Joined Oct 2009
L6: Expert
Forum Thread
Am I being unreasonable or wrong in this Craigslist dispute?
September 27, 2011 at
01:48 PM
Hi folks,
I will keep the story short but sufficient in quickly helping you understand the situation.
I sold a merchandise to a person on Craigslist for $130 dollars. This person was unable to pay the complete $130 at the time and offered to pay in two payments and told me that he was good for it. I initially declined this idea, not being comfortable with it. He later offered to "give up" a piece of electronic as collateral as something for me to hold on to. This was a Playstation 3 Slim. The first payment which I accepted was then $80 alongside the PS3.
He said he would be able to pay the remaining $50 the next weekend. The first meet-up was on a weekend, so it was essentially a week in-between the two original proposed payment times. However, at that time, I was going on a holiday and got stuck at the airport. As such, I couldn't make that weekend and asked if he could do the day after.
The first transaction was made on July 1st, meaning that the second payment was supposed to be on July 8th to 10th?
Since then, he has either been out of town or has repeatedly told me that he does not have the money on dates which he himself set up as dates of payments (3 or more times now). I have also found out that the merchandise which I sold him (a phone), is now broken.
I recently (i.e., mid September) -subtly indicated- to him that I cannot be waiting forever to get my money back and that at some point, I would take the PS3 as collateral. He proposed an October 1st payment as a date where he "should be" able to make the payment.
Based on e-mail exchanges in the past 48 hours, it is evident that he cannot make that date again, to which I provided an ultimatum for an additional one-more week extension.
Should he miss this date, I will terminate the deal and consider the PS3 to be collateral.
He is now flipping out, and mentioning that he couldn't believe that I was like this. He stated that he would be forced to call a lawyer should it come to that. He also indicated that he is only getting paid at the end of October and can only pay "then". He says he doesn't know what else he can do but again reiterated that he would be forced to contact a lawyer should it come down to that.
I haven't responded yet, but I'm looking for thoughts and ideas here. Am I being unreasonable? I'm only asking for my $50 back and it's close to 3 months now.
Thank you in advance to all who respond.
I will keep the story short but sufficient in quickly helping you understand the situation.
I sold a merchandise to a person on Craigslist for $130 dollars. This person was unable to pay the complete $130 at the time and offered to pay in two payments and told me that he was good for it. I initially declined this idea, not being comfortable with it. He later offered to "give up" a piece of electronic as collateral as something for me to hold on to. This was a Playstation 3 Slim. The first payment which I accepted was then $80 alongside the PS3.
He said he would be able to pay the remaining $50 the next weekend. The first meet-up was on a weekend, so it was essentially a week in-between the two original proposed payment times. However, at that time, I was going on a holiday and got stuck at the airport. As such, I couldn't make that weekend and asked if he could do the day after.
The first transaction was made on July 1st, meaning that the second payment was supposed to be on July 8th to 10th?
Since then, he has either been out of town or has repeatedly told me that he does not have the money on dates which he himself set up as dates of payments (3 or more times now). I have also found out that the merchandise which I sold him (a phone), is now broken.
I recently (i.e., mid September) -subtly indicated- to him that I cannot be waiting forever to get my money back and that at some point, I would take the PS3 as collateral. He proposed an October 1st payment as a date where he "should be" able to make the payment.
Based on e-mail exchanges in the past 48 hours, it is evident that he cannot make that date again, to which I provided an ultimatum for an additional one-more week extension.
Should he miss this date, I will terminate the deal and consider the PS3 to be collateral.
He is now flipping out, and mentioning that he couldn't believe that I was like this. He stated that he would be forced to call a lawyer should it come to that. He also indicated that he is only getting paid at the end of October and can only pay "then". He says he doesn't know what else he can do but again reiterated that he would be forced to contact a lawyer should it come down to that.
I haven't responded yet, but I'm looking for thoughts and ideas here. Am I being unreasonable? I'm only asking for my $50 back and it's close to 3 months now.
Thank you in advance to all who respond.
209 Comments
Your comment cannot be blank.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
I would've told him to go fark himself by now, and claimed the PS3 as my own...
I would've told him to go fark himself by now, and claimed the PS3 as my own...
I just received an e-mail from him. I'm not going to reply any further. I found this e-mail to be particularly interesting. It's almost like his threats are positively correlated with his sense of desperation. Anyhow, I thought you guys would like to see an example of what I mean by threats.
i toold you the latersy i could have it was friday the 21st is when i get paid from the fire hall if u cant wait till than idk what to tell you there will be cops at ur door with a summons
Seriously, i'd be happy if I were you, and not the least bit worried.
I just received an e-mail from him. I'm not going to reply any further. I found this e-mail to be particularly interesting. It's almost like his threats are positively correlated with his sense of desperation. Anyhow, I thought you guys would like to see an example of what I mean by threats.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
He put the PS3 up as collateral and you have every right to sell it in order to recoup your financial losses. In any case, you are no under no legal obligation to provide him with your address or even your full name for that matter.
I just received an e-mail from him. I'm not going to reply any further. I found this e-mail to be particularly interesting. It's almost like his threats are positively correlated with his sense of desperation. Anyhow, I thought you guys would like to see an example of what I mean by threats.
I need to sticky this thread..
He put the PS3 up as collateral and you have every right to sell it in order to recoup your financial losses. In any case, you are no under no legal obligation to provide him with your address or even your full name for that matter.
Cops see this as a civil matter, they don't deal with this type of thing. Unless the kid says you stole it, but you have emails to back you up.
I just received an e-mail from him. I'm not going to reply any further. I found this e-mail to be particularly interesting. It's almost like his threats are positively correlated with his sense of desperation. Anyhow, I thought you guys would like to see an example of what I mean by threats.
I really feel bad for you. This truly sucks. Not to beat a dead horse, but this is the exact reason why I had told you that accepting partial payment while letting the buyer take home the merchandise isn't a good idea with private sales. It can often end up like this.
That said, I don't think you're in bad shape. Here's what you do. Get all your correspondence with him (emails and/or text messages from him and you) and print them all out. Hopefully, in the emails, you mentioned the PS3 as collateral and he acknowledged it. If he didn't acknowledge it, as long as he didn't respond by saying it wasn't collateral, then it'll still be good in supporting your side of the story. Have all this ready because it's HIGHLY likely that he'll call the cops to report that you stole it. If the cops come to your door (unlikely since this is totally a civil dispute), then you'll have the emails ready to support your case. And, the cops will let you guys handle it in small claims court.
For now, I suggest that you send him a certified letter via USPS. In the letter, state everything that occurred as far as the sale details, date of the original sale, purchase amount, deposit amount, collateral. In the letter, give him one month to resolve the balance. Make a copy for yourself and send it to him. KEEP THE USPS RECEIPT FOR THE CERTIFIED LETTER!
This may be overkill. But, I think it may be necessary to protect yourself if you sell the PS3 and he takes you to small claims court. Then, you have all the emails and the certified letter/receipt as proof that you tried to resolve it.
Lastly, after the 30 days, then you can sell the PS3. Honestly, I think this will be an issue that you'll have to deal with for some time because he'll probably call the cops on you and then try to sue you in court. Hopefully though, he's just doing this in hopes you'll just give up and give him back the PS3 and forgive the $50 balance. If I were you, I'd do the above that I suggested and sell the PS3. And, let this be a lesson learned.
Good luck, OP. And do not let yourself get into feeling guilty about the PS3. You both knew why it was brought into the deal, whether he acts like an idiot about it or not. He wouldn't have volunteered it as collateral if had no clue what that might mean.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.