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[Closed] offering a buyer a cup of tea

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if you sold a bulky item on ebay with a buy it now price of approx £750 and you knew the buyer was driving 3.5 - 4 hours to collect the item would you offer the buyer a cup of tea when he arrived?


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 8:58 am
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Yes, I take it you did not get an offer!


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 8:59 am
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.... and a sandwich too. Of course.


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 9:00 am
 br
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can't you think for yourself?


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 9:01 am
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Oh yeah!

I sold an Inbred frame last year on the classifides. Bloke cycled from London to Farnborough, Hants, on a singlespeed to pick it up.... 50-ish miles! He looked famished when he arrived, so we fed him 2 rounds of sarnies and tea before we'd let him leave, with the frame in a bike rucksack!


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 9:04 am
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Depends on if I fancied them.


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 9:04 am
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br - eh?

the miserable sod in the north yorkshire moors (ex-southerner) spent 5 mins helping me load up and i was back on my way again.

i've always offered to put the kettle on if someone has come to buy things off me.

one seller had even got some sandwiches ready when i bought a land rover in luton. top bloke!


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 9:07 am
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can't you think for yourself?

I am assuming the OP was potential offeree rather than the offerer.


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 9:09 am
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Nah I hate people me, just take the bulky item and naff off...


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 9:34 am
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In that situation then yes, I think it only right to offer a drink.
Some people don't have social skills though.

Or they could have just been really busy and needed to get off somewhere.


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 9:40 am
 ton
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we offer anyone who comes in our shop a brew........no matter what they spend


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 9:42 am
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Don't think I'd be that fussed - he did the important thing didn't he, i.e.

spent 5 mins helping me load up


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 9:42 am
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My father once sold a car to a couple from Germany. He drove them from and to the airport (a round trrip of 100+ miles) and made sure they were properly fed and watered.

He had to do this twice, as the first time there was a money transfer issue, so they had to come back the following week.

But, then, he wasn't in Yorkshire.


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 9:45 am
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Took my three girls to have their hair cut the other day.
I was sat there for about 45 mins in total while it was being done and they never offered me a cuppa even though they were falling over themselves offering brews to people who had popped in for any kind of a cut - and it cost me £36.00 😐

Wife can take them next time.

Oh, and while I'm at it: they do a loyalty card thing which gets stamped each time you have a cut and blow dry costing £27.00. As I had spent more than this I asked if I could get a stamp.......... no I couldn't because I hadn't paid for a cut and blow dry!! 😯

****ers


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 10:06 am
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From experience though, folk tend to want to get off if they'e a long drive. I sold a sofa once on Ebay, chap drove up from kent to the Midlands to collect. Offered tea but he was keen to get away.
If I met me I'd probably do the same.


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 11:27 am
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Always good to meet somebody interestd in the same things as you. I'll pop the kettle on and get the good coffee out. 😀


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 11:32 am
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some people dont drink tea.... they tend not to consider offering tea to people... same with people who hardly drink anything... when you're not thirsty i guess you're less likely to consider if other people are


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 11:33 am
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If you expect certain things from people, you may be disappointed. If you don't expect anything, then you may be pleasantly surprised.

Best not to expect anything then. 🙂

Bloke cycled from London to Farnborough, Hants, on a singlespeed to pick it up.... 50-ish miles!

Had he not heard of trains?


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 11:34 am
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i don't drink tea, and when i had some work done, left all tea making stuff available, yet he still had a dig that i didn't offer to make him a brew when i got back from work. cheeky f*ck. seems to me that some people don't just drink tea to quench thirst, cos if they do it's obviously not working.


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 11:37 am
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Had he not heard of trains?

He was just a bit mad. Nice-mad, but mad all the same 🙂


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 11:42 am
 DrJ
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No. If he wants a cup of tea he can go to a cafe. He is a one-time buyer, not a friend or a long-term client.


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 11:44 am
 Drac
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Take a flask you tight git. 😆


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 11:47 am
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The hospitality can be a rouse. I drove from Glasgow to Boston to collect a big piece woodworking machinery with an agreed ETA of 'around lunchtime'

When I arrived with my cash, another ebayer turned up with a camera to sell. The guy buying/selling was only allowed (by his wife) to buy things on the ebay with the proceeds of things he sold.

He wanted the guy with the camera to end his auction early, so when we both arrived lunch was laid on and my ready cash was supposed to be inducement for the guy with the camera to fold and accept an offer of... exactly the amount I'd bid for the saw.

