Replying to adverts

[sgray]

I'm concerned by this locked thread by Kevin. I commented on the LCV wheels that keep coming up.. is this bad form? Does this cover ebay links too? As a newcomer I rely on the lively cut and thrust of discussion about parts that appear, otherwise I might buy something that won't fit my car (not that anything I do buy seems to fit ) when there could have been people on here to warn me. It's not as if anyone is paying to put an advert in a post.

I may have missed the point - and I know Kevin's post says PM him, but I wanted to ask the question generally.

[bmcecosse]

I agree! What's happened to FREE SPEACH? We should be able to point out errors/mistakes - downright wrongs on cars and parts offered for sale on the forum. A forum is for discussion - let these people advertise their cars/parts on ebay if they don't want comments.

[PSL184]

quote=["kevin"]The main complaint from sellers is the fact that the biggest problem is that those that are critisising the ad's have no interest in buying the car [/quote]

The main complaint from regular board users would be that sellers come on just to sell something which they think is valuable only to find out it's not then take the huff. They never intended to stick around and join in

[DanRodd]

if the same approach was taken to people coming on here to sell cars as there is with not publishing the minor matters adverts online then they wouldnt be allowed to post at all,so why shouldnt we be able to reply to them?

[Laughing_Boy]

I agree! What's happened to FREE SPEACH? We should be able to point out errors/mistakes

It went the same way as the understanding of the correct use of exclamation marks, ellipses and, indeed, the correct spelling of the English language and sense of what is and what isn't a clever and deliberate mistake. It's probably gone much the same way as simple good manners and acceptance that others may not share the knowledge that some posters appear to think is both absobleedinglutely (tmesis) blindingly obvious and entirely correct

[Jefftav]

Don't really see the need like the OP as far as I know the mods have the right to remove anything that will cause offence . I think if you are posting on any site like the this one you expect comments good/bad/constructive/non constructive and you take them on the chin whether the comments are what you want to hear or not. .

I also think we can comment and ask questions of the seller and as some only use the site to offer car/parts for sale and don't answer questions very quickly this leaves them open to some critiscm.

Asking sellers to state a price rather than just saying "offers" and reminding them to visit their thread every 24hrs to answer questions & PM's would be better.

[bmcecosse]

Well - it seems I'm the only person who has PMd Kevin saying I don't think this is right - so there it lies! beware the unwary!

[Jefftav]

Point taken BMC I was going to PM Kevin but I don't see what the purpose of a PM to Kevin as it would be a one way conversation and I am sure Kevin can read the comments posted on this thread.

[autolycus]

I agree with sgray and Jefftav on this one. I have no problem at all with new posters placing adverts - some of them are selling because they've inherited cars they don't want, and others have decided to leave the Moggy world, temporarily or permanently.

It's noticeable that the adverts which have attracted adverse comment are often those where the poster has been a little economical with the truth, or slow to respond, or just generally unhelpful. I'd distinguish between comments like "it's got the wrong wings, engine and lights for a car of that year", which might alert buyers to the need to ask further questions; and "it's a heap of junk", which don't help anyone. I think we can trust the moderators to restrain the worst of such comments.

Allowing comments does open up the possibility of one particularly unpleasant scenario: a poster pulling an advert to shreds so his mate can get in there and buy it cheaper; but I don't see any evidence of that happening.

Let's continue with robust debate about cars offered: if advertisers want to avoid any risk of this, or if they have something to hide, other channels may serve them better.

Thank you, Laughing_Boy, for broadening my knowledge: I had to look up "tmesis".

Kevin

[DanRodd]

i think the majority of comments are mainly the sort of thing which would be brought up if you were actually viewing the car,which is basically what you are doing on an online advert,so that cant be too bad can it?i agree that saying its scrap or similar is not on,but spotting that its got a lot of wrong parts on a car that is advertised as original is no different to if you went to look at it.

