If you haven’t seen this yet, you have to. It’s about Carouhell Carousell, a mobile app where Singaporeans can easily sell their stuff. It started off as a nifty idea, at least that’s what I thought so. Tired of uploading pictures to my computer, this app provided the ease to just click, snap and post whatever I needed to sell off, all with my mobile phone. Except, now it has become “Singapore’s #1 breeding ground for inarticulate cheapos”. I totally agree with that statement. In fact, it’s not only a breeding ground for cheapskates, there are also people with really bad manners hanging around.
First, let me address the cheapskate bit. I mainly put up brand new clothing — ones that unfortunately don’t fit me well — to sell. I was incredibly happy when I got a couple of “likes”. After all, I thought the “like” feature was bookmarking items you might consider purchasing. I was wrong. Perhaps the “like” button took on a different meaning, one that increased the visibility of a user. There is even a thing called “like for likes” in Carousell. (Imagine that!) So what you do is go around randomly liking people’s stuff and they’ll like your stuff back. I kinda understand the rationale behind this but I don’t think I really like this idea. I don’t want to bookmark a ton of useless items! Oh but I digressed. The way I priced my items was so I could get back more or less what I paid for for them. Nope. Not gonna happen. Nobody was buying my stuff. So I lowered the prices by a quarter. Some got sold off, but still not many. Then I noticed the trend. Things that are priced between $1-$15 get sold off pretty fast. Well, that price range is ok for some things, but some dresses are worth way more than that! So there you have it, Carousell, the breeding ground for cheapskates.
Another blogger’s opinion on the matter is that items should be priced low (even if they are brand new) as you’re trying to get rid of them fast. I don’t quite agree to that view. Yes, some items even if brand new can be priced low based on their quality. Gonna digress here…some blogshops do sell clothing at $25-$40 a piece when the quality is not that great. But, how about better quality items like a gown for example? You don’t expect me to price a gown at $8-$10 right? It’s insane! Besides, some bloggers do get sponsored items so they are already profiting from the sale. Unfortunately, I am not some famous blogger so I don’t get sponsored items always. Which also means that I’m already selling my brand new items at a loss.
Here comes my shaming post of undesirable characters lurking in the far corners of Carousell:
- The “Traders”
Why the quotation marks you ask? These people put the real traders to shame. Similar to the people who have a compulsive disorder to “like” every single item on Carousell, these people go around dropping “trade” comments quite loosely. I like to think that they are cheapskates in disguise. Had one asking to trade for a $10 blouse of mine. Took a look at what she was selling and selected two blouses priced at $5 each. Fair trade right since the value matched up? She dropped the trade request after that. Erm…ok. I’ll just give her the benefit of the doubt; maybe she really changed her mind. Not so with this other person. The conversation went cold after I enquired about her items.
- The Negotiators
If the traders weren’t bad enough, the negotiators are worse. Another cheapskate in disguise. They ask if the price is negotiable for an item. When I ask in return what price are they offering, they stop responding. What were you expecting? That I would suddenly drop the price of an item to like really low? If you’re looking for a cheap sale, please try the pasar malam. This one person really took the cake. Was “interested” in more than one item of mine, but totally went dead on me after my response.
- Miss I’m-in-a-hurry
This one irritated me quite a bit. She wanted something of mine, I suppose for a dinner that night. Unfortunately, she caught me while I was in transit in an airport. I only got to see her response after I landed at my destination. No response from her after that.
Seriously, what is wrong with these people? Can’t they have the decency to reply even if they are not interested to deal anymore?