Posters on Craigslist the week before Christmas are trying to advertise against a kitchen wall. Craigslist now requires email and phone verifications, but makes them impossible to get. Craigslist started requiring phone authentication for the service a while ago, in an effort to stop sex ads and scammers. Now their system will automatically “flag” ads that have too many numbers or incorrectly placed words. Unfortunately, like Google’s Panda algorithm, innocent parties become victims. During the Christmas, 2011 weekend, the 50-Help forum was flooded with posts from those who were fleeing the nasty new system.
Email Verification Fiasco
Many posters complained that they never received email confirmations. Those with Hotmail addresses and some Internet providers seemed to be vulnerable. Posters with previously verified accounts received verification messages with individual messages saying they would receive an email, which never arrived. Even when the e-mails arrived, many advertisements were never sent to the site.
Craigslist “Ghost” Ads
Advertisers are those who appear to be admitted, but never appear on the site. Craigslist has previously claimed that this was a glitch, but the sheer volume of these listings has recently created a problem for users. This affected legitimate posters who never broke the rules, but whose posts were somehow thought to violate the rules that were never posted. Although other users on the help forum declare them compliant, the ads simply never appear.
Some Phone Services Blocked by Authentication
I ran into this problem over Christmas weekend. I was trying to message for my roommate, and the phone kept the message authentication. I tried to put a number on the Net10 cell, but it kept telling me that it couldn’t be done authentically. I went to the support forum and told me that even though some people at Tracfone, the owner of Net10, had no authentication problem, they still wouldn’t put my number through. I previously verified my old address in another town via landline. I never broke any rules, and when I got an authentication message before, I simply wrote to the support email and my account privileges were restored, but this time, the help message only gives you an auto-reply with unnecessary information.
From other posts I’ve seen on the help forum, Craigslist has now blocked all phone-as-you-go, as well as all VOIP phones like MagicJack, Google Voice, Boost and Cricket. This seems unfair in an economy where so many have been forced to abandon traditional high service cell and land lines to .
Lack of Craigslist Customer Service or Site Support
From the help forum responses, I learned that Craigslist does not have support for “free” users, and since there is no crime in my city, I have no recourse. Help desk inquiries only send canned responses and there is no number to call. According to the complaint custodian of Help Contact, dialing a toll-free number gets you switched around to several numbers until you finally get someone who serves you The customer will say, it’s just an email and hangs up on you. There are also many complaints on that site about ad masks and phone/email verification issues.
Craigslist Alternative
Before now there was no real alternative to Craigslist, which gave them the power to do pretty much what they wanted, now the two are becoming viable popular workers. eBay’s Kajiji, the name of eBay classifieds, is a refuge for many users disaffected by Craigslist. Ooodle, a classifieds aggregator with partners such as AOL, receives attention and good ratings for real estate comments. I ended up putting in Oodle ads for my roommate.
Can Craigslist survive this recent round of bad publicity and user dissatisfaction? Every time they pull the strings tighter, there seem to be fewer legitimate posts and more spam and scam posts. Even when you receive a message, most of the responses are from scammers asking for your email address or phone number.
It seems that the popular free classifieds site will reach its end of usefulness. Despite his best efforts, his crackdowns are being attempted by the same people. Spammers and scammers always have time to find someone to limit, but legitimate users will simply find another place to post. Will this latest round of restrictions just make Craigslist lose the legitimate users it has left?
References:
Craigslist Help Forum
Contact Help Craigslist Page
Oodle
Top Ten Reviews: Oodle
Make an Oodle on AOL Boosts Network Go Up
Like eBay, Kijiji and Others Are Disrupting Craigslist
