Bruce B.

Kijiji used to be a site where people made respectful, informal transactions of reasonably priced household items they no longer needed to recover a bit of the cost. Now it is commercialized and overrun with businesses that have duplicate and "no longer relevant" (which is Kijiji's way of saying not available) ads that bury your listing(s) in some categories within minutes. Many of them misrepresent themselves as "owners" which is Kijiji's way of describing a non- business private seller and list services in product categories. Some are unlicensed, uninsured, uncertified, unscrupulous etc. Some are avoiding taxes while on social assistance. Many are both. Compounding this is Kijiji's persistent attempts to get you to pay for the privilege of temporarily moving your ad to the top of the pile and to get you to click on paid ads that are constantly scrolling the screen (mobile app) so that you wind up selecting one of them by accident. I find it laughable that anybody would pay for ad "upgrades" unless they drastically improved the quality of the ads and user behavior. Reposting ads puts them at the top of the 'most recent" default search sort which is what your search annoying keeps reverting to when you change anything in it. Thousands of ads are uploaded via automated processes such as scripts typically on Friday evenings which can prevent you from uploading your ad(s). Since my ads contain a bit more than the ubiquitous one picture three words ads they are not as easy to repost. Kijiji rarely if ever deletes duplicate, expired, miscategorized or bogus ads despite assurances. They will however delete your ad quickly without even contacting you and for unfounded reasons. I found this out when I posted a polar bear stuffed animal replete with make and model number, materials tag and measurements. I presume (since they never explained how it came to be) that one of their automated processes flagged and deleted my ad based on a keyword or user decided that my ad was selling an item prohibited under the non-specific Illegal or Unauthorized Wildlife Products section of their policy despite the fact that it clearly was not made of such nor is Polar Bear skin banned (it is controlled) and reported it and an employee who was unable to comprehend (ESL?) what the ad was selling. For a laugh check for Polar Bear rug and you will find many of them for sale so I am not sure how they decided that a stuffed animal was prohibited but not rugs made from real polar bear parts. It took two appeals to find someone at Kijiji that had elementary school level comprehension to listen to my request to read the ad and look at the pictures and see that it was not a prohibited item and repost it. I took the ad down anyways as there was no assurance of more of the same. As a test I posted a warning type of ad which people sometimes post to let people know about a scammer and had it taken down very quickly,. They don't want it known that they are a scammer's paradise. They no longer allow ticket resales due to their ineffectiveness and unwillingness to work with LE to act on specific scammers. This helps ticket selling companies gouge purchasers by getting paid multiple commissions and
Usurious "service fees" on the resale of the same tickets. Some ticketing agencies ban resales of many events limiting your option to even cover your costs if you can't attend. I have reported thousands of ads based on their policy and have yet to see them act. I assume that they loathe me for ensuring there is no way they can honestly have any statistics that say they are managing their content or users effectively from a customer perspective anyways. They also have numerous ads for prohibited items such as recalled products, counterfeit items, false locations, stolen items such as tools and bicycles which they don't require the serial number which would greatly lower the value of them to thieves and fences. I rarely buy as most ads lack accurate, relevant and or verifiable content and I don't have time to waste asking for information and or pictures about items that should have had it in the first place or waiting to see if I get a reply and if it is of any use. Most of the time I find the item is " not as described" with damage (typically hidden and or undisclosed), older snd more worn, lower quality, soiled, incomplete. Kijiji allows ads which lack specifics such as tire and wheel specifics that are not really optional unless you are intending to use them for something other than their intended purpose. Despite the numerous problems I do manage to sell my items as I don't really have an alternative platform that allows me to remain anonymous which I insist on for safety and sanity. I have been purging for years and have hundreds of transactions which take anywhere from 10-20 contacts per item before a suitable buyer is found and 5-30 message to get them to read the ad and show up to the meeting place. They typically start a conversation with the Kijiji provided nuisance message "Hi, is this still available?" I understand many sellers don't take down their ads and Kijiji doesn't remove them even when the seller states the item is sold and it is reported but one should assume the item is available. Illiterates and Non national language speakers really appreciate the canned messages. The new owners (eBay) have introduced statistics such as a response time and a rating system misnomered as review (stars only) These both lack protections from abuse so losers that have nothing better to do than message you when you are unavailable such as at 2AM which will lower your response time rating if you don't reply promptly. Kijiji doesn't allow you to review someone unless you mark the item as sold and indicate the buyer. Then the buyer must respond positively to Kijiji's question did they buy the item and complete the review. This assumes that the system is working which many times it's not.
This their third attempt at trying to get a useful rating system and a failure again because it allows abuse. Anybody can message you on any and every listing and you can indicate you sold the item to them and you can give each other glowing ratings which most people never look at the details. Creating additional is easy and allows separate seller and buyer accounts despite it being prohibited. I found out that Kijiji doesn't enforce the multiple account policy after having aggressive hagglers that were blocked return under a different acct. Some commercial sellers such as tire dealers use this to get around the limits on the number of free listings in certain categories to avoid paying for a business acct. Sellers are not able to limit messages to distance range so rest assured you will get the inevitable message "Where are you located" and do you ever come to...? Despite the advice you don't being in the ad. Typically this will occur after the inquirer has been asking you other superfluous questions trying to hook you. Better yet they will ask if you can deliver, ship or meet them somewhere close to them. I could go on for pages about the illiterate, ridiculous, sociopathic, dishonest, disrespectful and uncivilized people that I have dealt with that have given me an insight to the type of people I'm surrounded by but it's a bit off topic.

P.S. The image is a 17' wheel that Julie thinks is 18" because the face is about 17.5" Sadly not shown in the capture