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Forum Thread

Am I being unreasonable or wrong in this Craigslist dispute?

1,405 306 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.

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Joined Oct 2009
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> bubble2 4,049 Posts
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ashcampbell
10-08-2011 at 08:35 AM.
10-08-2011 at 08:35 AM.
Quote from gunnerusa :
I wouldn't do anything like that over a little thing like a PS3, though. Maybe if someone looked at me the wrong way.... Mad
While banging your mom...
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Joined Jan 2004
Here's to the future
> bubble2 25,141 Posts
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Iaaaiws
10-08-2011 at 02:29 PM.
10-08-2011 at 02:29 PM.
Quote from gunnerusa :
Maybe he's just out for revenge now. If it were me, and I was an idiot out for revenge, I'd ask to meet in some public place so you'd feel safe. I'd do a stake out at the place, allowing you to show up, wait, get bored, and leave. Then I'd follow you home, wait a week or three or 10, and then I'd slash your tires, key your car, etc...
Might be wise to drop by and visit a friend on the way home instead of going to your own house. laugh out loud
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coulditbeSatan
10-08-2011 at 05:17 PM.
10-08-2011 at 05:17 PM.
Quote from ashcampbell :
While banging your mom...
Rofl2
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Joined Oct 2009
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Original Poster
PoisonWolf
10-08-2011 at 09:06 PM.
10-08-2011 at 09:06 PM.
No word from him....
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slapshot136
10-08-2011 at 09:29 PM.
10-08-2011 at 09:29 PM.
Quote from PoisonWolf :
No word from him....
just curious, what was the last e-mail that you send him?
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Original Poster
PoisonWolf
10-08-2011 at 09:53 PM.
10-08-2011 at 09:53 PM.
Quote from slapshot136 :
just curious, what was the last e-mail that you send him?
I sent him the following.

Quote :
Hi XXXX,

I'm glad to hear from you. I've been waiting and hoping that you'd contact me. =)

Your PS3 is still here, and safe. Untouched, as per our original agreement.

If you have it by Friday or Sunday, that will be fine, as my ultimatum was until the 9th of October, which would be this Sunday. So I'm not hurrying or waiting for anything. It's in my original ultimatum.

What time would you like to meet up, and where?

Thanks for getting back to me. I'm glad you finally got the cash.

-Cheers.
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Joined Oct 2004
Professor Fishslapper!
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dalokgawd
10-09-2011 at 06:23 AM.
10-09-2011 at 06:23 AM.
Quote from PoisonWolf :
I sent him the following.
Well, it's the big day. About 15 hours until you become the proud new owner of the PS3. And as someone mentioned above, you could always forward these emails to the firefighting chief where this guy lives. He doesn't know where you live, but you know where he does. If he threatens you again, tell him that you can always print out all this guys emails and take them to the fire chief in his town and see what the chief thinks about the situation. Ten bucks says the kid never bothers you again. The problem is that right now this kid has no skin in the game, since the PS3 doesn't belong to him, it belongs to his little brother. Put his job on the line and all of a sudden I am willing to bet he will start taking this much more seriously.

It's a shame if it has to come to that, but he's the one who's been threatening to get the cops and/or "court things" involved in the situation. You would only be giving him back a taste of his own medicine.
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TigerStar
10-09-2011 at 07:53 AM.
10-09-2011 at 07:53 AM.
Quote from dalokgawd :
blahblah

I started a thread for you...
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z2g
10-09-2011 at 10:51 AM.
10-09-2011 at 10:51 AM.
Quote from dalokgawd :
Well, it's the big day. About 15 hours until you become the proud new owner of the PS3. And as someone mentioned above, you could always forward these emails to the firefighting chief where this guy lives. He doesn't know where you live, but you know where he does. If he threatens you again, tell him that you can always print out all this guys emails and take them to the fire chief in his town and see what the chief thinks about the situation. Ten bucks says the kid never bothers you again. The problem is that right now this kid has no skin in the game, since the PS3 doesn't belong to him, it belongs to his little brother. Put his job on the line and all of a sudden I am willing to bet he will start taking this much more seriously.