Except he wouldn't, so over the duration of the lunch our host tried to haggle the camera down anyway he could, and also tried to sell me anything in his house that wasn't bolted down -Do you need a sofa? No. A DVD player? No. A Hedge Trimmer? no. An invalid carriage with a dead battery? No. A half tonne, 3 Phase commercial washing machine? No.

It was a long lunch.


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 11:47 am
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No. If he wants a cup of tea he can go to a cafe. He is a one-time buyer, not a friend or a long-term client.

What ever happened to doing something because it's a nice gesture rather than always doing something out of a sense of obligation? You sound like a right miserable git.


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 11:53 am
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Maybe he really wanted to offer you a tea, but suddenly remembered the huge log in the toilet that survived the triple flush just before you turned up, then thought if he offered the tea, you might want a pee afterwards and then spot the brown bismark.
Or something like that.


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 11:58 am
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Would be nice

Did you sell a combine harvester?


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 12:07 pm
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DrJ and Drac - i thought you medical types would appreciate the importance of hydration?
i ended up having a cracking bacon, sausage, egg and mushroom bap with a big mug of tea in a layby near lancaster.
Followed by an excellent p.i.t.h. (p1ss in the hedge)
happy dayz


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 12:07 pm
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i ended up having a cracking bacon, sausage, egg and mushroom bap with a big mug of tea in a layby near lancaster.

So you could say matey did you favour.


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 12:11 pm
 Drac
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DrJ and Drac - i thought you medical types would appreciate the importance of hydration?

Yeah that's why I carry my own. 😛

Add to that if a Paramedic can't source a free cuppa then they should be struck off the register.


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 12:16 pm
 DrJ
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What ever happened to doing something because it's a nice gesture rather than always doing something out of a sense of obligation? You sound like a right miserable git

Yes, I am a miserable git, but I also feel a bit awkward in buying and selling situations, so I want the thing done with as soon as possible, and sitting around with someone wondering if he's tricked me, or suspecting I tricked him, is not my ... err ... cup of tea.


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 12:59 pm
 tron
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Wouldn't expect to be offered, or to offer a cup of tea in that sort of situation. I tend to haggle quite hard on stuff, so I can't see why I'd want to sit having a cup of cha trying to make small talk 😆


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 1:00 pm
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What you've failed to mention is you bought his kettle of him and it really should have been you doing the offering.....


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 1:06 pm
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whether i needed a nice refreshing hot drink or even whether i wanted a nice refreshing hot drink were never considered, as i had already consumed 6 bottles of lovely stowford press cider on the way there (well it was a 4 hour journey). i think it would have been polite if a drink (of any sort) was offered, that all.
martinGT - the money raised was from a milk subsidy from my llamas.
chutney13 - if your tradesman had a dig that you didn't make him a drink when the facilities were offered the you have been given the legal right to call him a fuktard whilst pointing to the kettle and say "i told you to help yourself" - its the law and no-one gets offended

ps this post is predominantly 😉


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 1:09 pm
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ex-southerner - says it all.

You can take a pig out of the sty, but it doesn't stop being a pig.


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 3:08 pm
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When I was a community nurse, many house I visited were just not the type of place you'd accept a drink anyway - think sticky carpets, so god knows what the kitchen would be like!

I'd offer a buyer a drink, but he'll be lucky if we have tea bags in our house - only MFL Jr drinks "builders tea", I'm on coffee & Mrs MFL is a chai tea drinker. MFL Jr will use the last teat bag and forget to tell us when we do the tesco shop - his own problem then, innit?


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 3:14 pm
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ton - Member

we offer anyone who comes in our shop a brew........no matter what they spend


Starbuck's staff doing their job horror...... :mrgreen:


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 3:39 pm
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i ended up having a cracking bacon, sausage, egg and mushroom bap with a big mug of tea in a layby near lancaster.

Is that code for some kind of dogging?


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 3:43 pm
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Yes, I am a miserable git, but I also feel a bit awkward in buying and selling situations, so I want the thing done with as soon as possible, and sitting around with someone wondering if he's tricked me, or suspecting I tricked him, is not my ... err ... cup of tea.

Why put yourself in awkward situations? Best close the door and lock the windows, that's one big lack of faith in fellow man!!!

Always offer a cuppa if someone comes round, if they don't want to hang around, no problem, a polite no thanks and off they go.


 
Posted : 14/09/2010 3:46 pm