The price of being uninformed
 

I put my bluetooth GPS for sale on Craigslist since we have the leaked ROM now and I don't need it anymore. I met up with the guy and he tried to haggle me down to $30 instead of the $40 I was asking for. I told him $40 was a fair price for it and he said OK. Then he asked me to set it up for him so he could test it with Google Maps before he bought it.

So he pulls his phone out of his pocket and what does he have? A Sprint Mogul! I was doing the best I could not to laugh. I set it all up for him, he left with the unit and I left with the money. Just goes to show that staying informed can save you some money!

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

SCORE........
Wonder how hes going to feel when sprint announces that the mogul is GPS and they just released a update to fix it? I bet you see your GPS back on CL in a few weeks.

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

Gotta love CL sometimes... i got my wife a brand new apache off a guy from CL for $100 cause his job had given him a blackberry. The 6700 was fresh out of the box fresh out of the box, never been used (well he made like 5 calls but still) ect. a month later i took it to the sprint store cause she dropped it and cracked the screen... they gave me a brand new mogul. And I owe it all to Craigslist! lol

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

Well maybe its just who I am, not to sound all high and mighty. But rather than take advantage of ignorance why not enlighten it. Yeah it would of cost you 40 bucks at the time, but chances are you would of still sold it eventually, but rather than take advantage of a fellow moguler who might not be privy to the same information you are, Why not explain to him how to better his ppc be directing him to this site. Not judging, just saying that there are many ways to look at an opportunity, and this is just my take.

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

amen Joe.... this is what being a member here is all about

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

business is business these days

He may have needed the money

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Tis quite the conundrum! (sp)

Just email him the ppcgeeks link now...that will make it ok! ;)

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Would you accept that answer from your cell phone carrier, or any other company you do business with?

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You never know. He might have preferred to have an external GPS unit. If it was SirfIII, it would have been much better than the Mogul's internal GPS. Plus he can use it with a laptop or other devices. I have a USB GPS for the CarPC I am building and it gets a signal in seconds and locks on strong even inside my house.

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

Exactly. It is a better unit that what the Mogul has internally.

As far as "taking advantage", I provided the promised product for the promised price. I don't see how that's taking advantage of him.

He has a Blackberry too. Maybe he is also going to use it with that. Or maybe he has a laptop he wants to use it with.

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

Id like to think that there are still people out there who genuinely want to help other people, call me an Optimist. Just think how you felt when you knew Sprint was holding out GPS from you and when you went and bought one, it soon became available, kinda like you were misinformed wouldnt you say. So now knowing what thats like, you went ahead and sold your bluetooth GPS to someone who basically already had it, but unlike in your situation was available. But if you needed 40 bucks that badly, then to each his own.

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

apparently when you said you were trying your best not to laugh you werent following this train of thought.

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

he would be laughing, because the reason hes selling it is because he has a mogul and dosnt need it.

the other guy may have a different idea of how he wants to use it.



/\
thats mostly bs
but give him a break :P

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

Buyer beware.

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

Oh come on not everyone is as naive as you would like to think they are, the guy asked how to hook it up on his mogul, he didnt pull out his blackberry, or his laptop, or anything else, he took out the mogul, and made no mention of anything else, so common sense would say he was purchasing for its mogul, but Im sure you disagree, because we should all believe he must of meant it for other use, so we can all laugh at the fact he bought a external GPS and wanted to try it out on a phone that already had GPS, rather than the GPS-less device he was buying it for, that makes it ok.

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

Imagine these two scenarios:

1. Sweet old lady is walking through Best Buy, when an employee approaches her and asks if she wants a new computer, then sells her on the most expensive machine the store carries.

2. Best Buy employee is restocking when a sweet old lady comes in and says she wants the $2,000 laptop that the sales paper advertised. He knows she could easily do what she needs with a much cheaper machine, but she is the one that initiated it.

In the first case, the employee is obviously taking advantage of the poor old woman. In the second case, it really depends on your individual moral code. So, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree :)

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

Yeah How noble of you to hold in your laughter through your transaction, couldnt of you mentioned that the mogul was GPS enabled, and using Best Buy employees doesnt help your case much.

