Gumtree..? oh, you mean eBay...

[NikNak]

Anyone else out there only just realised/found out (like me) that Gumtree is owned by eBay..?

In the past i've posted items for sale on Gumtree, and yep, within a few hours, maybe even a day or so, i get 'spam' emails asking if i still have xxx for sale.... at first i was excited by the emails, thinking i had a buyer interested. Then after a while, and several items later, i'd reply saying "i don't believe you're interested or even exist and you're just an automated reply"..... not surprisingly i never got any replies.

This seems to have gone one stage further now tho.... as i now receive txt messages inquiring about the items for sale. I got a reply yesterday from 'Terry' asking if i would take £x for the item, i replied saying if he were to squeeze it up a fiver it was his. No reply. But what really got me wondering was the fact i got a txt at 11.15 PM..!! asking the same thing, this time from Jordan (not the place :lol: )

So.... 3 txts later from 3 different numbers, i'm now wondering if they've developed some sort of algorithm to send you a txt message about your items for sale, and maybe you get disillusioned with Gumtree and place the item instead on eBay... where of course you have to pay when you sell it.

Anyone else had the same.? Oh.... they're ALL mobile numbers... not landlines... :-k


Cheers guys

Nick

 

[RogerP]

Yes eBay bought Gumtree from the founders in 2005.

I've had quite good results selling on Gumtree and no problems like you describe. Very odd.

 

[NikNak]

Don't get me wrong, i have successfully sold stuff via Gumtree.

But i'd say for every 'sale' i've had equal if not for more 'spoof' emails/txts

:-k

 

[mbartlett99]

Hmm I didn't realise that. Having just sold stuff for the first time I'd say Gumtree was far less hassle for me - in fact I was surprised how little pita I had from Gumtree buyers.

 

[Kalimna]

You know, I had a very similar experience just this morning. I have a guitar up for sale (ridiculously underpriced, but hey ho that's what I get for having an unusual make), and received a txt from 'Leah' about a 'musical instrument'. Wording was a little odd, but I replied by email as requested.
They agreed the price and asked I receive payment by PayPal (not in itself a problem, but I know there are some scams there and I wasn't sure the txt was genuine). So I asked a few questions, where did they see the ad? If they can't get to their bank account, how can they use PayPal? Where are they? And so far, no reply.

Thing is, apart from some odd phrasing (using 'mover' for courier, for instance) it sounded very good - Turing would be impressed. One other thing though, and this might be a red flag and not something I've come across before, but on rechecking the txt, I couldn't type a reply - the normal text box was not showing at all. I didn't realise that could happen.

Either way, I haven't heard anything back from 'Leah', and I'm not going to do a deal with 'her'.

These scammers are getting clever.

Adam S

 

[SammyQ]

I've put a dozen items on Gumtree in the last 10 days and I've experienced all the above.

I ALSO had "[email protected]" TEXT ME, but ask that I EMAIL him back...."PHISHING SCAM! MASSIVE ATTACK!" - or words to that effect from Malawarebytes....... [-X [-X

Sam

 

[iNewbie]

Gumtree was ok until they got their hands on it. I recall once ebay had it, if you paid money your advert went back up the list. Otherwise it was on a slow decline.

 

[NikNak]

Literally just had a txt now asking.... "will you be able to cut sleepers on tour (not a spelling mistake) mitre saw"

REALLYYYY.....?!?!?! :evil: :mrgreen:

 

[owsnap]

those gumtree scam emails/texts are so obvious and I get soooo many of them, mostly texts :evil:
but anyway no 13% fee to pay to paypal/ebay and no listing fees & no shipping fees makes it worth it for just tat items.
for niche items I have to stick to ebay to get the best price.

 

[transatlantic]

What are your thoughts on Shpock?

I haven't used it to actually buy anything, but it seems to be along the same lines except that it's more targeted towards local sales (basically like the freeads but with images) as opposed to getting things shipped. I was looking on there the other day and the furniture seemed rediculously cheap. To good to be true kinda cheap. But the items were within a 10 minute drive. So there's nothing really to lose. You go and have a look and if you don't like it, you walk away.

I didn't end up going to look at anything, but I was suspicious of the prices.

 

[owsnap]

Oh I hate that app, it's just sooo laggy,barely ever works and is soooo slow maybe it's my phone moto g 3rd which isn't that bad,so just very very badly optimized app. sends you millions of useless notifications to you everyday, fills up all my phone notification bar all the time.

+ I haven't actually bought anything from there, but have wasted time 2x, both times the seller mis-described the items just heavily , like totally the wrong item.
And seems like that app is just full of tat junk items because it's so easy to list something there, just take a picture with your phone, write a few words and you are done.
I'm uninstalling that app..

 

[transatlantic]

Oh I hate that app, it's just sooo laggy,barely ever works and is soooo slow maybe it's my phone moto g 3rd which isn't that bad,so just very very badly optimized app. sends you millions of useless notifications to you everyday, fills up all my phone notification bar all the time.

+ I haven't actually bought anything from there, but have wasted time 2x, both times the seller mis-described the items just heavily , like totally the wrong item.
And seems like that app is just full of tat junk items because it's so easy to list something there, just take a picture with your phone, write a few words and you are done.
I'm uninstalling that app..

 

[WoodMangler]

Anyone else used 'Preloved' ? We've used it for a few things, both buying and selling, and it works quite well. http://www.preloved.co.uk/

 

[thetyreman]

Anyone else used 'Preloved' ? We've used it for a few things, both buying and selling, and it works quite well. http://www.preloved.co.uk/

yes I have used it, this is probably my favourite site now for selling, the only downside is, it can take a lot longer to sell something, but I've sold a few things on there now and really like it.

 

[owsnap]

the quality of buyers/sellers on preloved are much much higher than either of the gumtree/ebay. but not a lot of people visit that site.

 

[Monkey Mark]

I've used Gumtree quite a bit over the last few years and never had a problem other than on one occasion when someone got abusive via text for something I was giving away.

I have noticed a few times recently that an advert on gumtree will link to one on ebay, something new I've not seen many times.

Generally I like gumtree, handy for local items cheap.