Sale or No Sale?

October 26, 2006 2:01 PM

What constitutes an agreement to sell on sites like Craigslist?

The short version is, I found an item listed on Craigslist this past weekend. I contacted the seller who responded promptly. Since we're logistically about 90 minutes or more away from one another, I offered to pay for shipping in additon to the sales price of the item. The seller told me that they'd go to the post office on Monday and let me know how much it would be to ship the package.

That was the last I heard from them until today. I emailed twice or maybe three times inquiring as to the amount to ship the package so I could get my check in the mail to them. I emailed again today requesting an explanation of why they were not responding to my emails and that I was wondering if the item was even still available.

The response I received floored me. They'd been busy all week with such and such and since their daughter like the items (a set of lighted Victorian homes) so much, they'd decided to give them to her. Period.

Is there not an Agreement in place here? Can folks just post and re-nig mid-transaction?

Bottomline, do I have any recourse here?

I've been unable to find a way to contact Craigslist directly about this. Any help in that area would be appreciated, also.

posted by SoftSummerBreeze to shopping (17 comments total)

If you gave them no money, I think they can re-nig, yes.
posted by mathowie at 2:04 PM on October 26, 2006

That's craigslist for you. People flake out all the time . At least you are not out any money.

FWIW, I'd suggest that when buying or selling on craigslist, always do the transaction in person. If it's too far, then skip it.
posted by jclovebrew at 2:06 PM on October 26, 2006

As long as they don't have your money, I think it would be best just to let it go.
posted by drezdn at 2:13 PM on October 26, 2006

That was pretty sucky of them but since you really aren't out any money I don't think there's anything you can do about it.
posted by Opposite George at 2:15 PM on October 26, 2006

Yeah, Craigslist has always been overt about being merely a service to bring together interested parties, parties which then have to negotiate and finalize their own terms of agreement. It's really, truly up to a buyer and seller to determine the way that they will handle a transaction; many do so by just representing themselves honestly and following through with what they said or implied they'd do. But like with any transaction, without some sort of formal, legally-enforceable agreement between you and the seller, you have what you have -- an implied, now broken, unenforceable promise to sell you something. Craigslist doesn't play into that at all.
posted by delfuego at 2:24 PM on October 26, 2006

Re-nig??? WTF? I sure hope you mean renege.

Anyway it's hard for me to believe that a valid contract was formed here, given that you never agreed on a final price including shipping. Life goes on.
posted by grouse at 2:27 PM on October 26, 2006

Re-nig??? WTF? I sure hope you mean renege.

Excuuuse me. Yes.... renege. My most sincere apologies for this oversight.

You knew what I meant, right? Was the "WTF?" really necessary?
posted by SoftSummerBreeze at 2:39 PM on October 26, 2006

Craigslist isn't responsible, and whether or not you had a contract it isn't going to be worth suing them.

One of my housemates does a lot of (attempted) buying of musical instruments on CL, and runs into this all the frickin' time.
posted by solid-one-love at 2:59 PM on October 26, 2006

Yeah, if you change the spelling of a word so that it contains a racial slur, I do think a WTF is necessary.
posted by grouse at 3:03 PM on October 26, 2006

Renege is one of those words that lots of people use, but we rarely see in print. A lot of people don't know how to spell it.
posted by o2b at 3:10 PM on October 26, 2006

Yeah, if you change the spelling of a word so that it contains a racial slur

Oh, please. NO racial slur was intended. There are plenty of words that begin with those letters.

Please don't start trouble where there is none.
posted by SoftSummerBreeze at 3:22 PM on October 26, 2006

Renege is one of those words that lots of people use, but we rarely see in print. A lot of people don't know how to spell it.

There you go. I actually pride myself on my spelling and grammar usage. 99% my posts and correspondence are error free. I was rushed and opted for the 'phonetic' spelling of the word. So sue me.
posted by SoftSummerBreeze at 3:24 PM on October 26, 2006

Hmmm, since one of the offensive slang meanings of nig is to screw someone over, and personally I've never heard it pronounced in a way that this spelling would fit phonetically, I thought it was a bit odd. But I looked it up in a dictionary, and that fits a variant pronunciation.
posted by grouse at 3:39 PM on October 26, 2006

No digg. Er.. no deal. You've just run into yet another Craigslist flake. They don't have the same gig as eBay, unfortunately.

All you can do is shrug it off and hopefully find the item somewhere else.

Bummer!
posted by drstein at 3:56 PM on October 26, 2006

Oh dear lord. The person made a mistake. Yikes, let it go.

(re: re-nig. looks like it sounds.)
posted by WaterSprite at 7:28 PM on October 26, 2006

There's no formal agreement here. It's not like eBay, where bidding on an item is considered to be forming a contract. What if the seller had come back and said the shipping price was some amount that was too much for you (say something ridiculous, like 10x the price of the item)? If you had then backed out, and the buyer came in here asking the same question, what would your answer have been?
posted by antifuse at 2:05 AM on October 27, 2006

Hmmm, since one of the offensive slang meanings of nig is to screw someone over, and personally I've never heard it pronounced in a way that this spelling would fit phonetically, I thought it was a bit odd. But I looked it up in a dictionary, and that fits a variant pronunciation.

So if to "nig" someone is screwing them over, is to "re-nig" to screw them over twice? Sorry... i just had to ask. Clearly I meant no harm and as I re-read this thread realized I wasn't the only one to make this horrible error.

What if the seller had come back and said the shipping price was some amount that was too much for you (say something ridiculous, like 10x the price of the item)? If you had then backed out, and the buyer came in here asking the same question, what would your answer have been?

I would have first inquired about the shipping method and why the costs were so high. I then would have discussed various other shipping methods as a way to bring the costs in line with reality and once a reasonable amount was agreed to, would have paid the amount due. I would never back out of a deal once I'd agreed to purchase something even if I decided I really didn't want it. Were that the case I could always turn around a re-sell it recouping my costs.
posted by SoftSummerBreeze at 6:47 AM on October 27, 2006