[Finance] Consumer Advice

[vegster]

Dear NSC Wisdom please help me.

In September I sold my little Yamaha RIB & 4HP outboard to a lovely bloke from Hove. I was chuffed to get £650 for it, exactly what I paid for it 5 years ago. As part of the sale I started and ran the outboard for half a minute to demonstrate it worked. I also declared that as I hardly ever used the outboard I had never had it serviced.

2 weeks later he calls me as he can't get the outboard to start. I offer to go to his house and have a look at it. I'm no expert. I go at it until my arm is falling off and cannot get it started. He tells me he's spoken to a marine mechanic who will service it for £100. I concede that that is I cost I would likely have incurred during my ownership and I offer to pay for the service.

Last weekend he texts me to say that due to pump & exhaust issues the service came to £300. How do I want to pay? I say that was not a number I expected to hear, or the number I agreed to in his garden. A very long passive aggressive text tirade follows in which I go extra generous and offer to go halves. He then launches an attack on my decency and starts quoting the consumer rights act at me with lots of exclamation marks!!!!!

I remind him how reasonable I've been and tell him that he's now on his own. I retract my offer of half the service.

My mind is open to the fact that I may have got this wrong, which is why I'm asking you fine folk.

Thank you

JR

I think you have been pretty good over this....as an aside, my pal has had a couple of SIB's and used to have a 2.5 horse outboard, he used to get a service once a year and it usually cost £70 all in.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

This is interesting thank you. I've just rechecked the advert I put in gumtree. I've written 'easy to start' by the outboard (because it always was). I started it with one or two pulls in front of him before he bought it. He claims not o have been able to start it at all.

In the context of your examples above where does this leave me?

You’ve overstepped in paying the £100 in my opinion, which was decent of you but too far in my opinion.

As a positive that will buy him 2 months gym membership to bulk up (for now anyway #tier1)


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[jonnyrovers]

I'd really like to be able to give you an opinion but,as I ride a motorbike and am therefore an organ donor, I'm afraid my heart isn't in it.

Have I missed something here......?

 

[jonnyrovers]

You’ve overstepped in paying the £100 in my opinion, which was decent of you but too far in my opinion.

As a positive that will buy him 2 months gym membership to bulk up (for now anyway #tier1)


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I haven't given him any money yet mate.

 

[Miximate]

Sounds like a non-starter to me!

 

[grubbyhands]

Have I missed something here......?

Post #3 on the motorcycle thread perhaps?

 

[jonnyrovers]

Post #3 on the motorcycle thread perhaps?

Ah ok you have a good memory. Maybe scroll down a few posts to the bit where I try to justify my poorly judged quip. Sorry.

 

[Justice]

I guess the question is what has he done between collecting and then contacting you again he could messed with things he knows nothing about.

 

[wellquickwoody]

Dear NSC Wisdom please help me.

In September I sold my little Yamaha RIB & 4HP outboard to a lovely bloke from Hove. I was chuffed to get £650 for it, exactly what I paid for it 5 years ago. As part of the sale I started and ran the outboard for half a minute to demonstrate it worked. I also declared that as I hardly ever used the outboard I had never had it serviced.

2 weeks later he calls me as he can't get the outboard to start. I offer to go to his house and have a look at it. I'm no expert. I go at it until my arm is falling off and cannot get it started. He tells me he's spoken to a marine mechanic who will service it for £100. I concede that that is I cost I would likely have incurred during my ownership and I offer to pay for the service.

Last weekend he texts me to say that due to pump & exhaust issues the service came to £300. How do I want to pay? I say that was not a number I expected to hear, or the number I agreed to in his garden. A very long passive aggressive text tirade follows in which I go extra generous and offer to go halves. He then launches an attack on my decency and starts quoting the consumer rights act at me with lots of exclamation marks!!!!!

I remind him how reasonable I've been and tell him that he's now on his own. I retract my offer of half the service.

My mind is open to the fact that I may have got this wrong, which is why I'm asking you fine folk.

Thank you

JR

Stick to your guns, you have been more than fair.

