i had seen a car on Craigslist a while back and it haunted me, so i hunted up the old ad and emailed the poster (he didn't put a phone# in the ad) and waited... well; he called me back, i asked if the car was still up for sale (the ad was at least a month old) and he said yeah, it was, so we set a time to meet and see it. now; it's not my USUAL car but very close in design, not O/T but if i name it then this might not remain anonymous... we met, the contact guy led me to the car, and i looked it over; it looked pretty much like the pics from the ad, maybe a little worse, and i decided it was just too rough to add into my projects at this time. i thanked the guy for meeting me and letting me see the car, and said i'd have to pass. later that night, my wife tells me i got an e-mail from the guy... roasting me for wasting his time, not even discussing the car, etc etc.... i sat on that for the night. i could just as easily have flamed right back at him for how much of a shitbox the car was, but then i saw how useless and petty that would have been... so, even though i felt i was being flamed on, i apologized and told the guy the car was too much work. he actually replied back and seemed properly aligned at that point. wowsers..... i was the one who drove an hour there to see the car.
Obviously, you are more of a gentleman than the seller. I would not have wasted the time responding to his email. Some people seem to thrive on getting their undies in a bunch over trivial events. Life is too short to be concerned with knuckleheads ... move on.
I have had this happen many times with my job. For me it's best to type out an email right away, while I am still fuming mad. But don't send it. Save it as a draft and then sleep on it. Wake up in the morning, rested and calmed down. And edit out all the f-bombs and a-holes. Clean it up good and then send it out.
I'm sure it's happened to all of us at some point. Never fun, and often ridiculous and unjustified, but as per the course it seems. I always want to ask them what they'd be doing if they hadn't answered my email/phone call, or met with me. You know, if I'm 'wasting' your time, how would you have put it to better use? lol I'm a mortgage agent, and when my associate is out of the office, I handle his calls. Recently, I had a guy yell at me on the phone because I wasted his time. All I did was answer the phone, tell him that my associate was out of the office, and offer to take a message. With some people, you just can't win.
Yeah,I had a similar experience several years ago. I had a serious Jones for a Lamborghini Countach, and I thought I had found the right car. You know the drill...show quality,perfect condition,won't be disapointed, looked great in the pics. My daughter and I flew across the country with cash in hand and we were gonna tag team drive the car back home. The car was terrible in person. I would have had to spend at least 20,000.00 before I would even feel comfortable taking it out of the garage. We thanked the guy for his time and told him we were gonna have to keep looking. He posted on the Lamborghini boards that we were just posers and we wasted his time.I politely pointed out that we were the ones out a couple of grand flying out to look at his misrepresented car. At least we weren't cheap posers. Go figure.
We can't control other people's actions, only our own. If you would have gotten into a pissing contest with him it would have only thrown fuel on the idiot's fire. You took the high road and it is over. Good job on your part. Don
I've also noticed how bold some people are when they're sitting behind a keyboard...They'll say things to and about you that they would never dream of saying to your face. It's the anonymity of the internet, and in my opinion what is sorely lacking in human interaction these days, that face to face, personal interaction is almost gone. Easy to talk smack if you're not looking someone in the face. I do like the idea of writing an email & not sending it, and sleeping on it...let's you vent, but not lower yourself to their level , (I've done that before & was very glad I did...) I think you handled it well... EW
It was still for sale, and you were polite about declining so what was his inconvenience? How does he expect to sell it if he doesn't take the time to deal with prospective buyers? Maybe if he was more honestly descriptive about the condition he'd have to deal with less disappointed buyers that pass on it. Whenever I sell things I always make it a point to describe the worst things in detail, and people are usually more pleased with it once they see the item. I wouldn't waste any more time thinking about it...
If you are selling something you can't expect the 1st guy that comes and looks at it to buy it.Sounds like you just ran into a internet badass at least that what he thinks.I even had a guy come 200 miles to look at a 23 T-bucket I was selling,brought his stupid ass buddy with him that shotdown the car the whole time they were here. The guy told me thanks,I said no problem .He left and very next morning guy calls me says he'll take the car. Shows up later that afternoon with trailer and cash in hand.Load the car up.Well I ain't bashfull,I asked why his buddy was such a negative asshole.He laughed and told me the guy was his brother in law and he was stuck with an asshole .
Sour grapes. The guy got his hopes up that he was going to get a fistful of cash and unload the car his wife has been nagging him to get rid of.
I think everyone follows the golden rule unconsciously. People that are out of line secretly want to be destroyed and the best punishment for these types is deprive them of their needs. If they lived in a world where nobody's pissed at them, they'd kill themselves in a week. You did the right thing. As far as anonymity on the Internet goes, there's no such thing. Just a little bit of info in the right hands came find out a person's tax/court/criminal info, 6th grade teacher's name, where they work(ed), a picture of their front door, etc. It's amazing how much can be known about someone in about an hours time and a little detective work. It's fun to compile this info on someone that crosses the line only to discover how miserable their lives are, or that they're just twelve year olds.
I agree with mike rotch, and always remeber when you get down to an idiots level and egage, they will beat you with esperience.
you just went there to see it..that didnt mean buy it,, but guess he was counting on you buying it.. life throws curves..not your problem, its his
X2 on doing the right thing. There are some serious Internet tough guys out there. Responding in kind just perpetuates the behavior and wastes your time.
I had a potential buyer for a car go off on me once. I had told him what I thought the car was, based on some casual reading, but said I was unsure. He asked to see it, so I took him out after warning him that it was about 40 minutes out in the country. He and his son walked around it looking at all the tags for a minute, then he stands up and starts cussing at me and calling me a liar, crooked, all kinds of stuff. I politely reminded him that he was on the family farm, FARRRR away from civilization and emergency assistance. Then I told him to be sure he closed the gate on his way out.
Maybe the guy drinks heavily, and wrote the email after one too many !! Anyway, you are the gentleman here... Congrats......... Cheers.....
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