A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

Every once in a while I get a really rude or pushy person contacting me. It makes me not want to sell to them and then they seem to get annoyed that I won't work with them on price or in some cases won't sell to them at all. Sometimes I wonder if they're even sober when contacting me. FB Marketplace and Craiglist are the worst. I think I've only had this happen once on Reverb.

I don't really get pushy or rude buyers, but I do get a lot of people mad when I tell them I won't do their commissioned work. It makes no difference in how polite I am or how fully I explain that policy - they seem to take the "no" as a personal insult.

Buy what you see in the shop, or move on. I accept very little commissioned work. No need to be ugly about it.

My shop is important to me, and I run it like a business that I want to see flourish - but I'm not counting on it to put food on the table. If potential customers are rude to me, I don't deal with them, period.

Yep, they are out there but I think they always have been. It's just easier for them to share their douchbaggery via all the instant communications we have out there. I used to work in a retail sporting goods shop many years ago, and we had the occasional asshat that would come in and haggle over a clearance item or demand a return on a worn out bike tire. Back then it was harder to ignore as they would be standing right there in your shop. These days I just flat out ignore it - you can tell almost immediately if they are going to be "one of those people" and I just quit communicating and/or block their email/phone number so I don't have to even see their drivel. In many cases they I think they are just trolling for a reaction anyway, so don't give them the time of day.

Hoo-boy, I had a Craigslist buyer for my AL 3100MCC who epitomized the description of a "pushy buyer". He was the kind of guy who would send you an email (in the middle of the work day), and if you didn't respond within two hours, he would send you another email... to make sure you got the last email.
I thought we worked out this whole email etiquette thing by the end of the oughts? I could see if I ghosted him for a day or two, but this guy couldn't even wait until I got home from work! This was the early weeks of the lock-downs, so he was probably stuck at home, watching the minutes fly like hours, but still, it told me right there that I was dealing with a person who has zero patience... yay. Made me glad that I only communicate with Craigslist prospects through email. The last thing I need is someone blowing up my phone all day while I'm at work (or any other time, really).

When I contacted him, he wasn't satisfied with any of the times that I was able to meet him. I offered to meet him that very night, or any evening that week, but he didn't want to drive to my town in rush hour traffic, and he didn't want to wait until the weekend, so he kept pestering me to let him come to my workplace and do the deal there. I told him under no circumstances would I agree to have strangers show up where I work for the purpose of selling them a guitar... Especially in the middle of a pandemic. Yet he persisted, and sent a barrage of emails (and emails asking if I got the last email), and he kept asking for my phone number (despite numerous refusals), because email was too slow for him, and he wanted to text/call me. It was like dealing with a child who persistently begs you to buy them a toy no matter how many times you say "no", so I ghosted him.

Then he started sending me emails pretending to be someone else! Now I would say what gave him away was the fact that he asked the EXACT SAME QUESTIONS that he asked me the first time he contacted me, but what really blew it was that he didn't use the Craigslist "anonymizer" link, so I could see his real name and email address!

At first I just laughed, and figured if I continued to ignore him, he'd get the point pretty quickly and give up. But this guy was pretty committed to getting that guitar! He continued with his ruse, asking puzzled question about why I haven't responded to him and: "is the guitar still available"? So I decided to cut him a break. First, I informed him that his cunning attempt to trick me had failed, by addressing him by his real name. Then, with all the diplomacy I could muster, I proceeded to honestly, but politely share my character study of him, based on the behavior I had observed, and explained why I don't like to do business with people like that. At the end of it, I said: "Hey, I don't know you... you could be the most charming guy on Earth in real life, but your email technique is off-putting". I also told him that if he doesn't have any hard feelings after everything I said, I'd still be willing to sell him the guitar.

When I got a response from him the next day, I wasn't sure if I wanted to open it. Even though I took pains to refrain from any personally hurtful, or condescending remarks in my email, Californians can be pretty thin-skinned and reactionary, so I didn't know what to expect. Thankfully, the first line in his email read: "You were absolutely correct about everything you said about me. I'm a child. I'm self-involved. I have a hard time with delayed gratification... etc." But he also told me that he was dead serious about buying the guitar, and that he won't try to haggle, or jerk me around, or cause any trouble after the sale, so I agreed to meet with him (at a time and date of MY choosing). The irony is; his dogged pursuit of quick gratification was the very thing that delayed it. If he had been more flexible, and less of a pest, this meeting could have taken place long before then.

I suppose that could have been a "teachable moment", but I refrained from pointing that out to him...

He looked like a typical, upper middle-class suburbanite... Polo shirt and Dockers, and a hat with a golf course insignia on it. Looked to be in his late forties. Thin, with thinning hair and glasses. He was a nice guy, though he seemed like the nervous/neurotic type. I gave him a good deal and even decided to let him have the Tonerider pickups that I had installed. He was true to his word and paid my asking price, and I haven't heard from him since.