Craigslist Customer Service

Subject: Urgent Complaint Regarding Widespread Scams on Craigslist

Dear Craigslist Support Team,

I am writing to express my deep concern and frustration regarding the rampant scams that I have encountered on your platform. As an active user who recently conducted an extensive investigation on the site, I have discovered that a significant portion of the listings, particularly in the rental section, are fraudulent and misleading. This situation has not only been nerve-racking but has also tarnished the reputation of your otherwise useful and widely-used public site.

During my search for rentals, I have contacted a total of seven individuals, and to my dismay, all of them turned out to be scams. This experience has not only wasted my valuable time and effort but has also left me feeling deceived and disappointed. It is disheartening to see such a lack of authenticity and accountability in the listings on Craigslist.

I strongly urge you to implement more effective measures to monitor and combat these scams. It is imperative that you find a better way to verify the legitimacy of rental listings, perhaps by implementing a system that requires property owners to undergo a verification process before their listings are published. This would help restore trust and reliability to the platform, ensuring a safer and more positive user experience.

Furthermore, I strongly believe that Craigslist should consider implementing a nominal fee for posting rental listings. This would not only deter scammers but also help fund the resources required to maintain a higher level of monitoring and verification. While I understand that Craigslist has historically been a free platform, the prevalence of scams necessitates a change to ensure the safety and satisfaction of your users.

I hope you take my complaint seriously and address this pressing issue promptly. As a loyal user of your platform, I would like to see Craigslist regain its reputation as a trustworthy and reliable resource. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I look forward to seeing positive changes implemented on Craigslist.

Sincerely,

T Stocker

The changes you made to your viewing grids. Are very hard to use. When swiping down, sometimes it goes back to the last place. You checked on something, then you have to start all over again.
You

Please go back to the other format or I will go somewhere else. It was working fine the way it was you will lose a lot of customers! It i!s that bad

When trying to post an ad for offer help people with moving service for a job the ad keeps getting declined in there system and in the past have done plenty of jobs on Craigslist with the exact same ad. I been moving local and long distance mover for both residential and businesses and all my customers very satisfied. Now when I try to post with the same credit card always use, the card is automatically declined. We need work to survive and this is not right. Will be filling a complaint with other organizations if this company (BBB) cannot resolve it,never if have to take it to court. People should be able to post a legitimate ad for work.

What a joke this website has become everything you post is flagged for no reason. Dont post here anymore itll just get flagged

Every one who responded to my listing is asking for the Google voice code. It says don't give it to anyone? Are they scams and wasting my time?

I placed motorcycle ad,,tried to upload images, at least 15 times, shows its working, then nothing,,over and over..tried special upload, nothing..
Can't I speak with someone, anyone...Please,Please

Your site sucks!!!!!! I can't tell you how useless your site is. Every single post I create is immediately flagged. I tried giving away books for infant care, to posts asking for help with my lawn, to posts asking for someone to meet and she me the history of a city I'm visiting. All instantly flagged. Over the past 5 years I have NEVER been able to post anything that wasn't instantly flagged. Craigslist had so much potential but now it is dead and useless and will soon be out of business and forgotten because of mindless issues like this. How can anyone expect to be successful when their customers are treated as poorly as I am??

My name is Brad I've been using your site for years and the new format that you change to is confusing and now it looks cheap I will not be searching anything biggest now it's just too confusing go back to the original concept I will use other platforms

What are you trying to do? Your setup worked before and I understand updating but wow. Your site is unusable with the forty listing jumps because you moved the list. Not to mention the constant showing of the menu taking half the screen now. Please work the bugs out so it is workable again.

Your new format is terrible. I can definitely see myself using some other site very soon if it isn't changed.

The new layout of adds on your screen is awful. All the tiny little adds put into such a small area doesn't leave any room for enough words to describe what it is that is for sale. The new setup stinks.

The new format is not only annoying, it takes too much time. Having to scroll thru the listings again to find where you were after clicking on a post is irritating. The previous format was quick and concise. I used to enjoy browsing and have bought a number of cars using your previous format. This new format doesn't make me want to spend the time to do so any longer.

Account on hold for what?? No explanation or resolution. Hello Facebook marketplace, offer up, neighborhood app, ebay. Craigslist is easily replaced

Account on hold with no explanation or resolution. Never forget that poor woman who had her baby cut out of her, due to craigslist listing. Hello Facebook marketplace and neighborhood app

Craigslist used to be a place I could list my puppies and they found good homes.
Now Craigslist is full of Karens and scams from rescues.
I can't list my puppies anymore and have no idea why.
I guess if you do things right and make people happy Craigslist hates you for it so I started listing on Puppies.com and it's much better. Forget all the problems from craigslist that has become obselete.

