Rampant ignorance

If you ever want to find out how stupid the people are who live in your area, place a classified ad in the "for sale" section of your local paper.

I placed two different ads last week...one for a queen size bed we are selling, and one for our house. In our house I put information about our online listing in order to NOT pay for a lengthy classified. So far I got a call from a man wondering if it was a commercial property (no, I would have not listed it under "house for sale" if that were the case); and yesterday, one from a woman who after hearing the details of the house (price and size of the lot) proceeded to tell me how she was going to buy a house for her recently divorced daughter, and she couldn't spend more than roughly half what our house was listed for, and the lot was too big for her daughter to mow, and now she was also going to have to buy furniture for her daughter as well, but her daughter wouldn't accept USED furniture, it had to be new--at which point I was thinking "WHY am I listening to all this?" I wished her well in her house-hunting venture, and got off the phone muttering about the fact that maybe she had family issues to deal with before she started furniture shopping for this apparently ungrateful daughter.

The other ad has generated a lot more calls, and a LOT more stupidity and rudeness. Maybe I'm naive about this, and maybe it ain't how it's done 'round here, but when I say "bed" in an ad, it does NOT include a mattress! The bed is the headboard/footboard frame part. The mattress is the mattress. When is the last time you went to a furniture store to buy a bed (remember, the frame!) and they offered to throw in a mattress for free? All of the calls I have had have been either assuming that a mattress comes with the "bed" -- then hanging up on me when they find out it doesn't; or asking what additional furniture (nightstand? dresser?) comes with the bed. Huh? If I was offering a whole bedroom suite I would have put that in the ad. I had one call yesterday saying they were interested in the box spring and mattress I had for sale. I told them I DIDN'T have a box spring or mattress for sale. Oh, said the caller, clearly confused.

So my theory on all this is if the public can't read a simple classified ad and understand what it is offering how in heck is Obama going to get healthcare reform passed?