Who provides their phone number on craigslist?

In reply to stuart in mn :

As of late 2015, nearly 90% of Americans had "Unlimited Texting" as part of their phone plan. That number is probably higher now, and doesn't include the people that have limitations on the number of texts. I can understand preferring to talk vs text, but not texting at all puts you in a pretty small minority and limits your options to communicate with a buyer or seller.

dculberson said:

californiamilleghia said:

Seems most people want to text ,  I hate it but its the "new" world

I don't mean this as an insult at all and am genuinely curious - but why hate texting? You're on here, communicating via text. Email is via text. What's wrong with text messages? Lots of people bag on them, mostly older folk, but have no problem communicating via the written word elsewhere. I don't know why texting in particular has some sort of taint to it.

There are two things I hate about texting

1)  Using the keyboard on a phone.  I can type ~100wpm on my desk.  I can type like 20wpm on a phone, and 5 of those will be auto corrected into something I did not intend to say.  Thankfully I have Project Fi, so on my computer I can 'text' from Gmail/Hangouts.  But of course that only works if I am sitting at my computer.

2)  Those keyboard limitations apply to others as well.  They may type faster, but ultimately their communication is far more limited than other forms of communication.  In general text exchanges have less detail and less articulation.

Many intelligent people I deal with are aware of this, so they will move to email or phone calls to exchange information as needed.  Some people cling to texting, which can be infuriating.

I hated testing too, back when that meant that you had to hit the 7 key three times to type a lowercase R.

The speech recognition works really well now for texting. Probably faster then you can type. 

I’m fine with texting when it comes to questions about the mileage, maintenance, condition, etc., but before I meet with a seller or buyer, I really like to have a 5-10 minute phone conversation.

It’s SO easy for things to get lost in translation in text/email. The seller I contacted about the disco came off like a total dick in emails, but I’m sure he or she is likely just an average joe/jane on the phone. Unfortunately, I’ll never know for sure one way or the other. I’m not gonna drive an hour and a half to buy a car only to get there and realize I’ve got a berkeleying “Sorry. Can’t make it today” email/text.

My $.02 YMMV

In reply to ProDarwin :

Sure a real keyboard is great for typing faster, but the average Craigslist deal could be completed with about 25 words exchanged before meeting up, so I don't think the slowness of typing on the phone is a big barrier to effective communication.

dculberson said:

In reply to ProDarwin :

Sure a real keyboard is great for typing faster, but the average Craigslist deal could be completed with about 25 words exchanged before meeting up, so I don't think the slowness of typing on the phone is a big barrier to effective communication.

Indeed.  Its more than adequate for many sales.

When it comes to cars though, I usually have a lot more questions.  Even if I take the time to ask them, a seller who only texts will usually not give me a remotely thorough response.  And I recognize this is why its important to see a car in person, but often I am asking the question to make sure its worth my time to go take a look at the car.

Texting isn't the root cause of these communication issues, but it does contribute.

dculberson said:

californiamilleghia said:

Seems most people want to text ,  I hate it but its the "new" world

I don't mean this as an insult at all and am genuinely curious - but why hate texting? ........

I hate it because its normally a few words back and forth 5-10 times which could be figured out in a 2 minute call......

and yes I am old !   :)

In my experience, it's the ease of texting that makes it poorly suited to sales. If someone makes the "effort" to actually call, they're a more serious prospect. Also, I've never had a scammer call me but they love to text and email.

If you have a gmail account in less than 5 minutes you can have a google voice number amd if you have an android phone (probably iphone too)  you can use the google voice app just like another phone.  I always put a google voice number into my ads.

STM317 said:

In reply to stuart in mn :

As of late 2015, nearly 90% of Americans had "Unlimited Texting" as part of their phone plan. That number is probably higher now, and doesn't include the people that have limitations on the number of texts. I can understand preferring to talk vs text, but not texting at all puts you in a pretty small minority and limits your options to communicate with a buyer or seller.

Shortly after I first got a cellphone, my monthly bill had charges on it for a bunch of text messages that were sent to Somalia.  How that happened I don't know, but since I had (and still have) a simple flip phone that would be terrible for texting anyway I called my carrier and told them to turn off the ability to text on my number.  Maybe I'll have it someday if and when I upgrade to a smart phone, but for now I don't feel limited by not having it.

Included in the body of every CL ad I post (10/year? More?)

"If you're interested or have any questions, please email me via CL reply with contact information and I will call or text quickly"

Seems to cut down on a lot of the typical CL goofiness for me. Most stuff I post is priced to sell,  and go relatively quick.

In reply to CaseyK :

That's what you get a throwaway Google Voice number for.

CaseyK said:

Ahah, I would never indicate my number, because I can’t be sure that my data will not be transferred to third parties.

What if you were selling your canoe?

I always provide my number in Craigslist adds. Call/text/email I don't care my phone rarely stops buzzing ringing anyway. I'd prefer to get whatever it is sold as fast as possible. 
 

I already get tons of people calling me because of "student loans", electric choice, visa or MasterCard offers. 

I put it in. Only got one text from the guy who's out of town but will send a mover after I give him my PIN.

Ahah, I would never indicate my number, because I can’t be sure that my canoe will not be transferred to third parties. I recently registered on one of the forums and after some time I began to receive various strange messages from an unknown number.

I never put my number in ads. Ill give it down the road if the buyer seems legit in the transaction.

In reply to gabrispeed :

Oh look, the spammy git is back with a fresh name.

In reply to dxman92 :

Problem is that this rules out a bunch of legit buyers - guess what all the CL scammers don't provide, for starters?

I usually use a GV number that I don't use for anything important and tell people to text me, then call them back. Doesn't work quite as well as taking calls, but I can't always do the latter.

Yeah, I put my number. I also deal with flakes. Keep your expectations low, it helps.

I get so damned many spam phone calls that if I dont have your number saved it just goes to voicemail.  Because of that I have just started to put the number on ads.

BoxheadTim said:

In reply to dxman92 :

Problem is that this rules out a bunch of legit buyers - guess what all the CL scammers don't provide, for starters?

I usually use a GV number that I don't use for anything important and tell people to text me, then call them back. Doesn't work quite as well as taking calls, but I can't always do the latter.

It is a LG K20V. It is pretty good with finding updates..