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

Rationalize it how you want now, but the tone and wording of your first post in this thread make it very clear that at the time you felt triumphant that you had put one over on him. Forgive us if we do not celebrate with you.

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

Firstly, it's called embellishment. I was not literally holding in laughter. I made a small, barely noticeable even to myself chuckle when he pulled out his Mogul. I was not laughing at his ignorance or in "celebration".

I'm sure you've all had an experience where you saw someone making a decision that was perfectly rational given the facts they had available to them, but you had additional facts/wisdom/experience that they lacked, and it sort of made you chuckle a little. That's what I was "laughing" about.

I did not at the time, nor do I now think I "put one over on him."

The whole point of my post was to point out how staying informed of the things in our lives--things that may seem "nerdy" or "worthless"--can save us money. I'm not just talking electronics but all manner of things. My original post was two paragraphs, yet some of you have decided to focus on one short sentence that was exaggerated in the first place.

If you want to think of me as the guy that goes prowling around at night, stealing from one house and selling it to the next house, or as the guy that sells water as a miracle tonic, then that's your prerogative.

I have to wonder why someone who calls themselves an optimist would dismiss multiple acceptable takes on a situation and hold to the one unacceptable take.

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

An external GPS adapter would likely work better than the phone's GPS anyway. Nevermind that you can use it with other devices.

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

We are laughing at the irony of the situation. Not the fact that he put one over on the guy. He didn't even do it on purpose, and would have NEVER known until that guy pulled out his phone.

I do a lot of craigslist to ebay business and vice versa. I thought long and hard about this. My first reaction is that I wouldn't have said anything either. I probably would have felt a bit guilty, as I generally do EVERY TIME I get a steal, but for simplicity's sake I suspect I would have left it at that.

Why? Well, if I tell the person about the gps, then they are going to want to know how to make it work. Then, if they aren't technically inclined, you've just opened a whole different can of worms. Better to just leave it alone. Plus he can always resell the device, probably for the same price.

My second inclination would be to "maybe" tell him, but be prepared to stay steadfast if he has no clue. I literally can't afford the time to walk someone through tech support. Then you feel guilty for not having the time to guide this nub. Yet again, it's probably just easier to leave well enough alone.



A reverse example of this is when I buy things. I often find laptops with screwed up mobos but perfect screens for 50-100 bucks in the classifieds. Screens that will fetch a couple hundred on ebay mind you. Do I have some sort of ethical responsibility to tell these people what I'm going to do with their broken laptop? Or to tell them that they "could" sell it on ebay for much more? The answer is no. I'm running a business. I'm not going around trying to turn people into technical enthusiast. Most people just plain don't care because they don't want to deal with all that "ebay mumbo jumbo". Or they have enough money that it doesn't matter. The few people who are interested just turn into a big project of trying to teach them. And usually they are smart enough to figure this stuff out eventually anyway.

Funny contra story: One time I went to pick a laptop, it was at a warehouse full of computers! I was pretty confused, and felt kinda guilty. Then the seller told me, "Yeah I figure'd you could throw it on ebay for a couple hundred. I only deal in bulk wholesale to refurbishers." So I came clean with him and we discussed future business. :)

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

Something I just thought of.... EBAY!

When most of you people get a steal off ebay, 'cause something was miscategorized, or spelled wrong, or the seller didn't include all the features in the listing you go an brag to your family and friends about how awesome a deal you got! Why didn't you email the seller and tell him? Ok, I'm sure there are a few cases so don't even bother posting them, I believe you. The point is that most arguments in favor of "moral obligation" to enlighten the buyer won't fly... for this particular situation. :)

Peace! I'm not trying to fuel the fire! lol. :D

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

Why do we feel the need to assume everyone is a victim? What's next? Should the buyer file suit against him? How about for a couple 100K for all the emotional trauma.
This sounds like a legitimate transaction by every definition. Fact is consumers have a responsibility to be informed. Furthermore you guys are assuming he wasn't informed. Who even knows.
So I say congrats on making your sale. And I say congrats to the buyer for getting what he wanted at a fair price. Our free market is absolutely beautiful.