It's impossible to quickly find exactly what you're looking for due to Craigslist's ridiculously lax policy concerning keywords. I've seen 100s of keywords that don't fit what they're attached to on a single add. Example: search for a 3500 duramax 4x4. You get more Dodge and Ford adds than GM adds. If I wanted a Ford or Dodge, that's what I would have searched for. This is true for almost everything on Craigslist. It's a huge waste of time and encourages me to look elsewhere. Craigslist is a great idea with some poor management policies. It could be fixed.

My ads for for rehoming cats that I rescued keep being deleted, even though the website says you can make such a listing, providing the fee you are asking is not excessive. I am asking for $50 for resuced cats that have been neutered, received rabies vaccination, and have been examined by a vet. Inquiry to craigslist customer service about this received no response and my listings continue to get removed.

Craigslist keeps flagging my ads. There is nothing inappropriate in the ad.
I post separate ads for cleaning and modeling. I am not seeking any inappropriate behavior.
The email from Craigslist tells me not to use the site for this type of ad.
However, there are several ads openly seeking inappropriate behavior:
Wood worker
Plumber
Pitch and catch
Ads that state nudity, naked or sex
Selling nude photos
There are also people who post up to 20 ads in the same category and other categories. Craigslist tells you to limit how many postings and categories you are allowed. But it's not being enforced. It also makes it difficult to find the legitimate ads.
Craigslist has become a waste of time.

I keep filtering my search on Craigslist but aways see the same adds over and over. Also I put in the search image only but still get adds with no pic. I would rate Craigslist lately using a 3 out of ten. Thanks

Tried to tell Craigslist how good they were years ago but as soon as I said apparently someone died and left it to a greedy little child and right after that all of a sudden all systems are down sorry we can't talk to you and as I said I can't wait to see this greedy little child on American greed Craigslist there's got to be other people there and you should be ashamed of yourself this is the best thing now you have to do an app you have to do this you have to pass it just want to sell your stuff like it used to be as I said I can't wait to see this greedy little brother greedy little son of a b**** that turned it into a computer that is proud daddy is proud Uncle turning in grave that's why Craigslist is so on the bottom of the list used to be on the top but that's what happens if pretty little kids

I paid my five dollars and posted my RV for sale 5 days ago.. The ID number does not work when you put it in the search bar, also cannot find my RV when doing just a general search for RVs for sale. Nobody else can find it either, I have had several people to look for it. Please help! I have also sent an email yesterday and another one today with no response.

I paid my five dollars and posted my RV for sale 5 days ago.. The ID number does not work when you put it in the search bar, also cannot find my RV when doing just a general search for RVs for sale. Nobody else can find it either, I have had several people to look for it. Please help! I have also sent an email yesterday and another one today with no response.

A sad tenant posted negative comments after leaving rental space. Please help.

Super pissed I post a add for my kittens and it keeps getting removed I fallow the guide lines but tgey don't bother to look they just let some asswhole say red flag n it gets removed. Tell me why and prove why.

Your new set up for your display adds sucks. I have been using Craigslist for many years in many states and your new price on top os the add in Ca is not as handy to read. I did not like it and my wife came in and d made a comment she did not like it either with out me saying a word. I shop in New York too and noticed it has not been changed there. Why must new people try bad new ideas?

I recently hired a handy man Visalia ca and he is a scammer he did not finish the job. Never sent me a recipe for what I paid him. His number is area and I would like to be able to report him or review on his service. But you guys don't have a page. It is very important to add the page on your website so that WE don't get scam . I hope you can do something about this guy like booking his service from your site. Thank you

I find this site to be very practical. Its easy to complain when things are not right. But people dont say the good stuff. This site is benefical and useful. Thank you

Craigslist Accounts are under attack daily by cyber terrorist flaggers who have hijacked the CL Flagging System. They have a variety of tools and programs available that have been purchased over the net specifically to rapid flag ads or lay waste to commercial accounts. CL may be complicit in this activity because they do not want any advertisers to have sustained profitable from the use of their website.
the only party who is making a lot of money in their system is themselves.
Whereas an advertiser is granted use of one edition, they have access to over 1000 editions published around the world.
Your ad is not flagged for its content rather for being part of a commercial account that someone does not agree with.
Since CL is used by 1 out of 6 Americans, and is a vital flow of information across the United States, this virtual control over the website content, becomes a block to the free flow of information and a threat to national security that no one is addressing.

