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

On one hand, it is annoying to get 'Is this still available?' messages/emails regardless of the service (LetGo has the same canned question to send to sellers), but as a buyer for the number of times that I've contacted someone about something only to get the response, "Sorry, it's been sold." back, I can at least sympathize.

When I respond to a buyer, I do tend to start off with, "If *item, not just copypasted from what they called it* is still available, *starts asking questions I want to know about it*?"

As a seller, I tend to take the simple route and just use the canned response on FB/LetGo or just say, "Yes it is still available, let me know if you'd like to come by to look at it." on Craigslist.

I get irritated by people responding with "send me a message." You are already looking at my ad, just send me a message if you are interested instead of replying with that and making me send a message. 

I find Facebook in general so annoying that I've never even thought of using the Marketplace.

there are a dangerous amount of a make/model that I like on there.  I still want to E36 M3 can social media even though I don't use it much at all anymore.  

I have sold a few items on there and yes, it can be annoying. Most of the time, the "Is this still available?" is the most coherent sentence I'll get from a potential buyer thanks to the automatic sending of that message. It's usually followed by nonsense and incoherent rambling and/or some crazy lowball bid. Many times, I'll get so annoyed that I'll just give up and toss out said item or trade it off for something else. 

The worst time was when I had a guy being extremely shady when negotiating pickup for a drum kit I was selling. After hours of back and forth on the price, he then tells me he's two states away and wants me to stay home all day so he could MAYBE come check it out. Maybe, if his wife lets him, he gets paid this week, etc... I flat out told him no, only local sellers. He had already beaten me up on the price quite a bit, and I wasn't waiting around all day after taking such a bath on it, even if I needed it gone. After I told him no, he went ballistic and started insulting me on my appearance got personal. I blocked the guy and traded it in at a music shop the next day for MORE than he was going to give me. People like that can SNIFF IT. 

On the other end, using the mobile app, my phone has sent the "Is this still available?" to sellers when I'm browsing. That's annoying for me AND for the seller! I am not sure if they updated it, but they should at least confirm if you want to send that message just in case you fat finger the screen or butt message someone. 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Sniff it?

Not a fan of facebook marketplace and have never been happy with responses when searching. Facebook is the market for lazy people. Get off my lawn.

I have two rental properties that I needed to rent out over the course of the last month.  I listed them both on FB Marketplace and Craigslist.  I got maybe 10 inquiries total (for both properties) from Craigslist.  I got...I don't know if it's 100 but it wouldn't surprise me inquiries of the FBMrktplaceisitstillavailable.  Both properties now have leases with tennants who inquired through Craigslist.

That's a pretty small sample size (always the best when making a point, right?!) but yeah...Facebook makes it so easy to "respond" that folks respond first and decide if they're serious later.

I grew up in  world where you had to comb through the classified ads and then pick up a phone, punch 10 buttons (you wouldn't dare incur a charge for a long distance call if it wasn't something you were REALLY interested in...plus, how would you find it in the local paper if it was not local?), and talk to someone (if they happened to be home when you called).  

On the bright side...when you get electronic message responses from someone who's not a serious buyer, you waste a lot less time than having them show up in person to find that out.  

In reply to nutherjrfan :

Basically, LOL

The biggest issue with this is there is no way to know how old the ad is.   Is it a week old, month, year?  Since after one week it goes to "over one week", that is absolutely, completely useless.  To me, this generates far more "is it available" questions, in addition to some who may not answer anyway given that it may be a stale ad.  

Things that have been annoying me about FB marketplace recently is people wanting me to drive something I am selling 1 or hour half to them. I am not doing that for something cheap...

Then the Marketplace keeps deleting a nice purse from my sister's estate I have been trying saying it is counterfeit except that it isn't.

My biggest complaint when selling is the people that low-ball the ever living hell out of me. I just stop answering after the initial offer. Any subsequent offers go unnoticed as well.

Or if I'm interested in buying something from a page or someone's post, the seller doesn't include price or any actual details and when I ask, all I get is "pm me." No, berkeleyer, just tell me the berkeleying price you want right now so 1) I know if I should continue this conversation and 2) Because I'm likely not gonna be the only one asking it. Just say it in your berkeleying post from the get go.

93EXCivic said:

Things that have been annoying me about FB marketplace recently is people wanting me to drive something I am selling 1 or hour half to them. I am not doing that for something cheap...

Oh god, that's another one. Granted, depending on the item, I do ask if they're able to deliver but I ALWAYS offer more money to cover their time and gas. 

Facebook is really innovative, just not in the way you might think.

It's a great tool to get people to give up their personal information for data aggregation. People post pictures there for facial recognition databases. It's widely used to disseminate misinformation. 

Thinking they care about having a good marketplace interface is kind of missing the point.

I don't do FB.    I'd put in the ad, I will not respond to those buttons.  I often just reply with a Yes, and 90% of the time no further response.   

I've had two people contact me about the C30 lately.  One, "I'm looking for a nicer car, but don't need one,   that one looks nice, maybe I get back to you next week" is the phone converstation.  Two.   He didn't want to drive 10 minutes to come see it, that was too far, then texts me 10 questions one after another, I stopped replying, haven't heard from him since.

I understand people see something and are interested, but after 5 minutes realize they don't really want to buy another 48 Willys Truck Cab when they have 3 already, so they should refrain hitting a button for 5 minutes...it does encourage  you to increase your interest if you press a button, so instead of 9/10 not really going to buy, maybe 8/10 instead.