Buyers excessive questions

[mikeratan00]

Sold a guitar. Buyer asked multiple questions. Answered promptly and respectfully.

Submits payment and THEN, ask few more questions like, can you send me a video of cleans and overdriven clips. Can you BLA BLA teh BLA bla

LOL

 

[ixnay]

A buyer that starts asking a lot of questions after payment is likely to be a colossal PITA once they get the guitar.

 

[Soundhog]

Save his phone number and then block it

 

[tiktok]

Just refund him now before you've shipped the guitar.

 

[Raimond]

I would have told the seller that I have one question to ask,

 

[Astronaut FX]

Well that guitar is coming back, mark my word.

 

[98G2PRU]

I recently sold a good amount of gear for the estate of a buddy who passed away. High end basses, a Martin OM-45, Guild Artist Award, amps, etc…

Over the last 6 months I have noticed the following. People buy more on Ebay. People talk more on Reverb. Lots of people talking and asking questions on Reverb and it never amounted to anything. Every single piece that sold, from a $500 parts Tele to a $4500 Martin all sold on Ebay with a minimum amount of fuss.

Of course, YMMV ….

One pointer - specify no sales to the Far East. Ebay charges the seller extra for this????

+

 

[GtrTravel]

What everyone said above. It will be a doozy.

 

[Chippertheripper]

I recently sold a good amount of gear for the estate of a buddy who passed away. High end basses, a Martin OM-45, Guild Artist Award, amps, etc…

Over the last 6 months I have noticed the following. People buy more on Ebay. People talk more on Reverb. Lots of people talking and asking questions on Reverb and it never amounted to anything. Every single piece that sold, from a $500 parts Tele to a $4500 Martin all sold on Ebay with a minimum amount of fuss.

Of course, YMMV ….

One pointer - specify no sales to the Far East. Ebay charges the seller extra for this????

+

I honestly thought eBay was dead due to the massive amounts of spam and/or ****ery that always leaves sellers hanging. I mostly try and stick to site specific forums like this one, and have just recently listed my first items on R with no fanfare (yet).
My own anecdote is that the people that ask the most questions are the least likely to buy. People either know what they're looking at/for or they're just out to be pains in the rear and hear themselves talk. I've not tried fb marketplace, as I dont have an account, but people tell me it's just as crappy, but locally crappy.

 

[Sp8ctre]

A couple of legit questions are okay if the listing isn't clear.

I asked a guy on Reverb for the fretboard radius on a guitar and he went ballistic! Said no one who asks a question ever buys a guitar. I did buy a guitar, just not his...

If they ask too many or keep asking after the deal is complete it's seller beware for sure.

 

[Short Tooth]

Sold a guitar. Buyer asked multiple questions. Answered promptly and respectfully.

Submits payment and THEN, ask few more questions like, can you send me a video of cleans and overdriven clips. Can you BLA BLA teh BLA bla

LOL

Not a good sign. My online selling buddy doesn't mess around and blocks people like this. According to him, 90% of these types of customers always find a way to dispute something and game the system. Which all costs time and money for you. Just not worth it.

 

[Jayyj]

Yeah, questions after the purchase, the buyer is super scatty and it's pot luck whether they keep the guitar.

The other one I hate is where they get all their inconsequential niggly questions out of the way first then twenty emails later you get something like 'it is left handed, isn't it?' - get your deal breakers out of the way first, people.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Asking questions and videos AFTER payment means he is having 2nd thoughts. He’s going to return it when he get it.

just ask him straight up if he is having 2nd thought and offer him a refund to save yourself the trouble.

 

[Dontchaknow]

How detailed was your listing? If he is asking questions like weight, nut width, etc. that should have been in the listing anyway, fine, but how can clean and overdrive videos be helpful unless he has the same amp??

 

[gibson3798]

Questions like the ones you mentioned are not appropriate and have little to do with the guitar and more to do with someone not knowing what questions are reasonable.

 

[Thyshra]

Same issue, different product. I was selling a custom-cooled high-end PC. Guy starts messaging me a couple questions... totally acceptable.

2-3 hours later, many more questions, he says he's leaving to drive and come get it. He's coming from NY, like 180 miles away. I question if he really wants to drive 5-6 hours round-trip with all the questions he has.

He starts asking more questions; ridiculous things like "What's the highest temperature it ever got to?", etc. etc.

Finally got tired of him and told him not to bother; I was tired of all his questions and wasn't going to deal with him anymore, or after the fact.

Man was he PO'd. Finally, I just blocked him.

 

[JasonE]

Asking questions and videos AFTER payment means he is having 2nd thoughts. He’s going to return it when he get it.

just ask him straight up if he is having 2nd thought and offer him a refund to save yourself the trouble.

I completely agree with this. He is having buyer's remorse already. That isn't going to go well for you. You are better off addressing it now before you ship the guitar out and spend more money. This will be an issue once he gets the guitar, for sure.

 

[Guitar Josh]

In my experience selling online, there is an inverse relationship between the number of questions a buyer asks and their likelihood of actually purchasing it.

 

[Yam the BOMB]

I welcome all questions from prospective buyers. If they ask anything that I don’t want to figure out the answer to I’ll just let them know that.

I’ve been a professional face to face, belly to belly salesman for 45 years now. Questions are a good thing. If you guys are listing things for sale and you don’t put the weight or what city the item is located in (fortunately Reverb forces that one out of you) or other just basic stuff, don’t get irritated when people ask.
My favorite ads on this forum are the ones where someone lists or is looking for a heavy amp or cab and they say “local deal preferred” but they never say where local to them is.

Some of you guys may just be wound a little too tight. Questions as a sign that someone is NOT going to buy? Ha! That’s a fail!

 

[Austin_Taunt]

I welcome all questions from prospective buyers. If they ask anything that I don’t want to figure out the answer to I’ll just let them know that.

I’ve been a professional face to face, belly to belly salesman for 45 years now. Questions are a good thing. If you guys are listing things for sale and you don’t put the weight or what city the item is located in (fortunately Reverb forces that one out of you) or other just basic stuff, don’t get irritated when people ask.
My favorite ads on this forum are the ones where someone lists or is looking for a heavy amp or cab and they say “local deal preferred” but they never say where local to them is.

Some of you guys may just be wound a little too tight. Questions as a sign that someone is NOT going to buy? Ha! That’s a fail!

Depends which platform I’m selling on. Here the more questions the better bc they are interested. FB marketplace? More questions equals more of my time being wasted. The cheaper the item the worse it is. I listed an Ibanez guitar once for $100 and I had over 50 ppl ask me questions about it in a week and not a single person who did bought it lol. Some guy just messaged and said I will take it. It was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had selling an item. I was just trying to dump the guitar cheap bc I forgot I had it tucked in a closet and it ended up turning into hours of questions. People don’t even read the descriptions before messaging.

With high end gear people seem to know what they are looking at so it tends to go smoother.