Canada’s largest classifieds site, Kijiji, is the first online site many Canadians turn to when buying and selling household items.
In an attempt to clear some clutter, and get rid of household items we hadn’t used in a very long time, we recently turned to Kijiji to list them for sale.
We wanted to purge these things, and pocket some extra cash to be used towards the purchase of a special piece of furniture.
To date, we have managed to sell about 75% of the items we have listed on Kijiji, and have almost $1,000 saved up towards our furniture purchase.
Not too shabby!
While it has been great being able to turn our unwanted items into cash, it’s not all fun and games when it comes to buying and selling on Kijiji.
And not because of the platform itself – because of some of the users of this online classifieds site.
Who knew purging our household items could turn out to be so complicated, frustrating – and mind-boggling?
The following is advice from us after everything we have learned from buying and selling items on Kijiji.
**No buyers or sellers were hurt during these real-life buying and selling transactions! (Although we may have felt like slamming a door in someone’s face from time-to-time! Ha!)
Kijiji Etiquette – What NOT To Do When Buying And Selling
Don’t Make Plans With Us When Your Wife Is Out With The Car
Arrive when you say you will.
Telling us you’ll be here in 15 minutes, and then making us wait 45 minutes to finally hear back from you, is not cool.
You agreed upon a set time with us to pick up the item you wanted.
The fact that your wife has your car and is still out shopping, is not our problem. You knew your wife was out with the car when you told us you’d be here in 15 minutes.
We’re also sure you knew that your wife’s trip to the store would take longer than you had hoped it would. (Speaking from experience of course)
Lesson for sellers? Don’t change your own plans for a buyer.
Stop Your Repeated Haggling
When we put something up for sale, we price it to sell. A buyer gets a good deal from us. We share the retail price and a link to where you could buy the item online if available. No secrets. So, please, stop with the repeated haggling.
It just gets so tiresome.
Trying to haggle the price down more and more reminds us of this quote – and we just might start using it:
“For those that need to haggle, we will gladly raise the price so we can give you a discount.”
Whoever came up with that quote must have been a Kijiji seller. Ha!
This Isn’t Pizza – We Don’t Do Delivery
We sure are glad you want to buy the item we have for sale!
Wait. What?
You want us to deliver the item to you?
Whaaat???
Okay sure, we’ll deliver door-to-door. Let me just add 25% to the price of our item, to account for our time required to deal with this debacle.
We’ll get back to you shortly with the rate FedEx charges to deliver to your front door.
How’s that bargain you found on Kijiji working out for you now?
No, We’re Not Playing 20 Questions
We’re so happy you are interested in the item we have for sale.
Really, we are.
But please…make a decision.
We are not here to play “20 Questions” with you online.
“Is it brand new?”
Did you read the description in the ad? Brand new, never used, still in the box.
“Does it fit a queen-sized mattress?”
Um…our ad states “Queen-size bed frame”
We are not sure what part of “queen-size” you don’t get.
Please, people. Read the ad carefully before you start an unnecessary chain of back-and-forth, time-wasting, emails.
And We Don’t Play Cricket(s) Either
Things get worse when you play 20 Questions and that game morphs into “crickets”.
At least have the common courtesy to finish the discussion.
Don’t want to buy our item after all? No worries.
JUST TELL US.
Don’t log off and run away into the abyss, and leave us “listening” to crickets.
The sound of silence. I do love Simon and Garfunkel but…
Do you want to buy the item or not?
JUST TELL US.
Speaking Of Crickets…
Worse than disappearing online? Disappearing in real life.
You’ve agreed on a price. You’ve agreed on a time to come by.
We sit. We wait. We check the clock. We wait some more.
Nothing.
You are gone, never to be seen or heard from again.
Those are the noisiest and most annoying crickets!
Sorry, We’re Not Your Bank
Buying unwanted household items from someone off Kijiji is not rocket science.
There are no debit machines, and no, you can’t use your credit card to earn rewards.
This is a cash purchase…and we are not your bank.
No, we don’t have $35 in change to give you from the purchase of our $15 item – with your $50 bill!
And no, we really don’t have time to wait for you to run over to your bank to get some change.
Sorry.
What Part Of $40 Did You Not Understand?
Our transaction went well.
You liked the item we were selling. Online, you were easy to deal with.
You offered $10 off our asking price.
We said yes and agreed on $40.
You arrived at our door with $30.
*Jaw drop*
Don’t. Just Don’t.
After you ask if our item is still available, and we tell you it is and ask you when would you like to come by, never utter these four words…
“When can we meet somewhere?”
You can meet us at our doorstep, any time during the day. Or, we can meet you at our local coffee shop – not yours…across town.
Sure, as Keith Partridge used to sing, “I’ll meet you halfway…that’s better than no way“, but I’m afraid I’d have to disagree with my childhood heartthrob on this one.
We don’t own a multicoloured school bus, we’re not in a traveling band, and we certainly aren’t starting up a mobile delivery service, driving a van full of “sold on Kijiji” items around this great city of ours.
No Midnight Cowboys Wanted
We get it. Some people have to work late.
We aren’t keen on selling our used items at night but, sure, we’ll make the odd exception.
The problem occurs when you arrive over an hour later than agreed upon, and you wish to test out this motorized item in our driveway – after most of our neighbours are already in bed.
