contact me

This is something that has become a bit of a pet peeve...to the extent that it annoys me when I see it in OTHER people's ads.

Why is it that so many "potential buyers" here won't contact sellers directly? Sellers having email addresses posted, stating in the ad to PM them, and even including phone numbers, get their ads peppered with posts like:
"Hey, I'm interested in this _____. Email me at ___________"
"How much would shipping be to _____?"
"Will you take $___, shipped?" (that one especially gets me)

I fully understand posting some general interest questions in an ad - things that most other customers would want to know anyway, ie age, sex, feeding habits, temperament, etc - but $$ amounts, trade offers, payment plans etc should be done privately...via the contact info the seller has provided.

Its kind of strange - when I first started posting ads here, I locked them. I prefer potential customers to contact me via PM or email, and I state that in my ads, so there was little reason to leave them open. It didn't take long to notice that I wasn't getting much response. I unlocked them, and I got more responses - - MOST of which were by the means that I prefer. There are often a few of the others, though. I have even gone so far as to post in one ad that only inquiries placed via email or PM will get responses...apparently, people thought I was kidding, because I got a string of people posting their info and urging me to contact them. (no, I did not contact them, I just deleted the ad)

Just for the record, today's rant was not brought on by anything that occurred in any of my ads...I was perusing the classifieds and saw somebody that clearly wrote (in big bold print, as follows):
If you are interested in xxxxxxxxxxxxx, please email me at
YYYYYYYYYYYYY@ZZZZZZZZ.com
and there were 8 subsequent posts asking the seller to contact them via various means.

Yes, it is easy to post your information, but is it really more difficult to click on the seller's posted email address and ask them the questions you want or make your offer? If somebody could explain this to me, I would greatly appreciate it (though I might be inclined to pick at those explanations - so don't take it personally)

(I, of course, do not always follow a seller's "preferred contact" request either...but that only happens when they prefer phone calls. I don't like dealing over the phone - email/PM offers a record of topics and terms discussed, people's schedules rarely match mine so it is a huge inconvenience, and I don't want to get caught up in shooting the breeze when I need to be doing other things. If I want something badly enough, I will call, but I usually try email or website contact first)

I agree. I think it is in particularly bad taste to negotiate price via public post.

I leave my ads open because I want people to be able to ask questions in the ad itself. Particularly questions that would likely be asked by multiple people. That often saves me time by not having to reply to 10 different people answering the same question.

So with that being said, you have to accept the good with the bad when leaving your ads open. It comes with the territory. Different buyers are going to approach the situation differently, I am not going to look down on them or belittle them just because they do things differently than I would or how I would like.

Originally Posted by hhmoore

"Hey, I'm interested in this _____. Email me at ___________"

That right there however is my one pet peeve. I sincerely just dont understand that. I mean honestly, what am I supposed to say in that email to them? You seen my ad. If you have a question, ask it. If you want to make an offer, do it.

Ultimately I just ignore those requests.

I agree and lock my ads for that very reason, forcing those interested to email me privately and not be forced to have to check the ad daily. I try to make my ads detailed enough to provide most answers before the questions are even asked; however, should I get multiple emails asking the same thing, I edit my ad to include this information as well as reply to the emails. As far as negotiating a price, if the ad doesn't state "obo", the price isn't negotiable privately or publicly.

Bart