5miles: Buy and Sell Locally 12+

Great market app !

Really and truly one of the greatest local market apps available . Can get good deals on everything from electronics to housewares . There is a feedback system so you can get an idea of who you are interacting . On a couple of my meet ups the other person mentioned that they were nervous about meeting up with cash to buy something. I’d recommend to those who are wary of meeting a “stranger” in public , pick a place like the DMV , a police station, or meet inside a store. Meet during daylight hours as opposed to nighttime, this way you could feel more secure about meeting up to trade . Don’t let the possible (if any) bad apples ruin the experience of using a market like this .

Quality of sellers has gone downhill

Used to love this app years ago and my experiences on it were largely positive but lately I have noticed a disturbing pattern: sellers are either putting up fake ads, don’t seem serious about selling or will leave conversations hanging in messages with no explanation or resolution. I see it happen on 5miles way more than I see on other apps. I use apps like offerup, Craigslist and Facebook marketplace and my experiences are much better at these other places. People on these other sites seem motivated to sell and will respond in a fairly timely manner and usually resolve the conversations whether it leads to a sale or not. I’m not sure why this trend of lazy, unmotivated or rude sellers on 5miles but it’s been happening way too much and so I wanted to share that on here. Not sure if 5miles can do anything about this disturbing trend but bottom line I think they should know how buyer experiences compare at other places. And no, I’m not low-balling sellers or being rude to them when I contact. It’s just a consistent pattern I have noticed these days that sellers on 5miles seem unmotivated and often leave conversations hanging way more than I have seen at other selling apps or websites.

“Fake users”

I can’t 100% prove it but I get messages from people who have not been active in multiple days or weeks. I think the app is looking at products that are not selling well and it sends automated messages from inactive accounts. The messages are asking questions like “ Do you have more pictures?” I always have at least 5+ pictures in my listings. When I ask what other pictures they want there is never a response. They ask “Can you give me more information?” I over explain each of my products to make sure that there is no confusion later in the process. But again when I ask what other information they are looking for, no response. I get the question are they being sold as a group or individually and in the listing it says “I am pricing/selling them individually.” Shocker no response from them either. I have yet to sell anything on here because the couple times I have had real interest the people don’t show up or they are expecting me to deliver a $15 product 30 miles from my house for free. Use a different app this one doesn’t seem to have an ethical setup!

Developer Response ,

Thank you for sharing your experience with us. It's always some disappointed for not getting a response from people who you thought to be a potential buyer. In this case, we would advise you to check if those messages were from the same people, if you feel being harassed, you can make a report by going the user's profile page, tap the three white dots on the right top corner and tap report. Our team would process it as soon as possible. Also if you need other assistance, please don't hesitate to send a message to support@5milesapp.com and we'd love to help. Again thanks for sharing the information. :)