My wife and I are frustrated. We’re frustrated with people who sell things online, say on sites like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Let me tell you a personal story.

I saw something I really wanted to purchase on FB Marketplace last night. I messaged the seller and we negotiated the asking price from $100 down to $80 and I agreed to drive to her house on Saturday afternoon to pick it up. Fairly straight forward, right? Well, not so much. Today FB notified me that the item was sold so hoping it was sold to me I reached out to them. They said it was sold to someone else. They said they did it because someone else offered full price and they had a lot of no shows.

So I’m someone with a medical condition. Making time to pick up a full piece of furniture (for me) is not a trivial thing. Also, they live about 30 miles away so putting aside the time for it wasn’t a small thing. So I was sorta pissed. I was first in line. They’d made a “verbal” agreement with me but didn’t stick to it. Why? Because of other people. Am I other people? Not last I checked. It was pretty insulting. I had to hold back just not to go off on them for not asking me if I’d pay full price and pick it up sooner so they weren’t left in the lurch.

As things go this is what my coworkers and I call a “first world problem.” That having been said, here are some common sense things I think you neurotypicals should do when selling online:

1. Treat everything as a first come, first serve. If you’ve agreed to something with someone, stick to that agreement until the buyer has negated that agreement. In other words, don’t insult them by doing something you’d never do in person.
2. Communicate. If you’ve sold something or are going to alter an agreement, reach out to the buyer. Show some fucking respect.
3. Be honest. Don’t play games. It may be online but real-life rules apply.

It amazes me to no end that neurotypicals often don’t have these skills when me, an autistic person that hates interacting with strangers, does. People need to stick to the basics, “Hello” “How are you?” “What are we doing?” “Lets agree on these points” “Lets follow through” and “Goodbye”. I’m capable of performing all of these steps every time I interact with a worker at the grocery store, despite hating small talk, so neurotypicals should be able to do this in person and online. Get your acts together, neurotypical folks. This is why we have meltdowns.