I have ignored Facebook successfully for about 10-15 years and been as happy as a clam. I, like many of you folk I’m sure, routinely (daily) make the rounds on most all of the online classifieds, auctions, industrial WW listings, CL, etc for used machines just to keep up with what’s coming and going, asking price trends and, of course for more specific items that are on “the list.”
Sometime within the last year I was alerted to something for sale (industrial drill press) on FB Marketplace that I was interested in and ended up buying for a great price. It’s been mostly all downhill from there. I have actually found one other fantastic deal in the interim on a scissor lift table, but it’s typically the worst of the worst in terms of actual content for sale.
The way it’s laid out and presented is such a visual mess. There are ads that are mixed in with other (real) listings that are completely off topic, annoying, and often times offensive to some.
The worst of it is the keyword search doesn’t actually seems to be a keyword search and always offers all these other “suggestions” sprinkled in that only detract further from the experience. The “local” radius filter is seemingly useless and doesn’t actually filter out stuff that is farther away and has a very low upper range (100 mi.) I’m the type that likes to set parameters and filters on searches for particular things so as to maximize my time and minimize time wasting. This seems impossible on FB.
I would be delighted to learn that I am, like so many other elements of the Facebook interface, confused about how to effectively use it. I am computer savvy, in my 30s and have been actively searching and buying machinery from all corners of the internet for several years and never experienced such repeated frustration and disgust from a classifieds section. Please tell me I’m doing it wrong.
I wish I could go back to ignoring it altogether but CL has all but died and it seems like there are more diamonds in the rough to be had on FB marketplace than any other general online classifieds.
Your thoughts?
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