I made a suggestion to Craigslist on their forum (since I have had no luck trying to find a email address they reply to) about having moderators to make sure ads violate their terms before a ad is removed from flagging and the response I got confirmed my opinions that they do allow posts to be flagged and removed even if their terms are not violated just because someone does not like the way the ad is worded or as one Craigslist response was to me "AND for reader preferences / opinions". Wow, anyone can have a opinion about a lot of things and not a good reason in my opinion to allow posts to be removed when there's been no violation of their terms.

I am so happy I found classifiedads dot com as they replied to my emails asking questions about their terms and they monitor posts to make sure posts flagged are because of violating their terms. I hope all these people here that are unhappy with craigslist will think about giving classifiedads a chance and of course make sure to comply with their terms and I don't think anyone will have any problems with them As long as they don't violate their terms of service.

I had a negative comment I added on May 28th.I wanted to ad this positive comment. After I made my negative comment I went over to the positive comment section and found my answer just by reading a couple of the other comments there. The answer was that if you're a paying customer who posts their ad daily, because say they're a health proffesional and rely on the advertising. If they have a credit card error type issue where the card just won't go through to pay, several times but money is being deducted from your card anyway, all I had to do was e-mail: Craig@craigslist and within an hour,(because it was Memorial Day, or usually it's within minutes),Craig himself contacted me to let me know that he had somebody on it. I ralize their are alot of complaints about Craigslist. I pay $1800.- per year advertising with them. I make a ton of money because of them and without them life would be harder for me. So thank you craig @ craigslist for taking care of business. Kevin

You need to email Craislist @ [email protected], they will respond. On 2/3/12 @5:06 pm/est/usa I emailed them and received a response 2 minutes later. Now I am sure that not all responses can be met with such alacrity, but maybe we should keep in mind that this is a free site, and imagine the amount of employees needed to accommodate the more than 50 million daily users in the US alone. Should he also offer frr pick up and delivery?

Believe it or not, I got a very quick response from Craig himself by just emailing [email protected] and describing my problem. He e-mailed me back himself and forwarded my issue to an IT team.

For what it's worth.

I appreciate Craiglist's service a lot and it has been helpful to me towards finding work, however at the same time, it's nearly impossible to actually get anything done. Every time some days pass, Craigslist logs out automatically and tells me to log back in. When I input the right information (which I actually carefully written down and remembered), it keeps saying the e-mail or password is wrong when it isn't the case.

Also, the phone verification thing is pretty annoying. I wish there were better ways to really validate people and remove spammers. Plus, to me, I still see spams even with this new function.

Might I also tell people to be more careful when searching for jobs here. A lot of "job offerings" posts here are too vague and uninformative. If you ask for more information via email, the "employer" never replies, ever. Ergo, I'd be more careful when submitting your resumes when they ask if they cannot even answer simple questions.

I truly appreciate your service, I use it all the time for everything. You are a great asset to society in general specially in times like this where people cant afford to go buy things at retail prices. Great recycling venue! I do want to comment on the retailers use of Craigslist, in some categories retailers have taken over, page after page specially in the furniture section. The reason I use Craigslist is to avoid retailers. Maybe they should have a section of their own. It is very annoying and time consuming to go through all their adds, it is overwhelming, even when I enter owner in the search box, they still come up. That's it for my comments, you guys are doing a great job, I truly appreciate it. Ray

To all whose CL ad won't appear in search results: you are not alone. I have had this problem with a plain text ad and there is no solution. I cannot correlate the problem to anything in particular, but the only items I've had problems selling have Apple in the description. I surmise CL has a filter for "Apple" nevertheless some ads post OK. In any event CL does not care.

The only selling site worse than CL is eBay.

Still, I rank CL as a positive since it works most of the time, but when it doesn't, it just doesn't.

