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
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Keep doing this but make an excuse everytime you miss the appointment.
It's currently about 10 PM. 2 hours more to go before the day ends.
Should I bother replying?
Hmm.
It's currently about 10 PM. 2 hours more to go before the day ends.
.
Should I bother replying?
Hmm.
It's currently about 10 PM. 2 hours more to go before the day ends.
.
Should I bother replying?
Hmm.
It's currently about 10 PM. 2 hours more to go before the day ends.
.
Should I bother replying?
Hmm.
If you're smarter than when this started then you will ignore him, never reply again and report his future emails to CL as harassment.
If you're smarter than when this started then you will ignore him, never reply again and report his future emails to CL as harassment.
I'll probably wait till 12:01am then send him a proper "concluding" e-mail of sorts.
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"I will neither read nor respond to any further communications from you."
It's currently about 10 PM. 2 hours more to go before the day ends.
.
Should I bother replying?
Hmm.
Sucks that I had to do this (I know some of you told me not to feel guilt, but I can't help it), but, at this point, I personally feel that more physical threat exists in meeting up with him as some of you have alluded to in previous posts.
An interesting brief chapter of my life experience has now closed.
Thank you everyone for your support and guidance on the matter.
P.S. I googled this person's name and checked everything out. For what it's worth, it's likely that he is indeed in training to be a firefighter as I see him on firefighter networks, etc. It doesn't prove anything, but I just thought it was interesting to find out to see if he was lying all along. At least now I know specifically which fire department he states on these sites to be working at.
But what do I know? I'm just the last shogun of Harlem. SHO-NUFF!!
As others have stated, move on and consider it a done deal. Make this a lesson learned for future CL sales. Be happy that the buyer did some pretty stupid things--i.e. didn't even get your full name and address before he gave you the PS3 as collateral. Shady ppl out there would have disappeared with the PS3 the moment they received it. You at least truly wanted to $50 only.
That said, it's just so hilarious that the guy keeps threatening you with a lawsuit when he doesn't even know your name or address.
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Sucks that I had to do this (I know some of you told me not to feel guilt, but I can't help it), but, at this point, I personally feel that more physical threat exists in meeting up with him as some of you have alluded to in previous posts.
An interesting brief chapter of my life experience has now closed.
Thank you everyone for your support and guidance on the matter.
P.S. I googled this person's name and checked everything out. For what it's worth, it's likely that he is indeed in training to be a firefighter as I see him on firefighter networks, etc. It doesn't prove anything, but I just thought it was interesting to find out to see if he was lying all along. At least now I know specifically which fire department he states on these sites to be working at.