[Kevin]

I'm concerned by this locked thread by Kevin. I commented on the LCV wheels that keep coming up.. is this bad form? Does this cover ebay links too? As a newcomer I rely on the lively cut and thrust of discussion about parts that appear, otherwise I might buy something that won't fit my car (not that anything I do buy seems to fit ) when there could have been people on here to warn me. It's not as if anyone is paying to put an advert in a post.

I may have missed the point - and I know Kevin's post says PM him, but I wanted to ask the question generally.

OK to answer your first question, what locked post its open for anyone to reply, and the reason for asking for PM replies was so that I can guage what others thought, because as moderators we are starting to get more and more complaints from sellers (and not just new posters) about the attitude from others who have no intention of buying the car or parts and just wish to knock the seller because they dont agree with their point of view.
I fully agree with your point about trying to make sure the information about parts is correct for your use/requirement and that was not what my post was about.

The main complaint from regular board users would be that sellers come on just to sell something which they think is valuable only to find out it's not then take the huff.

Why do you have a problem with that, suppose a first time poster was selling something you had been wanting for a long time, would you not buy it because they were a new poster.

Now the main point that some have missed completely, its the negative comments that are the cause of the problems and complaints Roy's examples above are a good example he says that we should point out errors and mistakes and I fully agree and yet that is not what happend is it, the seller was bombarded by him with a whole raft of negative remarks about the value of the car ect, yet if you read the ad the seller put up a good description of the car with nothing to mis-lead anyone, so really you have said one thing yet in reality done the opposite.

There is no reason why items for sale are not replied to, but why run the sellers down when you are not interested in the item for sale, can you explain that one to me please as I cannot understand that point of view or see the logic in it, it would be different if another poster had asked a specific question but this is not the case.
I think you will also find that if something is genuinly overpriced the lack of interest to purchase will give the seller a clue that its over the top pricewise.
So to summerise a long winded reply from me, what I would like to know is what benefit is the knocking and critisisng of sellers on the board, when you have no interest in the item and no questions have been asked ?

[Dean]

Would it be better to have a classified ads section? Perhaps the forum could ask for a small donation, or just offer it free as is current. It wouldn't be in the form of a new thread but in "Auto Trader" style. Get advertisers to upload photo's before we have to ask them to, just like you would do for any online source. The only contact would be via PM, email or telephone number.

[MarkyB]

tmesis
Tmesis (from Ancient Greek τμῆσις tmēsis, "a cutting" < τέμνω temnō, "I cut") is a linguistic phenomenon or figure of speech in which a word or set phrase is separated into two parts, with other words occurring between them

New one on me, I must try and drop into a conversation and see how it goes.

As for posting ads on here I think they have to take the rough with the smooth.
If a car is claimed to be concours but isn't it will definately get picked up.

If it isn't claimed to be concours then it shouldn't get slated for not being concours.

[Jefftav]

Thanks for your response Kevin and I see where you are coming from. I have never really thought that anyone was delibertely being offensive about any advert but merely stating shortcomings about the car/part involved.

I genuinely believe that contributors to this site give a fair and balanced opinion on most things and if they are questioning a sellers description/price then it will be for a reason. I can see myself that sometimes the directness of questions or posted messages can come across as a bit on the harsh side. If a seller does not like a message/question and complains to a Mod then the Mod can surely remove or edit any offending message and warn the poster if it is needed. Mods have told me off a couple of times so I know you can do this.

We have all placed ads and had folk enquire who are just wasting time (tyre kickers I think they are called) and have no real interest in an item but you get this if you are trying to sell something and this is not unique to this board. Sellers also have a responsibility to post an accurate description to avoid wasting peoples time.

1 thing that winds me up a bit is when a seller asks for "offers" could it not be a requirement that they state a price as sometimes it can sometimes offend a poster when they are offered a lower price than they were expecting?

[Kevin]

I genuinely believe that contributors to this site give a fair and balanced opinion on most things and if they are questioning a sellers description/price then it will be for a reason.
We have all placed ads and had folk enquire who are just wasting time (tyre kickers I think they are called) and have no real interest in an item but you get this if you are trying to sell something and this is not unique to this board. Sellers also have a responsibility to post an accurate description to avoid wasting peoples time.

