Here’s How Facebook Marketplace Could Suck Less

Facebook Marketplace is basically what’s keeping me on Facebook. It’s a good tool for connecting with people who want and have the unique car parts I like to trade. In some ways, it’s kind of the ultimate combo of car forums and Craigslist. But man, a few aspects of the platform that cause aggravation could be easily avoided. Hear me out: I can prescribe some simple steps to make FB Marketplace better for everybody.

Here are three adjustments the lever-pullers at Facebook could immediately make to improve the Marketplace experience.

Kill the ‘Is This Available?’ Auto-Ask Button

When you’re trawling through Marketplace listings, the platform gives you a “Send seller a message” prompt right at the top of a post, which is good. But the question field is automatically populated with “Hi, is this available?” This is a waste of everyone’s time. As a seller, I have never once ultimately sold something to somebody who started the convo with this templated question. As a shopper, I have accidentally hit the “send” button to people more than twice on items I had no interest in buying (sorry guys).

If you are interested in buying something, ask literally anything else. If the item’s not available, the seller will tell you that. If it is, you’ll get more valuable information. Everybody wins. Making this a default, semi-forced ice-breaker is dumb. I know I’m not the only one who has issues with this, because more and more ads I see are qualified with something like “I don’t respond to ‘is this available’ messages!”

Automate ‘Where Are You Located?’ and Response Instead

As a seller, one of the fields you populate in a listing is your location. I don’t put my exact address, but the zip code’s always in there. And yet, fairly often, buyers ask me where I’m at. Facebook has this information—if somebody asks this in the message field and FB is so keen to automate conversation, why not just immediately spit back whatever I’ve put in the location field in my listing?

On things I don’t want to ship, I started putting my zip code in the text body of the listing. That seems to have helped in the meantime.

Make Your Shipping Address Selectable at Checkout

Facebook is doing a good job facilitating long-distance transactions. If a seller offers shipping, I can click “buy now,” and shipping is added to the bill on my end while the seller gets a shipping label printed automatically. But hitting “buy” instantly locks you into getting the item sent to the default address in your Marketplace profile, which is separate from your regular FB profile. That default is easy to alter, but you have to know where to look for it.

For example, I just ordered an old Civic radio from some guy in Maryland. I hit “buy” before realizing the address I have as the default is not where I wanted it sent. And I couldn’t alter it, even before the item shipped, without canceling the transaction and starting over. In that scenario, you’re at the seller’s mercy that they’ll be understanding and let you unwind the deal. (Luckily, this guy was nice.) Every other online purchasing platform I’ve used allows you to confirm a shipping address before finalizing the transaction—that would be helpful here, especially for people like me who have multiple locations stored in their profile.

And for Users: A Little More Politeness Goes a Long Way

I’ve only done about a dozen deals through FB Marketplace this summer, so my sample size is admittedly small. But I’ve already interacted with quite a large range of personalities. About half the folks I’ve met have been really nice—communicative online and friendly in person. That’s gold-star status for interacting with randos buying car parts online.

The second-biggest group is ghosters, which is more mildly annoying than outright offensive. I think it’s well within your rights as a buyer to ask some questions and then disappear if you decide not to buy. However, if you agree on a price and a meet-up time, please, just let the seller know if you’re going to bail. I’ve made myself available a couple of times in the last few months so that somebody could come by like they said they would, only to have them leave me on “Seen” in the message thread. This is an easy thing to avoid!

Rarely, but upsettingly, there are a few people who are bizarrely hostile in Marketplace DMs. I had a heavy item listed as local pick-up only, because I didn’t want to ship it, only to have some dude call me “shitty” and wish me bad karma for selling it locally instead of shipping it to him halfway across the country. Whatever, man.

I’ve been trading cars, parts, and automotive trinkets online for many years, between eBay, Craigslist, Cars & Bids one time (never again), and Facebook Marketplace. I still prefer eBay as a buyer, but FB is generally pretty solid. It’s particularly good for people like me who only sell somewhat rarely, because the barrier to entry is basically non-existent. I just wish Zuckerberg’s lackeys would take a smidge more effort to encourage more constructive interactions. Heck, I’d be happy just to see the demise of the “is this available” button.

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