Here’ s the story… back in September I put my Talon on ebay. Although it didn’t meet the reserve, I had a kid from South Carolina tell me he wanted to buy it.
I told him to send me a deposit and I’ll hold on to it for him until he got a check from his insurance company from a accident he was in. He initally thought it would only be a couple weeks and then he would send the rest of what he owed me.
I get the deposit check of $500 in a couple days.
Then a month goes by with no real word from him, so I e-mail him and ask him whats up. He says it’s held up a little but shouldn’t be that long. I say ok no biggie.
Then November comes… it’s the same story. Now I figure I’m not going to sell the car to anyone in the winter anyhow, so I told him, let me know when you get the money. Then December comes… same story.
So now, I e-mail him after New Years and he says it’s going to be another 45 days and he’s not sure if he can get the car now. And he wants the deposit back. I told him too bad.
Question is… is there anything legally binding me to give it back to him? I passed up a couple people offering back in September because I had the deposit also.
Did you say Non Refundable deposit in any of the emails?
Did you ever hint you would give him the $ back?
I always make sure to write Non Refundable or 50% refundable based on days.
I made out with 500 bux from a kid from Rhode Island because he sent me a Deposit on my 300zx and then couldnt find a way to get the car home. I wrote clearly on all of the information I provided him that it was Non-refundable.
I felt bad, but then I realized he jerked me around for about 3 mos. and I felt less bad.
Time and time again, month after month there are scammer threads and dozens of threads much like this one…you’d think after reading one or two or seven that people here would learn how to correctly, safely and legitmately sell cars.
I didn’t send him any receipt for the deposit and we didn’t talk about it being non refundable. He sent me a postal money order also, so it wasn’t a check (not sure if that matters). I never hinted at giving him any money back either because as far as I was concerned it was never refundable.
Well it’s not a scam, it’s more or less a guy getting in over his head on something. I still have the car in my garage so it’s not like I’m out any money, I just want to know if he should get his money back.
I thought the whole point of a deposit was that the money is non-refundable. If that’s not the case, what’s the point of taking a deposit in the first place?
Wouldn’t he have to come here to take you to court? Fuck it, if you feel bad send him half back, keep the rest for your wasted time and for having to store the car until now. I have no sympathy for people who pull shit like that. I learned my lesson after finally getting paid for my car 5 months after a deposit was left, and now anything i sell will have detailed receipts.
I agree. The only time you really have to give the deposit back is if you sold the car to someone else.
The only sketchy part is there was really no time limit set on it. You did say a couple weeks (ie. less than a month IMO) so you are fine. Keep it. His loss.
if a buyer can back out at any time and have legal right to receive his deposit back, whats the point of a deposit?
the only time i consider them refundable is when the car isnt anything like the description. if the buy states “never wrecked, original paintZ” and you arrive to see a car that has had crash damage repaired, THEN you can ask for your deposit back
otherwise, go fuck yourself, the seller just got to keep your deposit because you couldnt get your shit together
also: as a buyer, its your responsibility to ask if the deposit is going to be refunded if need be.
the very nature of a deposit is that it is intended to be a good faith gesture on the part of the buyer to show his intent to purchase the car. inherent in putting up a deposit, from the buyer’s perspective, is the risk of losing the deposit should the buyer choose to back out of the transaction.
i am pretty sure that the whole non-refundable is implied in the process of putting a deposit down. the only way that the non-refundable piece would be legally negated is if the seller failed to disclose material defects in the car, or if the seller chose to back out of the transaction.
jordan, you are not obligated to return any cash to him. if i were you, i would argue your position to him, and toss him a hundred bucks as a COURTESY. make SURE if you decide to send him some cash, that you explicitly tell him you are doing it as a courtesy, and you have no legal obligation to do so. just to cover your ass. or fuck him, return nothing.
I would agree with this. He could have sold the car to someone else in the meantime, but the buyer dragged his feed for 5 months now and wants another 45 days. Sorry, but that would cover the money you may have lost in depreciation and for storage of the car.
Tell him you were holding it for him on good faith and you had other potential buys which now you lost. Now you will have to relist it on ebay, etc…
Plus being that neither of you have paperwork, nothing to really go on. You have the upper hand because you got the money already.