1 thing that winds me up a bit is when a seller asks for "offers" could it not be a requirement that they state a price as sometimes it can sometimes offend a poster when they are offered a lower price than they were expecting?

Hi Jeff a good point about a price being quoted as its often left out so I have adjusted the please read this before posting at the top of the cars for sale to include a price and pictures. As you say tyre kickers are complete time wasters which we cant do much about but that doesnt mean we should do the same in reverse and I think this reply in a recent posting rather sums it up.

Thankyou! I'm glad that at least you don't think I'm trying to rip people off selling junk that they couldn't possibly want! It makes me think twice about advertising here again- I wasn't expecting all the 'opinions' that were expressed. If it is too expensive, then nobody need buy it

The last thing we want to do is put sellers of.

[autolycus]

but why run the sellers down when you are not interested in the item for sale, can you explain that one to me please as I cannot understand that point of view or see the logic in it,

As I said before, there can be several motives, some thoroughly unpleasant, but it can also be a desire to save less experienced members from making an expensive mistake.

I think you will also find that if something is genuinly overpriced the lack of interest to purchase will give the seller a clue that its over the top pricewise.

Very true, but buyers can't always wait to see what other interest there may be, and comments from the experienced ones may help the prospective buyer to form an opinion.

what benefit is the knocking and critisisng of sellers on the board,?

The benefit is to the would-be buyer, but also to others (like myself) who don't have the specialised model knowledge to spot every "incorrect" car, but who can learn when others point them out.

Even if it only helps to save a potential buyer from driving a long way, wasting time and fuel, to look at a car that an experienced eye could spot from a photo was not quite right, it's a Good Thing.

Kevin (not the moderator)

[aupickup]

the post that got me was the one where it stated we are investigating the car

those kind of remarks just can not be justified from regular board users

[//no.comment]

As having just bought a car off this very forum I thought id give you a buyers view.

Being inexperienced in car buying (this is my first car), I have found the comments from other users extremely helpful! Infact the help has encouraged me to go ahead and buy my minor! I do understand how it is negative just slagging something off when someone is obviously trying to put work in at selling it, but a little constructive criticism is very helpful from an inexperienced buyers perspective. I would like to say that on the whole the comments are whole heartedly constructive.

About discouraging people form the joining the club, I reckon that more members join, after hanging around and reading posts, and then going ahead in buying a minor, than there are people who stick around after selling there cars. (hence the morris minor owners club not the morris minor sellers club)

[bmcecosse]

[quote="Laughing_Boy"][/quote]
It went the same way as the understanding of the correct use of exclamation marks, ellipses and, indeed, the correct spelling of the English language and sense of what is and what isn't a clever and deliberate mistake. It's probably gone much the same way as simple good manners and acceptance that others may not share the knowledge that some posters appear to think is both absobleedinglutely (tmesis) blindingly obvious and entirely correct

I do apologise if my English falls far below your obviously high standard ! My speling and punktuashun may not be the best!!!!!!!! And I do like to use some !!!! and ((( ))) and sometimes a few - - - to brighten up my posts. That's my style - if you don't like it - don't read the posts. Crivens - it's like being back at skool - i'll be getting 'lines' next!
I've yet to see a single helpful/constructive comment about Morris Minors on this Forum from you laffing-boy - you seem to be here just to comment on my efforts? Keep it up! You are certainly giving me a good laff.

[billlobban]

Whilst I have no intention in joining in the discussions regarding the comments about this car and its value/correctness or lack thereof I was looking for an MG Merto camshaft a short while ago and was saved from wasting my money on a piece of junk and then further wasting my time by fitting it by the afore mentioned BMC who later on guided me to a real MG Metro camshaft at a reasonable price. If you cant take informed comment on the stuff you are trying to punt on this site then dont --(!)