Dustin

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

I dont get why anyone bothers with external recievers when for about another 20% in price you get a full working unit that takes the phone out of the picture.

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

yeah maybe you should have told the seller after you had his money that maybe if he's lucky sprint will release an update with gps but you're going to charge him $20 and take the gps back for spending an hour of your day and gas etc to meet with the guy. and then tell him to buy some maps with his other $20 until then so he doesn't get lost!

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

eh your actions were morally suspect but 1000% legal. what's the point in justifying it with analogies? :mrgreen:

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

oops dbl post

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

There was nothing wrong with the transaction itself the way it was described. There was a willing buyer and a motivated seller and no fraud was involved...the definition of a valid market-price transaction. The seller had no legal duty or moral obligation to inform the buyer that, in the seller's opinion, the buyer may not need the product.

My objection is to the OP coming here to gloat about obviously feeling that he had put one over on the buyer and asking us to join him in laughing at the buyer.

And the OP can continue to deny that this was his intent when he originally posted, but those denials are not credible.

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

Maybe this person can't put a leaked ROM on their phone because it's a company phone? Maybe they need GPS now for whatever reason and can't wait until Sprint finally releases an update. Let's face it, we're phone nerds...we probably represent .001 percent of the population that has the Mogul....

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Why must this light hearted conversation get beat like a dead dog? Ive made money off people and let other people charge me more cause I knew they needed it. Who cares? Its all about karma. It all works out in the wash....All this speculation I want in too.
Maybe the guy is a millionaire and likes getting a slightly shady deal on craigslist? Don't y'all feel bad now for thinking hes a noob? HAHA

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

so... what are we talking about in here?

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wow, I don't know whats worse here... the fact that there are 4 frickin pages of rambling for this nonsense or the fact that I actually read the 4 frickin pages.

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

Or the fact that your contributing to the rambling your complaining about.

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business is business, if you can make money off someone then do so.

it's no worse to take advantage of the mis informed than it is for dr. phill to exploit people for his own gain.

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Was his mogul customized? what did his today screen look like?

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You must have no complaints about your cell phone carrier's services provided and pricing structure then, since business is business and all they are doing is making money off of you. And this also would apply to any other company you do business with...cable company, oil company, etc. And I suppose it is OK for your auto repair shop to bill you several thousand dollars for replacing your left-handed geetus, since all they are doing is taking advantage of the misinformed...

The point is that there are limits to what is acceptable, and legal, to do in the attempt to "make money off someone" and "take advantage of the mis informed". As I stated before, my opinion is that the OP did not overstep those limits in his transaction, if it went as he recounted it. However, I believe that his post wanting us to laugh at, in his obvious view at the time, his ability to take advantage of the buyer has no place in a forum dedicated to helping people such as this buyer.

I would not feel bad if the buyer were a member of this forum and read my posts...can all of you say the same?

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Since when is it our job as an internet community to try and teach the OP to have a moral code like we think they should have? If you don't agree with the OP's handling of the situation... then take your aggrivation and right the wrong by helping someone else out. Who knows. Maybe the person you decided to help really needed it where the guy the OP dealt with did not. Maybe the person the OP dealt with was a shady guy and this deal was just karma catching up with him.

WHO KNOWS.

The deal is done. And the guy that should have known more about his phone is probably happy with his purchase. The OP didn't force him to fork over the money.

Bottom line is this: People are different and it is ok if they handle something differently than you. Badgering him on this forum is not going to change what happened, and it may not change how he handles a similar situation next time since after awhile you just quit listening.

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

Yeah, the seller gave the guy what he wanted... I don't see any issues with that.

And if he did try to enlighten him, he would have been stuck giving free technical support for the rest of his life. :)

Re: The price of being uninformed
 

/\ I agree. I've bought tons of stuff that I have regretted/shouldn't have purchased. It's part of life. We all have. Sorry but I'm not sleeping less tonight because someone bought something he didn't need at a fair price!

Besides, this is a PPC forum, not a moral values forum. This conversation will never end if we don't let it. Like politics, you can't convince someone to change their beliefs. This thread will be closed, nothing will be accomplished IMO.