I got a book that I never really opened or read. It’s called “Rang and Dales Pharmacology, 7th Edition.” In very good condition, no highlights, no creases.
I listed it on Gumtree (a website that lets you list second hand goods for free), and never really looked at it again. Until yesterday, when someone messaged me, expressing interest in buying it. I advised them that unfortunately, the best time would be on a Sunday, at which the buyer advised me 3:30pm, to which I agreed upon.
Today, come around 3:00pm, I decide to text the buyer a courtesy text. “Just confirming, you’ll be over at around 3pm?”
It gets to 3:40pm, and I still have not heard anyone knocking on my door.
4:00 pm, I decide to phone them up, but get a voicemail box, so I leave a message. My cousin was coming around 4:30 to have a quick basketball game with me. I wasn’t going to wait around forever, especially if the buyer didn’t even have the courtesy to let me know they weren’t going to come.
At this point, perhaps I was assuming too much. Predominantly my assumptions were:
- The buyer knew they were supposed to come around 3:30 pm to buy my book
- The buyer has seen my text message, and decided not to respond
- The buyer is perfectly well, and has not been involved in any accidents or emergency situations
I suppose these are pretty valid and reasonable assumptions, but perhaps at 4:00pm, assumption 3 may not be a solid assumption.
So I played some basketball, and decided not to text the guy again. It’s 4:30pm, and I doubt they would come. My reasoning is that if they flaked, they deserved to not be told that I was out for basket ball, and if they genuinely were late, they would have already texted me by then (texts only take a whopping 20 seconds to write and send).
It’s 9:40pm now, and I can be almost 100% that assumption 3 is looking like a pretty solid and strong assumption. In other words, this buyer is flakier than snow could ever be.
I don’t mind if people decide to not go through with buying an item. Maybe they found a better deal, but people, please have the decency to let the seller know that you won’t be coming so that they don’t end up hanging around all day waiting for you. It is an entirely dick move, and extremely immature to do so.