Is anyone else unreasonably irritated by facebook marketplace "Is this available" inquiries.

I get too angry about this.  I'm mostly posting here to commiserate, rant, and let it go (not necessarily in that order).

But I'm so annoyed at both Facebook and people who use their ridiculous "Ask For Details" button in the marketplace ad.

First off, why hasn't someone at Facebook (one of the major innovators in social media) not yet figured out that when you put a button that says "Ask for details" it's completely incongruent for that to generate a message that asks, "Is this still available?"  Make the button say "Is this still available," at least! Or make the message "I'd like more details, please."

Typically when I post an ad on facebook within minutes I may get several responses "Is this available?"

With auto parts and stuff, if I'm feeling benevolent, I just hit the "thumbs up" pre-canned response and hope the would-be tire-kicker gets the idea and asks a pertinent question.  I often just ignore them and figure if it's a real person they'll compose an actual question, eventually, if they're serious enough.

When I'm advertising rental property, they rarely get a response at all.  I know this sounds like a cranky old guy (which I am becoming, by the way) but if you can't communicate with more effort than hitting a button (asking for "details" when they are clearly listed in the ad) then I really don't want to waste my time with you because I infer that you won't communicate any better when the water heater starts leaking on the floor.

I guess this is just th natural progression of our increasingly more casual society (Idiocracy, "the English language had deteriorated into a hybrid of hillbilly, valley girl, inner city slang, and various grunts.").  Like I said, just ranting and trying to move past it ;)

So...what are some humorous responses you've used in this situation?

I'm thinking of replying (to "is this available"), "I'm so glad you asked, yes...Yes!  A thousand times YES!"

or how about.  "berkeley yeah!"

or, "I was about to ask you the same thing!"

Brother, around here, a full half of Facebook ads are in Spanish. I won't go all political as this isn't the place for it, but this is the USA after all.

As a buyer, "Is this still available" is an extremely pertinent question to me.  I try to add a few more lines so it doesn't look auto-generated, but it really is the bottom line.  An awful lot of ads are not.

I'd say, don't worry about it, and answer the guy's question.  If you actually want to sell, he might actually want to buy.

I don't do faceballs market, but when I post on craigslist I always include the line, "ad will be removed as soon as it is picked up, inquiries as to whether it is still available will be laughed at and then deleted".

many people are asking while they are driving thru a School zone!

if they type much more they may run over your Grand kid  ......

I answer them , i have sold a lot of stuff  by starting contact  with a simple YES

Folks, when you're responding to an ad (both facebook and craigslist) you need to realize that "Is this available" messages comprise something like 90% of the responses a seller will get.  I don't think I'm exaggerating on this...it's really the vast majority of responses.

With craigslist, I'm sure a lot of them (I'll guess 50%) are just phishing for a live email or something (I don't know schemes).

As a buyer, I'll also ask if it's available but it'll usually go something like "My name is Alex, I live nearby, and I'm interested in looking at this (or I have these questions about the "item") if you still have it.  Would you be available on Thursday for me to check it out in person?"

This establishes what I wish were the baseline of societal interaction.  You have a reasonable assurance I'm a real person.  I'm close enough to be a serious buyer, and I have the initiative to suggest.

As I mentioned, I often do answer with a thumbs up or a "yes."  But I feel like I'm contributing to something I don't want to support ;)

In reply to Cousin_Eddie :

Well...I suppose just the same as I want to sell my junk to people who figuratively "speak my language" (are socially engaged enough to compose sentences and be polite), folks who speak a language other-than-english probably feel comfortable working with someone who literally speaks their language.  

I don't want to get political either, but we're (almost) all from somewhere else if you look back but a few generations.  I suppose I need to realize that the social media generation are not all going to act the way I want them to ;)

"Yeah actually, just got rid of her body so I am available! Got pics?"

Cousin_Eddie said:

Brother, around here, a full half of Facebook ads are in Spanish. I won't go all political as this isn't the place for it, but this is the USA after all.

So when did the United States become a country with an official language?  I must have missed that.

I am guilty of using that button once, though I'm going to be a petulant tool and blame FB, as I assumed that button would let me compose a question instead of instantly sending a canned query.