It's a shame if it has to come to that, but he's the one who's been threatening to get the cops and/or "court things" involved in the situation. You would only be giving him back a taste of his own medicine.
I'm pretty sure that the firefighter training comments are a lie. I don't think there's any way that the buyer is training to be a firefighter. I have friends who wanted to become firefighters. I think their screening process and criteria may even be harder than the police dept and their applicant wait list is even longer than the police academy. So, I have serious doubts that someone actually in firefighter training would go through all this to avoid paying a $50 debt.
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ManUpOrShutUp
10-09-2011 at 12:37 PM.
10-09-2011 at 12:37 PM.
Quote from z2g :
I'm pretty sure that the firefighter training comments are a lie. I don't think there's any way that the buyer is training to be a firefighter. I have friends who wanted to become firefighters. I think their screening process and criteria may even be harder than the police dept and their applicant wait list is even longer than the police academy. So, I have serious doubts that someone actually in firefighter training would go through all this to avoid paying a $50 debt.
Your anecdotal evidence aside, there are plenty of crooks in all professions and firefighters and police are no exception. For what it's worth, the police screening process if actually indeed more stringent than that used for firefighters - and yet despite the polygraphs, extensive background checks, personality testing, interviews, and so forth, there are still plenty of police officers who turn out to be murderers, rapists, thieves, drug dealers, etc. Even if only 5% of all firefighters were of poor character, that's still over 50,000 people.
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z2g
10-09-2011 at 02:15 PM.
10-09-2011 at 02:15 PM.
Quote from 420 :
Your anecdotal evidence aside, there are plenty of crooks in all professions and firefighters and police are no exception. For what it's worth, the police screening process if actually indeed more stringent than that used for firefighters - and yet despite the polygraphs, extensive background checks, personality testing, interviews, and so forth, there are still plenty of police officers who turn out to be murderers, rapists, thieves, drug dealers, etc. Even if only 5% of all firefighters were of poor character, that's still over 50,000 people.
Of course! There are plenty of bad cops and bad firefighters out there. I'm just saying that I have serious doubts that with a person who went through all the trouble of getting into the firefighter program and actually got lucky to get in, why would they waste all this time and effort to not pay $50? If the cell phone stopped working, I think he would have mentioned this from the get-go and use that as an excuse to not pay (although, it wouldn't be a valid reason since it's an As-Is sale, of course). But, to just be shady, not pay, and threaten (incoherently with horrible English and grammar), it's just odd to me.

As far as the criteria to get into the police, sheriff, or fire fighter academy, I do agree that the background check is harder for the police and sheriff's dept. However, I meant just in general how hard it is to get pass the process and get accepted into the program. I've heard from ppl who tried that it's harder to get into fire fighting.
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coulditbeSatan
10-09-2011 at 02:25 PM.
10-09-2011 at 02:25 PM.
He was never going to pay. All he did was use the OP's gullibility in trusting and wanting to help people to get a $50 discount. Poetic justice if the phone broke. His brother's PS3 didn't matter since it wasn't his to begin with. Just his way of using someone else to get what he wanted.
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NotEasyBeingSavage
10-09-2011 at 02:38 PM.
10-09-2011 at 02:38 PM.
Quote from PoisonWolf :
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.
Empty threat, if he can't afford $50 he can't afford a lawyer.
Reply
Joined Oct 2004
Professor Fishslapper!
> bubble2 12,104 Posts
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dalokgawd
10-09-2011 at 03:30 PM.
10-09-2011 at 03:30 PM.
Quote from Xygonn :
Empty threat, if he can't afford $50 he can't afford a lawyer.
Dead Horse
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z2g
10-09-2011 at 04:05 PM.
10-09-2011 at 04:05 PM.
Quote from Xygonn :
Empty threat, if he can't afford $50 he can't afford a lawyer.
You should read the entire thread. Ppl here have been telling him that from the start of the thread already.
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