tries to differentiate itself from fleabay by giving you the option (which sometimes works) to restrict the area you search.
To explain, I utterly refuse to pay the "robbery with violence" prices for multi-function office machines, nor am I comfortable with leasing the same machine at a rate that means I've paid for it anyway in 3 ~ 4 years. Most leases include consumables, but that is a bit of a joke as I buy around 17,000 pages worth of toner for $35 and stuff like drums, blades, OPC, developer etc are less than a $200 spend at around 250,000 pages.
The current "love of my life" is a Konica Bizhub 282 which I bought at auction a couple of years back for $100, toner is $25 for 17,000 copies, I recently put a new drum kit, transfer roller kit, developer and paper path pickup and roller kit in it for around $220 *and a couple of hours of my time).
Anyway, I've recently had a flight of fancy that colour would be nice (the Konica being firmly B&W), so I've been hunting. Ideally I'd like another Konica, mainly because all the service software, service codes and secret technician passwords are available F.O.C from Konica Minolta, but the other brand I'm interested in is Ricoh/Afico.
Anyway, after a few weeks of waiting someone advertised a Ricoh - just what I wanted, colour, scan to folder/email, and best of all has additional paper bins for letterhead, envelopes and large (A3) paper.
The ad read like a familiar story - machine now 5 years old, leased for 3 years, then bought at end of lease and now wants something bigger and shinier....
Spotted the ad on Friday and would have liked to go have a look that day, but no - the seller didn't bother to include their phone number or email (gumtree, unlike fleabay, allows both) so the only means of contact is via gumtree's "interface".
Seller finally responded Friday evening, yes he still has it.
I responded and asked for a total page count, a copy of the current "status" report (which will tell me how much toner it has, and what the remaining life on drum and OPC is) - what I really want though is the print test report which will tell me if there are any immediate problems with drum, transfer rollers or laser scanners. I also asked for the address where I could come and look at it and a phone number so I could get to him a bit quicker than through gumtree, I also gave him (again) my email address and my mobile number.
Seller responded and said that they would do the status and print test printouts on Saturday and send them to me.
Saturday came and went with nothing....sent message via gumtree and seller responded that they had gone to their office but couldn't work out how to get the page count and do the status/test prints because their office girl normally does that stuff.
Ok, I said, I'll come look at it on Monday, when is a good time, and where is you office etc. etc.
Sunday has come and gone and no response, I'm betting that I'll get a response when he gets to work on Monday which means that I'll have lots of fun trying to park car and trailer (in case I do buy it) in the middle of a business day.
I'm grumpy because I wanted to look at it on Saturday and would have paid cash on the spot but I couldn't talk to the seller because they were too stupid to make it easy for a buyer to contact them (and it isn't like there is a buoyant market in 2nd hand office machines, most people are too scared to buy without the "protection" of a service agreement and "free" consumables - this thing has been on gumtree on and off for six months). So now I have to interrupt my own work day, get a park somewhere near where it is and do the basic test prints myself.
The seller doesn't know it but I kind of want this machine. On Saturday I'd have paid his price without quibbling, today I'll pay no more than $500 less than the ask and I'm going to start at $750 under the ask because his stupidity has annoyed me!
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While I'm at it... what's with the jokers that black out their license plate in their ads.
Here is another I pulled up today, Must of used the bike in a drive-by shooting or something. I can see him going to the store on his bike, probably has a towel draped over the plate so no one will see....jeeez
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I don't know how prevalent or even possible it is today, but for many many years, would-be crooks could trace your license plate number and find out the location/address of the bike's owner, and then steal it. I've even heard of the bad guys paying off employees at the DMV, once they have the plate number, to look up and sell them the info.
Once an evildoer had your name and address, they could ride by your house or follow you to work a few times, and see where and how the bike was kept or secured at night, whether it sat in an open parking lot while you were working, etc. If it seemed like an easy target, whoosh, it was gone.