The FB Marketplace thing is only mildly annoying at this point. 

But if you think FB is an "innovator" of any sort beyond having zero transparency or accessibility, you must be using a different version than I am. 

Ransom said:

I am guilty of using that button once, though I'm going to be a petulant tool and blame FB, as I assumed that button would let me compose a question instead of instantly sending a canned query.

I did that and I think that's actually some percentage of what happens.  It looks like the way that you should open a dialogue with the seller.  That seems like what it should be, intuitively.  But it's not...it's not a very good "feature" at all.

Cooter said:

The FB Marketplace thing is only mildly annoying at this point. 

 

But if you think FB is an "innovator" of any sort beyond having zero transparency or accessibility, you must be using a different version than I am. 

Oh wow.  I don't have any strong opinions about Facebook's place in the social media age.  I'm a 40-something father of teenagers.  I've been told it's the sandbox I have been given to play in.   We all still read an post on forums.  I don't think anybody is accusing this crowd of being cutting-edge social medial leaders.

Maybe "innovator" isn't a word you like (we can disagree on that, I don't think that's your real gripe anyway).  "Powerhouse," though, can we agree to that?  You'd think someone in the facbookiverse would have said, "you keep using that button...I do not think it means what you think it means.  Let's change that." (everything else social media changes on an hourly basis, after all).

Fully half the time one of those canned replies comes from me it's because the damn button to send it is right next to my go back button i just don't want to look at the ad anymore.  I expect most of your replies are the same, fat fingers not intending to communicate with you at all. The stupid thumb up is the same way. 

I've done it myself and had a person or two (after I reply "Yes, it is") say "Sorry, I didn't mean to send that."

I really am trying to lighten up about all this.  Talking about it here and having some others chime in has helped with that.  Thanks!

I’m not on Facebook but I was scrolling through my brothers and I sent three of those because that’s were my scrolling thumb landed, my apologies to anyone but it’s funny that I ended up buying one of those items.

Most people hit those buttons by mistake on their phones. It's quite easy to do.

So...the problem is as much on facebook's end the the user's it seems.

I know with craigslist I still regularly get "is this available" or some variant.  It depends on my current mood ("sell, sell, sell" or "I'm tired of people today) whether or not I reply to those.  I still figure most of them are bots on CL.  I'm pretty sure some of them on FB are fake accounts also.

My 2-year old got a hold of my phone and clicked the button, so yeah. It happens and the little timer they ad doesn’t really help all the time.

In reply to ClemSparks :

I always look at it this way (as an A&P, project manager, and someone who developed software) when I deal with Facebook or Google. (I'm forced to do far more often then I'd like.)

Most of their engineers are extremely smart, in a vacuum. The developers are forced to strike a balance between optimized user experience which requires minimal effort to use, but keep the user on the site for as long as possible in order to Google/Facebook to sell ad space.

That unfortunately leads to some pretty stupid HCI choices like the "Still available" button for a first interaction. That leads to the user, who basically wants to wave a magic want and get a result, to accept and expect those low effort outputs, and frustrates the user on the receiving end of the message chain. Eventually this ends up with everyone involved entering deathspiral of intellectual laziness.

NGTD said:

Most people hit those buttons by mistake on their phones. It's quite easy to do.

I’ve done the before more than once. 

Cousin_Eddie said:

Brother, around here, a full half of Facebook ads are in Spanish. I won't go all political as this isn't the place for it, but this is the USA after all.

 

I got a bunch of those trying to sell my wife's Jeep this year. My ad is in English...why are you replying to me in Spanish? You don't have anyone close by who could translate for you or use Google translate? I just started deleting them without replying. I guess I'm just an angry old white man who owns a gun but FFS if I'm shopping Ebay Germany I'm not going to ask questions in English. It's just rude.

I actually did this very thing yesterday... 

Reasonable to ask if somethings still for sale given the number of ads that are never removed from these sorts of sites.

On CL, even if they’re bots...So what?

If you use CL like you are supposed to (with the CL response generator), they can’t get your email or any other important information. 

Why would it matter if it was a bot?