 

[Chinman3000]

I guess the question is what has he done between collecting and then contacting you again he could messed with things he knows nothing about.

This is exactly the reason things are sold as seen. As soon as it's not in your possession anything could have happened to it, which is why I'm surprised the OP offered anything at all.

Always worth writing two receipts that say 'sold as seen' on them in big letters and you both sign and keep them.

 

[Baldseagull]

Dear NSC Wisdom please help me.

In September I sold my little Yamaha RIB & 4HP outboard to a lovely bloke from Hove. I was chuffed to get £650 for it, exactly what I paid for it 5 years ago. As part of the sale I started and ran the outboard for half a minute to demonstrate it worked. I also declared that as I hardly ever used the outboard I had never had it serviced.

2 weeks later he calls me as he can't get the outboard to start. I offer to go to his house and have a look at it. I'm no expert. I go at it until my arm is falling off and cannot get it started. He tells me he's spoken to a marine mechanic who will service it for £100. I concede that that is I cost I would likely have incurred during my ownership and I offer to pay for the service.

Last weekend he texts me to say that due to pump & exhaust issues the service came to £300. How do I want to pay? I say that was not a number I expected to hear, or the number I agreed to in his garden. A very long passive aggressive text tirade follows in which I go extra generous and offer to go halves. He then launches an attack on my decency and starts quoting the consumer rights act at me with lots of exclamation marks!!!!!

I remind him how reasonable I've been and tell him that he's now on his own. I retract my offer of half the service.

My mind is open to the fact that I may have got this wrong, which is why I'm asking you fine folk.

Thank you

JR

Your only worry here I think is if you have agreed anything in writing about paying for the service, check your text messages with him to make sure you have not admitted to making that promise in any way.
I can understand him being a bit pissed off at having a £300 bill to get it fixed, straight after buying it as a runner, but I think your offer to go halves on it was fair and decent.
You could offer to go on Judge Rinder so he can make a few bob on the appearance fee, even if he isn't awarded the £300, which I am pretty sure he won't be unless you have slipped up in your text messages.

 

[Nitram]

The private seller rights have been covered above.
You sold a working item that you demonstrated to him as working if I understand you correctly.
After two weeks he gets back saying it’s faulty. Who knows what he was doing with it in that time?
You said you would pay towards the service costs, which given the 2 week delay seems generous, you then withdraw your offer as he says it comes to £300, which is more than you were expecting. I can see why he’s confused. You have made a clear cut situation a bit more complicated by agreeing to help out with the servicing.
My question would be do you trust him and have you questioned the trustworthiness of the quote?
I would stick to the offer of £100 and make that the end of the matter.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Posts like this make me realise how much I miss [MENTION=1416]Ernest[/MENTION]’s humour

 

[Chicken Run]

How do you know he hasn’t got it home and ‘tinkered’ with it?

Iirc he got the quote for the service?

I’d give him a full refund and and get the outbound back and start again!

 

[rippleman]

This is exactly the reason things are sold as seen. As soon as it's not in your possession anything could have happened to it, which is why I'm surprised the OP offered anything at all.

Always worth writing two receipts that say 'sold as seen' on them in big letters and you both sign and keep them.

This is great advice. Always ensure you give a "sold as seen " receipt when you make a private sale (and keep a copy of course).

As someone else pointed out he could have done anything to the asset from the time you shook his hand (or not!) and walked away to the time he contacted you saying it wouldn't start.

 

[jonnyrovers]

Your only worry here I think is if you have agreed anything in writing about paying for the service, check your text messages with him to make sure you have not admitted to making that promise in any way.
I can understand him being a bit pissed off at having a £300 bill to get it fixed, straight after buying it as a runner, but I think your offer to go halves on it was fair and decent.
You could offer to go on Judge Rinder so he can make a few bob on the appearance fee, even if he isn't awarded the £300, which I am pretty sure he won't be unless you have slipped up in your text messages.

That's a good point. I did say in a text message that if I couldn't get it started I'd pay for a service