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I always blank out by license plate number, a privacy/security issue. Also, check out google street-view for your address and see what stuff you don't want potential crooks to see. E-mail them and they have to blur out what you object to.
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As a Craigslist regular seller, I can say I do not put my phone number in the ad. It is bad enough to get the emails offering a ridiculous low amount. I can delete or just ignore them. I do not want those calls to my phone. Also a 'reply' to my ad should repeat back to me what it is I am selling, their name and contact number of some sort, or it goes to trash.
I have been spammed numerous times by failing to follow my own guidelines above. Usually it is me trying to be a wise guy in replying. My reward for that? Many, many emails with pics of women in their underwear. Hard to explain that one to my wife...
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have been spammed numerous times by failing to follow my own guidelines above.
I guess I'm just lucky then, because I get no spam at all and have never got any phone calls you would regard as spam.... if they text me or call me with a low number I just say no.
Now your story is what I was wondering about, if you get that kind of reply's, then I would be more careful too.
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Just as an FYI-- google 'phone spamming'. Also know there are companies out there who sell phone numbers to telemarketers as a 'number that is answered'. This is why sometimes you answer a call and no-one is there and then a hang up.
This is the down side of technology. Always somebody trying to scam you.
Be aware.
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The only scam I seem to get is the guy that wants to send you a check and then pick up the item b4 the check really clears. Pretty easy to spot and they don't come around much until you reach items worth $1000.
For awhile I was playing with them having them send their bogus checks to a local Police dept, but I got bored with it.
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While I'm at it... what's with the jokers that black out their license plate in their ads. Did they use the vehicle while committing a felony? What are they afraid of? They don't black out the plate when they go to the store or to work or drive across country and thousands of people see it. Why when they place an ad do they think it should be a big secret.
You guys turned me around on this one!! I see your wisdom. I had to put myself in the place of the bad guy.
If the bad guy wanted to steal a 2011 VFR why would he wait for the bike to drive by so he could get the plate # and look him up? He wouldn't, he would go to Craigslist and find the bike he wanted to steal in minutes and be done with it...... so simple, huh?
That being said, I still reserve the right to Piss and Moan about the ad with NO phone number ;D
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Hey Wilcom - I've asked the same question about the license plate thing and I do it myself! Besides the reasons above I figure that I also don't want to have too much info together in one spot- a license plate, email address, phone number, etc. I know it's impossible to keep someone determined from finding that stuff out but I figure I won't make it too easy.
As for telephone numbers and Craigslist, I understand your frustration. But, damn, there are a lot of idiots out there. I don't mind emailing someone first as long as they're responsive. Like you, I do want a prompt response if they only leave an email address. I go on the assumption. They they get email on their phone and should be able to do it almost as quickly.
Now how about the people that leave up ads after the item has sold......... And then even after you've contacted them so you know that they know it's still up???? :)
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now how about the people that leave up ads after the item has sold......... And then even after you've contacted them so you know that they know it's still up???? :-)
GRRRRRRRRRRR! >:(
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I spent most of my life in corporate America in the IT world, I thought I knew what I was doing and had a digital presence that was protected. Fast forward to today, laid off and forced to find employment. I am now the IT Director for a Law Enforcement Agency and I will tell you I will never post a phone number, email address, license plate photo, etc. on anything even vaguely social media. It is not worth the risk.
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marcmax - I agree. I don't have a facebook account, twitter account, or any of that crap - it's just a catastrophe waiting to happen...
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If you wanted to steal a bike, there's millions around, I don't get it either
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It's not the bike they want to steal, it's the license plate number. Especially if it is still valid and current. With todays printers it is an easy way to make a copy of the plate and attach it to their bike. I have seen some official looking, but paper plates. Valid tag usually keeps the Police at bay.
We had a rash of boat trailer tags stolen at the local boat ramp (me for one). When I made the report, when I noticed 2 weeks later, the officer said it is a common occurrence. How many people notice the tag is gone right away? Especially now that Florida allows the smaller M/C tag on trailers.
People looking for an easy way out instead of paying the renewal costs. Just saying