Oh! You’d also like to test this motorized item out on the street?
No.
Hard no.
Come back and see us tomorrow…in the daylight…when our neighbours are awake, and we can follow you in our car – you know, in case you decide to keep going.
The Long And Winding…Driveway
We see you out there. Oh yes, we do.
You’ve pulled up to the curb with your car lights off.
Sitting in your car for five minutes, you text your wife.
You finally get out of the car and walk to the end of our driveway.
We go to the door to meet you.
You’re not on the porch. We can’t see you.
Turns out, you are still at the end of our driveway staring at our house.
You get out your mobile phone, dial, and slowly start to make your way up the driveway.
You’re talking to your wife again, aren’t you?
We’re on to you. You’re making contingency plans with your wife in case this whole transaction goes horribly wrong.
Aren’t you?
Or maybe you’re just trying to creep us out.
Oh, wait! Now you’re stopping to take a photo of our house. How lovely! You want to remember us! Sweet!
Just get to the door and ring our bell, okay???!!! We don’t have all night!!!
Please Take The High Road And Don’t Low Ball
When we price items to sell on Kijiji, we price them fair.
Sometimes too fair, in my opinion. We sometimes argue about how high to price an item.
I like to price a little high, to leave some wiggle room for that inevitable haggling. Because, no matter what, you know there’s going to be haggling, right?
My partner? He’s a “get ‘er done and sold” type of Kijiji seller. He doesn’t want to keep an item in the house for 6 months just to score an extra $10 when it finally does sell. I know. He’s a smart man.
The one thing we do agree on is the “low baller”. The Kijiji buyer who’s looking for (basically) something for nothing.
Like the person who wanted to buy our already rock-bottom priced $20 item – for $5.
Did I mention? He wanted us to deliver it – across the city.
Ya. NO.
From Far And Wide
Aka…come from away.
The only “X” you can find for sale online is the one we are selling?
That’s SO great that we have what you need! *Sitting at the computer, rubbing hands together in anticipation of a quick and easy sale*
Oh. You live how far from Ottawa? Oh.
20 bazillion emails later, negotiations, numerous schedule changes, and several canceled pick-up times, the item is sold.
Glad it worked out for you. We gather you really wanted that item.
Not so sure we wanted to jump through all those hoops just to sell it to you but…yay.
We Don’t Want An Invite To Your Guilty Party
You don’t own a car.
You don’t drive.
You’re a student.
You never leave your apartment.
You live all the way across town from us.
Your friend can only pick the item up for you between 11:59pm and 2:30am because that’s the only time they have free to hop the bus and spend 2 hours getting to our place.
Whew!
We get it. Life can be tough.
The thing is, we don’t put stuff for sale on Kijiji to make our life harder.
We’re not selling our used items so that we can get invited to your guilty party.
Because that’s how we are left to feel.
Guilty. With a capital G.
Guilty that we are taking money from you when it seems like you can’t afford to give it to us.
Guilty that we are making you ride the bus all the way across town just to pick up a $10 item you really want.
Guilty because you really want to buy the item for your brother but, you are $20 short of cash when you arrive at our doorstep – after we have already agreed upon the price before you left.
Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.
And when “the sellers” became “the buyers”, things didn’t get much better…
How ‘Bout Them Apples…Or Rather…Oranges
We want a specific car part, and you’ve got it.
Sold!
We come to pick it up – halfway across the city.
Sure enough, you’ve got the advertised part we want…but it’s attached to something else we don’t want!
No worries you say…the part we want comes with that additional part – for an extra cost. We can take it all.
Yipee!
Wait. Whaaat?
So now it’s a combo?
So we fork over the extra cash because we still want the part we came for…and because we just drove all the way across the city for this.
*Jaw drop*
Don’t Be A Tease Please
You posted an item for “X” price.
Yippee! We like the item and the price. We don’t even try and haggle. Imagine.
We grab our money and drive across town to pick up the item.
Huh? The price went up $20 between logging off the computer and arriving at your door?
“Do we still want it?” you ask.
Hmmm….let’s see…$20 extra to you and we bring the item home.
Say no, we bring home nothing, and just spend $20 in gas.
Nice to meet you. You can call us “rock” and “hard place”.
No, We Don’t Want To See What You’ve Got Hiding Out Back
We want that one item you’ve got for sale.
We agree upon a price.
When we come calling we simply want to purchase the item from you and get on our merry way.
But you have other plans.
Apparently, we are your new best friends and you want to show us around your place.
“Come see all the great things I have for sale out back!” you say.
Suddenly we feel like we are appearing on “Hoarders”, only this episode features all kinds of rusty old tools, scrap metal, used furniture, and other assorted items of an unknown nature.
When you need to tell someone you’re not in the market for a used toilet seat, it’s time to bolt.
And so…we’re officially Kijiji’d out!
Pooped!
We had no idea that buying and selling used items could be so exhausting!
We’re off to bed…
Wait! Didn’t we sell our queen-sized bed frame?
Has anyone got a queen-sized bed frame they’d like to sell us? Ha!
What about you? Have YOU had any funny, crazy, frustrating experiences when buying and selling on Kijiji? We’ LOVE you to share them in the comments below. It might just help us feel better!
