I was all set to deliver BMW Touring for sale on Saturday morning. I loaded up the car Friday night, in anticipation of leaving at 10:15 am Saturday morning for the ~1 hour drive to the guy's address. We were communicating via FB Marketplace.
Saturday morning rolls around and I'm waiting on my dad to arrive, who agreed to ride down with me for company. I'm scrolling through my phone while waiting. I eventually discover this message and realize I am definitely NOT going to sell a car that morning! First time I've been in this situation!
Your deal is not with this crazy person who clearly doesn't understand cars, I would be undeterred.
i would have put Bob Costas-whipped James' balls in a sling by replying:
"Suit yourself, but it was clearly stated that the $1000 deposit is NON-REFUNDABLE."
I would have shown up with the car just to see her go critical. Then again, you are probably doing the buyer a serious solid, and he might live to see another day.
If time and distance were not a factor, oh, there is so much opportunity for "trolling" here.
With a couple of Go-Pro cameras mounted inside, imagine the "hilarity" of dropping your car off on the street in front of the "buyer's" house. Perhaps a quiet, later night, drop off so the car would be there in the morning when the wife wakes. Of course, you may want to be sure to have full insurance on the car in case the wife takes out he anger by smashing the car.
NickD
PowerDork
8/12/19 10:03 a.m.
AngryCorvair said:
i would have put Bob Costas-whipped James' balls in a sling by replying:
"Suit yourself, but it was clearly stated that the $1000 deposit is NON-REFUNDABLE."
Yeah, you did make sure to state the deposit was non-refundable in writing, correct? I got caught out by that after some kid paid a deposit on a car I was selling and was going to pick it up the next weekend. I turned down a bunch of other prospective buyers during the week. Then the morning he's supposed to get it, his dad texts me and says they are coming to get the deposit back because he found his son a better car (a 1999 Grand Am with a Quad4, lol). I said "Nope, deposits are nonrefundable, you gave me a deposit to hold it until you could come pick it up, not a so that you could buy time to shop around." The father threatens to call the cops on me, so I do some digging and, yep, because I didn't put in writing that it was nonrefundable, I technically have to give it back. Then when the guy shows up to get the money he tries to act all buddy-buddy and says "No hard feelings, right?" I replied with "You threatened to call the cops on me, yes, there are hard feelings. And here, sign this paperwork saying I gave you your money back, so that you can't try to call them on me and say I never returned it."
slefain
PowerDork
8/12/19 10:13 a.m.
How do you know that is from anyone who has any sort of say in how James lives his life? Maybe it is his ex-wife who still has access to their Facebook account. Let James make his own choices or mistakes, that isn't your problem. This is business, not a family counseling session.
That being said, when I was flipping cars my favorite thing to see when haggling over a price (when I was buying) was a pissed off wife in the carport. When the wife screams "get this damn car out of my driveway" my offer dropped a few hundred immediately.
It wasn't a huge concern for me. I didn't have a deposit from him and ended up selling the car last night to a friend of a friend who is thrilled to have a BMW wagon to work on. Worked out for the best all around!
logdog
UltraDork
8/12/19 10:54 a.m.
Is it me or did the screenshot disappear?
Duke
MegaDork
8/12/19 11:11 a.m.
Am I missing something here? I don't see any message.
DrBoost
MegaDork
8/12/19 11:21 a.m.
dyintorace said:
I was all set to deliver BMW Touring for sale on Saturday morning. I loaded up the car Friday night, in anticipation of leaving at 10:15 am Saturday morning for the ~1 hour drive to the guy's address. We were communicating via FB Marketplace.
Saturday morning rolls around and I'm waiting on my dad to arrive, who agreed to ride down with me for company. I'm scrolling through my phone while waiting. I eventually discover this message and realize I am definitely NOT going to sell a car that morning! First time I've been in this situation!
Where’d the screen capture go?!?
DrBoost said:
dyintorace said:
I was all set to deliver BMW Touring for sale on Saturday morning. I loaded up the car Friday night, in anticipation of leaving at 10:15 am Saturday morning for the ~1 hour drive to the guy's address. We were communicating via FB Marketplace.
Saturday morning rolls around and I'm waiting on my dad to arrive, who agreed to ride down with me for company. I'm scrolling through my phone while waiting. I eventually discover this message and realize I am definitely NOT going to sell a car that morning! First time I've been in this situation!
Where’d the screen capture go?!?
Yeah, I was all ready to share it with my wife!
Back in the day we would write the guy a $100 check to hold the car with “deposit” written on it.
If I am a no show? Cash the check - $100 used to be an okay amount.
Otherwise I’m bringing back the full agreed upon amount in cash and we tear up the check.
Back up. I wanted to make it a bit more anonymous.
dyintorace said:
It wasn't a huge concern for me. I didn't have a deposit from him and ended up selling the car last night to a friend of a friend who is thrilled to have a BMW wagon to work on. Worked out for the best all around!
Pretty sure it didn’t work out for James, and won’t as long as he’s in that marriage.
Margie
Marjorie Suddard said:
dyintorace said:
It wasn't a huge concern for me. I didn't have a deposit from him and ended up selling the car last night to a friend of a friend who is thrilled to have a BMW wagon to work on. Worked out for the best all around!
Pretty sure it didn’t work out for James, and won’t as long as he’s in that marriage.
Margie
Sad, but likely true.
No joke: My wife gave me an ultimate when I mused that I might sell my miata and stop autocross to save money.
She insisted (which is rare for either of us) that I not give it up.
slefain
PowerDork
8/12/19 12:26 p.m.
Floating Doc said:
Marjorie Suddard said:
dyintorace said:
It wasn't a huge concern for me. I didn't have a deposit from him and ended up selling the car last night to a friend of a friend who is thrilled to have a BMW wagon to work on. Worked out for the best all around!
Pretty sure it didn’t work out for James, and won’t as long as he’s in that marriage.
Margie
Sad, but likely true.
No joke: My wife gave me an ultimate when I mused that I might sell my miata and stop autocross to save money.
She insisted (which is rare for either of us) that I not give it up.
I had a girlfriend tell me that if I bought a '69 Olds Delta 88 convertible she was leaving me. I used the car in my wedding 13 years ago and it is sitting four feet away from me at this very moment. I don't know what happened to the ex-girlfriend, but the car is still fantastic.
Heck, I wrote a story about it: https://web.archive.org/web/20150906053809/www.autotraderclassics.com/car-article/The+Classics+Perspective+_+Good+Trade-61398.xhtml
I once got a car for a girlfriend, best trade I ever made!
Wait, this etire thread is predicted on said message. Where is the message? I also realize that is Monday morning and I'm at work on 3 hours of sleep. I'm probably looking right at it.
wae
SuperDork
8/12/19 12:54 p.m.
I spent a while trying different browsers, turning off extensions, and all sorts of stuff trying to figure out what the hell everybody was talking about. I see an image of a message now, but before lunch there was nothing.
Marjorie Suddard said:
dyintorace said:
It wasn't a huge concern for me. I didn't have a deposit from him and ended up selling the car last night to a friend of a friend who is thrilled to have a BMW wagon to work on. Worked out for the best all around!
Pretty sure it didn’t work out for James, and won’t as long as he’s in that marriage.
Margie
That's pretty harsh, Margie. Maybe this dude has 34 cars in various states of disassembly scattered all around his house. 
