Tag: craigslist

Another Craigslist Experience

Several months ago, I answered an ad on craigslist for an apartment rental, and after asking the woman several questions, I guess she thought it was important to let me know I was being a little defensive.

I’m answering a craigslist ad c’mon! What do you expect? Anyway, the perfect example for why I was little defensive occurred today.

Three days ago I answered an ad for an apartment share through email. Email graduated to text, and I’ve been speaking with this girl named Julie for the last several days.

During our conversation we set up a day and time for me to see the place, which was today at 12 noon.

When I was five minutes away from her apartment I called her phone. A girl picked up and said hello.

Me: Hi, Julie?

Her: No

Me: Is Julie there?

Her: No. Who are you looking for?

Me: Julie

Her: Julie?

Me: Yes, Julie.

Her: Well there’s no Julie here.

Me: Who have I been texting for the last three days?

Her: I don’t like your attitude I’m going to hang up.

Me: What?

Click..

You wouldn’t believe the people I’ve met through craigslist during the last three months, but I’m getting a little tired of having my time wasted. I just drove a 30 minutes to see this person’s place, and it ended up being BS.

The fact is when you answer these ads, you never know who you’re talking to. From now on I think I’m going to request whoever it is meet me for coffee first so we can get acquainted before I go to a strangers house. It’s really not safe any other way.

Do You Remember Craigslist?

There was a time when Craigslist had the reputation for being one of the more reliable and heavily depended on websites for all your needs. It kind of took the place of the want-ads section in your Sunday newspaper.

Recently, I’ve been going back to Craigslist for things like room and apartment rentals and jobs, but it’s not the site I remember fifteen years ago. What happened?

On several occasions, people did follow up and respond to me, but their responses were as follows, “That room you were asking about, where’d you see it? That room was rented weeks ago, I didn’t even know it was still showing”

The same thing happened with apartments, and forget about dating. Dating and meeting new people was one of the best features Craigslist had to offer, but they did away with it completely. The only thing that’s really left is Missed Connections, but there’s no guarantee the person you’re trying to reach will even see what you’re writing-it’s basically a shot in the dark.

I’m not going to write an entire article about the deterioration of Craigslist over the years, I think you understand what I’m saying, and if you use the site yourself, then I’m sure you have your opinions, but instead, I’d like to ask Craigslist to come back.

Craigslist, so many people used your site and they loved it. I don’t know what caused the changes over the years, but if you could get yourself back to old form that would be great!