OK, small problem with the sale of my Delorean. The buyer from Minn. seems like an up and up good guy, just putting that out there. I try being as fair as I possibly can be.
The back story:
A couple of days prior to the buyer flying to NJ I take a last drive in my car, everything is fine as ever but when I bring her back and hook her up to the battery tender I notice it reads bad battery... What a PIA. SO I call my mech (I was just real short on time) and I drop the car off the next day and he replaces the battery with a new one. I feel better that I did the right thing, knowing it will start for the buyer every time on his drive back to Minn.
FF a couple of days and on the morning of the sale I start the car and do a systems check, everything is good EXCEPT the drivers window for some reason won't go down, seemed like there was no power to it. I figured it blew a fuse when getting the battery changed out, but with no time to investigate properly I cover the car and drive off to pick up the buyer from the airport.
Once we get acquainted I inform the buyer that something happened to the drivers window, my solution was to give the buyer $200 cash, towards the repair, if the cost was greater send me a proper bill and I'd send him a check for the remainder, if it was less, he could send me a partial refund. I offered that if he had another idea I'd listen. He agreed with my $200 solution and we continued with the test drive and inspection.
Everything else about the car checked out and the sale went through. I gave the buyer $200 cash and they drove off.
I got a text message from the buyer during the trip home saying he thought the car was leaking oil as he smelled something. I simply advised him to park for a lunch break and inspect the car after lunch. He did and there was no sign of an oil leak but it seemed that a hose on the left side of the engine bay was leaking some fluid. I advised him to call DMC to find out what the hose was for or at least stop at a shop along the route to make sure it was safe to continue riding. He checked the oil level and said it was steady and didn't need to add any oil.
I got a text saying he made it home safe without further incident.
Today a week later he sends me a text (The rest is paraphrased) saying he found a leak in the rear engine seal and that he was going to repurpose the $200 towards fixing the seal.
I said, Do what you want but that wasn't our deal, you bought the car as is, I advised you to ship the car home but you wanted to drive it. Now you want to use the money allocated for a window fix towards an engine oil fix. That's fine I can't bargain with you at this point, you have my money, but now now the deal of over and I consider the matter closed.
He seems upset that I'm not happy and is willing to go back to the original deal, now I don't know if I can trust him, he could make up a padded bill for the window, new motor, new wiring, who knows.
My point is you don't get to repurpose the money for one thing to another then still expect me to pay for the original item.
(for the record, the engine was clean, my driveway was clean (actually dirty but no sign of any leaks), he had ample opportunity to inspect thee car, I had ramps there if he wanted to raise the car up.
So what do you all say, do I now let him go back to the original deal and take my chances, do I now insist he keeps the $200 and apply it towards anything he wants (I figured I would not get anything back to start with) or some other meeting of the minds?
I hate little BS like this.
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Originally Posted by 82DMC12