Like many of the other post's I am blocked---it has been over 6 months--nobody will help me---I have no idea why I am blocked

WE LIVE IN A SMALL TOWN IN MONTANA. WE WENT TO MISSOULA TO VISIT FAMILY. OUR LITTLE 4 1/2 LB CHAWIENNIE GOT LOOSE AND WE LOST HIM. HE WAS LOST FOR 7 DAYS IN MISSOULA. ON THE 7TH DAY A LADY WHO SAW OUR AD ON CRAIGSLIST FOUND HIM AND WE WERE REUNITED. THANKS FOR HELPING US FIND OUR LITTLE NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK. HE HAD TRAVELED 3 MILES LOOKING FOR US.
THANKS AGAIN.

It doesnt take a rocket scientist to understand Craigslist and thereby avoiding most problems. I clearly understand that this is a free service and Craigslist is not obligated to police my/your ads for stupid flaggers. Flags are a service for real issues and there will always be idiots who abuse them. If your ad is flagged and removed it may be violates the TOS. If not re-post it or go post it somewhere else that charges you for this service. See very simple. Why should craigslist pay wages to an employee to chase down malicious flaggers? They get 0 from you. You cant challenge something that is a gift to you. Learn to use it correctly. Create a site of your own put your money into then let thousands of people use it for free. See simple.
Thanks Craigslist for answering my question quickly and professionally.

Folks who post free ads on craigslist are not "customers", they are "users".

When one needs help with a craigslist related issue they should visit & post about their problem in cl-help desk forum which is located here:
http://craigslist.org/forums/?forumID=9

That is a peer help forum that can be quite helpful. Help requests are answered immediately most of the time. Like all web forums there are some 'trolls' in that forum. Folks should flag but otherwise ignore any rude replies they receive in the forum & correspond only with the folks who seem to be sincerely trying to help. It is best to not enter the forum with a bad attitude. Be nice, supply all requested info & don't let yourself be drawn into arguments by the previously mentioned trolls.

On ur craigslist garage sales for example I cannot access to send an email to people who hav items. Im on Yahoo And it says att will not except. But at the same time I feel u r doing a great service to the community.
Thanku

Follow the rules and post ads where they belong and you will be fine. I have been using CL for many years if i got flagged it was something i did wrong. The community rules CL so you must please them thats whos doing the flagging...

I had a great response from an error report and the customer service department answered within 2 minutes and reset my account for posting. I had no issues with the company.

I had the problem with the phone authentication everyone here speaks of and waited until Monday, called the number in the listing, pressed 7 (the number the recording gives for paid ads and housing) and waited about 2 minutes to speak to a human. Told her my story, told her about the postings I'd seen on the internet about the issues people have with getting no help, and voila she fixed it manually and 15 minutes later I was able to post again... thank you to everyone who posted on this, I think this may be why they are now handling the problem. And, thank you to Craigslist and the lovely human customer service person who solved my problem. Joanne

I have been using CL for about two years for my business. I have 4 ads and I rotate deleting/reposting them to keep them current. I do not rely on CL for all of my business advertising but have installed HUNDREDS of jobs generated directly from CL and more still from referrals based on those jobs. All for the very reasonable price of NOTHING. I have had many e-mails from "craigslist" requesting I verify this that or the other. I ignore all of them as I assume they are attempts to get my password etc. by hackers or those who are looking to hijack my account or gain personal information. I believe it is stated in the CL terms of use that they will never request your password or personal information and in two years I have never had a problem. We are really getting something for nothing and your only part is to read the terms of use and follow them. Pretty simple and I think it takes a special person to complain about that. If the FREE SERVICE provided to you is not good enough start up your own list, god knows there are enough people out there that think they can do better. They all spam me from my CL ad telling me how great their site is, you know the site nobody has ever heard of.

For everyone with negative comments:

I think it would do you some good to read this article in Wired Magazine about Craigslist. It focuses on the website's customer support.

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/magazine/17-09/ff_craigslist

15 minute hold time after which the rep solved my problem ASAP. I rate the CL help desk a "10."

Just got off the phone after talking to a young lady at craigslist. She was very helpful on this phone authorization thing going on. It only took about 2 or 3 minutes and being on hold didn't take very long at all before my call was taken. Thanks for the help.

I ACTUALLY SPOKE WITH A LIVE PERSON WHO HELPED ME! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE!

I have found numerous guns in my area on Craigslist and it seems VERY hard to get them removed. I have had to call on every one.

The ppl I talk to have been GREAT and the adds get deleted instantly. I applaud them on that. Great service!!

For me it is so difficult to contact the seller of an item I'm interested in. I never get answers when I do the email thing. Example: I want this tractor. How do I reach the seller.??




posted: about a month ago



updated: about a month ago