Have you ever hired someone off of craigslist?

I’ve had good and bad responses. I earn money from gigs on CL.

I’ve only sold things on Craigslist. I’ve found that most people looking to buy things on Craigslist are “bottom feeders”, only looking for the cheapest possible price. Don’t expect to get a good price for anything you may want to sell.

A couple of years ago, we were moving and needed to get rid of a lot of stuff. Only when we priced items in the $5 to $25 range, were people interested and even then they would show up looking to bargain. We had a very nice bedroom set (we even posted pics) that was in like-new condition, not a single scratch because we took good care of it, that no one was interested in at $100. Finally, when we made it free, it went fast.

I’ve also asked questions on the CL forums, but because they aren’t moderated, along with maybe a few useful answers, you always get a lot of insults and snide remarks no matter what you way, no matter what the topic may be. That’s why I like Fluther—it is moderated.

My daughter’s food cart / catering business hires almost exclusively from Craigslist. She tells me that she currently has “all aces” working for her and with her, but she hasn’t gotten aces with every deal!

I’ve only used it to sell a couple of things.

Yes, I hired an artist to commission a portrait of my goose “Marwyn.” haha
He did a SUPERB job..a true work of art!
I’ve bought and sold things also, no issues.
I had a moving sale last March and sold about 2k in stuff practically overnight.

It was great!

I hired someone from craigslist to clear some overgrown blackberries. He did a great job. I thought the job would take a few hours but he did it in about 30 minutes.

I imagine there are people that are horrible too. It is probably best to talk with them for a bit first.

Edit: no matter what you say. Sorry about that.

TaskRabbit is a fairly new service-based site intended to alleviate some of the randomness of hiring people from sites like CraigsList. Unfortunately, they’re only in major metro areas right now.

I expected more horror stories with all the trouble I’ve had with people trying to get work for free, changing their minds on me or cutting off contact etc. But then I guess I am being hired to do graphic design work, usually telecommuted so it’s not quite the same as hiring someone for yard work.

Thanks for answering though everybody.

I bought a car listed on CraigsList.com and put another 100K miles on it before donating it to Goodwill Industries, still in fine running condition. Can’t kick about that. Every place we’ve rented since moving to Boston I found on CraigsList. I tried rental agents the first time out, and found them to be nothing but a waste of time. Also found the guys who moved our stuff for us when we finally abandoned the high-rent North End and migrated out to the inner burbs on the North Shore. No complaints. But I’ve never hired anyone or prospected for someone to hire. I frankly hadn’t thought of looking there for programmers.

We’ve used it several times buying and selling. Insist on cash only and complete payment up front and there shouldn’t be any problems. I say shouldn’t be but you never know with some people.

I hired a guy off of Craigslist when I was in a big hurry and he was okay, a tiny job. Then I hired him to do a bigger job and he completely fucked it up. I only paid him part of what we’d negotiated, and he was a pain in the fucking ass about it, but come on; he put the flooring in upside down, okay?
Forget Craigslist for hiring people. Instead, always use people recommended by people you trust. You can control whether you get ripped off by people you hire on C’slist, but you can’t control whether they’re actually capable of doing the work until after they do it. Get references. And the references should not come through them; they should come from people you know.