This last week I wanted to look for a couple people to help with some video work I’m doing. There was a possibility of not getting paid for the video, so I needed to find others that would help for trade of service. I decided to post on Craigslist.
I will preface this by saying I have never had a real positive experience on posting to Craigslist. Their “Rules” make it almost impossible for you to post something that won’t get denied. Unless you are running a garage sale, giving away a TV or looking for a lead singer to their band, the service is just horrible.
What is worse is their customer support. Opening it up to anyone that wants to type on a computer, you might not get support, but yet get belittled by some idiot that doesn’t even represent Craigslist.
So I went to post in the “gigs-crew” area. Now when I post to Craigslist, I like to be very open. You know who I am and what I am doing. I log in, I don’t use anonymous email and put my name in the post. I put the information in the post with all detail.
The next morning, I got email saying the post was rejected.
I went up to the forum to find out why. They said it was not a “Gig” but a Job (because it was recurring). While I can dispute this reason (Dictionary defines “Gig” as “A Job”), I was more upset at the fact they were saying “No Pay posts will get denied”.
What? You have an option on your website that offers no pay but yet if someone uses it, you slap their hands? I even offered a trade of service if they choose so, and they said that wasn’t acceptable.
Trolls on Craigslist Help Forums
What gets even more frustrating is I went up to the forums to find out why my post got rejected. I ended up getting harassed by those people that are not Craigslist help agents. Not only that, but one person had the gall to say this:
Why don’t you pay people and stop being a little worm.
EXCUSE ME!?! When does belittling someone who is trying to get understanding an ok support practice? Why is this person even replying?
It was safe to say that I was really p*ssed off.
Time for Customer Support Changes Craigslist
I am not going to vent on the fact you have a “No Pay” option on the site that is misleading – only to say that if you are going to reject posts for an option you provide, that is misleading. This is about the customer support experience. I think it’s time to get away from a forum support. Having trolls in your support area not conductive to getting good support.
I saw a post underneath mine that not only went into a flame war, it also was a series of titles that had words like S*** and “F*** You” in them.
When is this good customer support? In this day and age, using vernacular like this in any support area is really not accepted. There was no one saying “I understand and apologize”. They were just throwing words back.
I come for understanding, not to be told I’m a little worm from someone who has no idea who I am or what I do. Yes, it’s a free service, but there should still be a level of professionalism involved. I would never call you a name if you emailed me for support, why do I have to hear it from you?
Maybe someone can approach a company like Get Satisfaction. Get some seed funding to have a more accountable support area. They just a boost in their latest round of funding.
With continued negative experiences, I’ll continue to stay away from Craigslist. Especially since I was up on the site today and someone posted almost the same thing (anonymously) two days ago, saying there is no pay involved and have not been rejected.
Hypocrites.
CL is a yardsale/garage sale, temp housing/apartment shopping, and maybe looking for some part time gigs. But it’s horrible when you are a startup or have side projects where you need help.
I had a company a few years back that essentially was me working on side projects when I got them. A couple of times I needed some help, but I wasn’t getting paid much,so I couldn’t offer much. But I needed people who could actually do what I asked as I’ve been burned by useless people in the past.
I even paid the 25 bucks or whatever to list it as a job. I said it didn’t pay much, and it wasn’t full time or even part time. More like a one time project that might last 3 months.
I set it to San Diego only…Low and behold half the damn responses were from other countries or cities. And then I get responses from people saying “Pay somebody” etc etc etc. One guy even sent an image of the middle finger.
I find CL to be rather useless most of the time. It’s filled with people who think they are better than they actually are and filled with tons and tons of spam and spammers. Plus CL is really a terrible place to search for things as many times the search portion doesn’t even work. I wish there were alternatives, but like most things, it’s a huge classified site where everybody seems to post.
Thanks. That might have been a Spellchunk thing. Fixed the word.
I agree with most of what you said about CraigsList. Constantly rejecting ads for no apparent reason, often telling me an ad I never posted before is “too similar to another posting” by me. I post there about twice a year, so what is it too similar to?
By the way “Hippocrates” was an ancient Greek physician. I think you meant “Hypocrites”. People who say one thing and do the opposite.
Could not agree more! Craigslist has NO customer service and if you seek help, you invite degrading and belittling commentary in the name of “help”. In fact another hidden secret of CL is their “staff flush” policy. In the Los Angeles, Orange County and Inland Empire areas professionals have been unable to post their services (CPA’s, bookkeepers) for the past 3 months due to ANY post getting removed. Some days that category (Financial Services)is simply empty. I for one would dearly like to see an alternate to Craigslist and their abominable customer service.