e-man

Hey guys. I'll try to keep this short and be as objective as possible. I recently bought a set of sideskirts from another CL member (who I will not identify, unless he wants to jump in on the discussion, which is fine).

In discussing the condition of the skirts, I asked (my exact words) "Are there any major scratches, scrapes or chips?" I also asked him to confirm that the skirts had the original factory paint and hadn't been repainted. In response, he described the skirts as having (and I'll use his exact words) "no major damage and original paint. Just the usual nicks on the bottom side. good condition", and sent me the following picture he had saved on his computer from a while back:



We agreed on a price of $100, and I paid him $103 (to cover his PayPal fees). The skirts were located at his brother's house in another state. His brother shipped the skirts out very promptly and they arrived within a few days, very well packaged I might add.

When I opened them, I found that one of the skirts (the one I told the seller I really needed) looked like this:



When I notified the seller of the problem, he said "Sorry man. It's been awhile since I saw them so I honestly don't recall that damage." In the seller's defense, he bought the skirts a few years ago off another CL member, never had them installed on his car, and, like I said above, they have been in storage at his brother's house ever since. I truly believe he is being completely honest with me about this.

Long story short, the seller agreed to refund my money, but we are having a hard time agreeing on what is fair in terms of the shipping costs. He paid $18 to ship the skirts to me, and let's assume it will cost the same for me to ship the skirts back to him. I've offered to pay to ship the skirts back to him, but he is asking me to cover shipping both ways (in other words, he'll refund my $103 less the $18 it cost for him to ship the skirts to me, and I will then have to pay $18 to ship them back to him).

I know it's not a lot of money we're talking about here, but what does everyone think is fair in this situation? Please let me know what you think.

cliffud

iTrader: (3)

Eric - I have the same policy when people order stuff from me. I quote a shipped price and that cost of shipping is a sunk cost. If they get it and they don't like it or it's the wrong bulb type for their aftermarket headlight housings and they want to return it unused, I refund them less the shipping fees I've already spent. THEY have to pay to ship it back to me if they want their refund less the shipping fees.

I think it's fair for him to ask that you ship it back at your expense however for him to just say they aren't scratched without verifying it kinda stinks. Maybe he can split the cost of shipping it back to him? So it'll only cost you 9 bucks?

I know we're only talking about a small amount of money but I'm just going off of what would be fair.

Good luck man.

o2GS43o

That's one shady seller...

In a perfect world, he would pay the shipping back to him and refund your money... Nothing out of your pocket, actually, pay you since he's wasting your time...

He should pay for the shipping back to him...

VipDout

iTrader: (4)

Hmmm .... Touchy subject , but goot to know he is refunding and No 18 each way isnt alot but since these were Not perfectly shown like above should be on him

cliffud

iTrader: (3)

o2GS43o and e-man...

I just thought about this for a second here. Comparing this situation to my situation isn't fair since I only sell NEW products and the onus is totally on the buyer if they screw up what they purchased.

Here, you clearly asked the condition and they reported it was fine. Of course upon inspection it obviously isn't... I think the seller should just go ahead and eat the cost of shipping. C'mon - it's $20!! I pay that in overdraft fees!! errr - nevermind.

lol.

c.

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

Whenver I sell a product, I sell it with a shipped price. If something is wrong with the product(s) on my part, I usually make the buyer send the product back with his own mone. I then refund the full shipped amount. If it happens to be a very large item where shipping exceeds a great amount, I give back half the shipping it cost me to ship the product instead of the full. That's just how I do business, but so far no negative feedback

Bigbea

Personally I would pay for the shipping just to ge the bulk of my money back instead of holding onto the skirts and being out the total amount

csq860

No, it's not a lot of money, but there's principle involved. Why should you be out one red cent when you weren't sent what you thought you were buying? He may have been totally innocent but that doesn't change the fact that what you got was not at all what was represented. If you'd seen pics showing the damage as is would you have bought the skirts? Obviously not. The guy should step up and say hey, I wasn't trying to cheat you but I can see what you got wasn't what I represented, send the stuff back at my expense and sorry for the inconvenience.

I was in this exact position just a couple weeks ago, I sold a CL guy what I thought was a genuine TRD grill only to find out from him it was an ebay knock-off, and not a good one at that. Being a good guy he offered to return it but it never occured to me that he should pay to ship it back, why would it? Why in the world should he be out of pocket for anything just because I was duped into thinking it was the real thing? That's my problem, not his, case closed.

macd7919

iTrader: (10)

You shouldnt have to pay shipping either way. Unfortunatly thats the way warranty works at alot of places. Even if it is not your fault you still have to pay the return shipping. So..worst case...pay the shipping back to him even though ethically thats not the greatest on his part. I would demand that I get a full refund of what I paid though, it's not your fault he shipped them out like that and all he had to do was tell his brother "Hey, can you go out in the garage and take a one minute look at the skirts and tell me if there are any scratches in them". Then this WHOLE ordeal would have been avoided with a one minute process.

csq860

It seems to me if anyone wants to have a policy that return shipping is at the cost of the buyer then that should be stated up front. I get what Macd is saying but I think that applies to big volume sellers, situations where people are ordering merchandise they may or may not want, like say J.C. Penney's. Lots of people order stuff just to see if they like it, if they don't then yes they should have to pay to return it, I mean you can't just go casually window shopping online at the sellers expense right? But this is a case where one individual is selling to another, trust is involved, the buyer is saying hey, I want what you have so long as it is what you say it is. If it is NOT what you say it is why do I have to pay for your misrepresentation, no matter if it was intended or not? I could see if e-man just didn't like what he got, it was the wrong color, didn't go with his eyes, whatever, then the seller would be right in saying ok then you pay to ship it back, I acted in good faith and should not suffer based on your whims. That's not what happened here it seems, e-man did not get what he paid for, period. Even J.C. Penney will send you a pre-paid return label if they ship you defective merchandise, ya know?

chuckb

the seller should eat the shipping charges. what he sent you was not what you were told you were getting. it's not your problem that his brother sent them and not the owner. his bro should've told him they were damaged. honestly, the guy probably knew they were like that.

Insedanity

I think the seller is being pretty cool about the whole thing. It's $18, suck it up.

When my coilovers blew i had to pay shipping to send them back to K&W, and that's a business, not a private seller. Just be glad you can get your money back at all.

csq860

That your coilovers blew is after the fact, what if they had been defective upon original shipping? Would you have cheerfully paid to ship them back? In what way is the seller being "pretty cool"? Does a seller have an obligation to send what he said he was gonna send, or can he just send any defective stuff he has laying around and then it's the buyers obligation to either accept it or pay to send it back? Everyone agrees it's not the $18, it's a question of what's fair. What if it was a set of tires/rims and the shipping was more like $100? If the rims are listed as mint but arrive all rashed up, what then? Man what a business concept, suck it up. Hey dude you ordered a plasma tv but I sent you a box of rocks, suck it up. Sweet.

Daynja

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL!!!! Yea man I was on the fence at first but that analogy just put me on your side. Don't pay a dime!!!!!!!

Insedanity

Is it fair? No, it's not "fair". But it's the internet and you're lucky to be getting anything back at all. Anytime you buy used products from a non-registered business you take the chance of this type of stuff happening.

Like Big B said, just pay the shipping and be glad you're getting the bulk of your money back. You could be out on 100% of the money.