Bech Quikr ... without irritation

Selling your used stuff has been around for ages and selling it online has also been around for some time. It is not that I haven't sold my used stuff online before, but I was always wary of it.

Putting your phone number online and then getting harassed by a barrage of phone calls during your work day and office hours is not exactly a good idea. It's irritating. So I kind of kept away from selling stuff except a few chance occasions. Also, I was never comfortable putting my phone number out in the open on website which anyone can access … I am sure tele-marketeers do regular rounds of these websites to scourge for email ids and mobile numbers.

My 2-3 initial experiences about selling online were good initially when the calls started coming in but soon irritation crept in simply bcos of those callers who would not read the ad completely, ask for info that is already stated and even negotiate when clearly I had clearly stated a non-negotiable price and mentioned it clearly. That's when it started getting on my nerves. And of course, let me not even get started on the crank caller and fake callers who are just looking at getting some cheap thrills at your expense calling you from the still existing PCO phones across the length and breadth of the city.

That was still small things valued at couple of thousand bucks … old mobile phone, digital camera etc. When it came to selling the car, I was simply not prepared to face the hundreds of phone calls with their hundreds of questions (both technical and stupid/unnecessary).

We ended up telling our regular mechanic about our desire to sell it. He came back after a few days with a 'potential' buyer and also told us the best price for our car depending on his own assessment of the 'value' and its current mechanical state. The buyer kind of liked the deal and took it. I personally felt that we were being short-changed but could not think of a way out. Did not want to go through the classifieds route nor the online route where I would be at the receiving end of phone calls. We agreed. Sold the car and got a new one!! (But I could never shake off that feeling that we were indeed short changed on price)

Well … time has passed and the its time to sell the 'new car' which is now a couple of years old and buy something which can now seat my expanded family (a daughter has been added and my Bro getting married). So the old one has to make way for the new bigger car

This time though, I am in no mood to go the 'mechanic way' and decided to look online if there was an alternative. And Quikr (I wrote about them a couple of months ago too) have kind of answered my problem. Now I don't need to provide my mobile number while selling the car. Heck I don't have to even reveal my identity (if I choose to).

I can sell through their mobile app 'Quikr Nxt' and interact with potential buyers through their app itself … without sharing my own contact details. I can chat with the potential buyers, share pictures of the car (or for that matter any product I am selling) and finalize the deal … calling (or sharing number) only when necessary. This makes life easy and takes the irritation out of selling used things.

Technology is making life easier, but frankly, this one was not even about technology, this was simple plain applied common sense and understanding your business and its intricacies and customer behavior and pain-points. Quikr takes the cake here.