County Court Claim against me

lazymoezy

To be totally honest, I dont have the funds to refund him, £175 is not a small amount of money. Its not me who is delaying it, CPW are going to take 9 days to fix it as they need to order a part needed to fix the phone.

Also, I went to my local mobile shop and CPW and they said go to another one which I went to today, its not like I've been sitting at home not trying to resolve the matter.

I give him another call tonight to see if he is back at home. I'll see if he would be prepared to take the phone back, if he doesnt then I'll have to get the money from somewhere! He did state in his emails he would eithe rlike the phone back fixed or the money, hence, the reason why im willing to give the phone back.

Would I have to respond to the court in any way if I return the phone back to seller (presuming he accepts it)?

Thanks,

MoE

king_of_the_penguins

To be perfectly honest with you, your priority at this moment in time is to make the problem go away. To do that it seems that the only course of action is to refund the buyer in full (which I do feel you should have done some time ago)
If you refund the £175 then it seems unlikely that it will go any further than that, however I believe that they cant get the fee back.

You have to remember that if you go to court it will be transfered to a local court to you and if he wins (which I am sure he would) then you could have to pay the court fees, his travelling expenses and any lost income! this could add up significantly.

If you could not afford to pay the amount awarded then you go down the whole ugly route of court orders and that is not a good idea.

Look at it from the buyers point of view, they see your feedback, you sell mobile phones on a regular basis therefore a trader and the phone is boxed and new. Why should they have to go through all the hassle that has obviously occurred?, why should they wait for a repair? would you accept such service? I doubt it!

You are going to have to take the hit on this and learn from the experience, if you dont sort it out then its going to get worse!

Hintza

Moe you have to keep funds free for situations like this, I suggest you beg or borrow the money and get this guy of your back. This situation is not going to go away and if i was the buyer there would be NO way I would now accept the phone in which case fees and costs are going to escalate especially if the debt collectors get involved, these guys charge £40-£50 to pay you a visit, I can't imagine the rest of the family are going to be pleaed especially when it starts to affect their credit ratings.

PAY THE GUY!!

lazymoezy

He finally picked up his phone! He was very calm and siad that because nothing was progresssing he had no choice to claim his money back.

He howeve said because I called and told him about the situation, he would accept the phone back next week which isnt a problem as long as it is working.

So just waiting for the phone to get fixed so I can send it back to him.

Luckily he is accepting the phone back.

Thanks for the help and advice,

MoE

motorguy

if i were you when you pick it up from CPW i'd go straight from there to the post office and post it special delivery.

lazymoezy

Thats what I said to the buyer and thats what I would do.

He didnt mention anything about the court fees, would it need to be paid off still even though everything is sorted, well half sorted untill I send the phone off.

Maybe he didnt pay it because he said he worked as a Commisioner of Oath or somethig like that and that he signed documents for courts.

apprentice_tycoon

Moe, I think you need to have a big think about this situation -

I don't want to patronise you but you worry me, I'm old enough to be your mum and I have a son just a little older than you.

If you were mine I'd be concerned about things like this transaction, maybe this bit of bother is on the way to being sorted out but if you carry on selling phones you are in danger of getting your fingers really burnt financially and you aren't in a position to absorb the costs. You have had a close shave, as Hintza said this could have got very awkward with debt collectors etc. also can you be sure that the phone you bought off your friend wasn't stolen?

I admire your enterprise - I really do - but I think you have to restrict yourself to cheaper, easier things to sell, maybe things that aren't so open to sharp practice, scams, chargebacks and disgruntled buyers, this guy is bound to give your sister a negative for this and that's unfair on her.

I think that you'd sleep better at night if you turned your skills to selling something completely different - get hold of some Millers Collectable Price Guide books from the library, read them and find something that you can connect with then go out to find them from boot sales, charity shops, local auctions, junk shops etc.
Ebay is so easy for this because you can check out the completed auctions to see what this 'whatever it is' sold for recently, it takes all the guesswork out of it.
What I was thinking of was thinks like phone cards, Star Wars items, old metal toys, Lego etc - there is bound to be something that attracts you and you'll soon become an expert in your new interest. selling things like this will never result in the situation you have now

lazymoezy

Thanks apprentice tycoon.

I do most of this to gain a bit of experience and see what it is like really.. Im doing a diploma in business and am just trying things out.

Everything I try to do is business minded and hopefully some of this stuff inc. the above situation would help me in the future.

Heres the daft bit and I got a funny feeling that some of you would never stop laughing but its the truth. Sir Alan Sugar is a massive inspiration and what he done from day 1 till now inspires me a lot. Ok I know he started off by renting a stall and selling on that and I know that isnt nothing close to selling a few mobie phones here and there.

I'll stop before I embarass myself even more. I would like to thank everyone who have given advice, I do appreciate it and this site has really helped me in many aspects.

-MoE-

Bossyboots

A Commissioner for Oaths is a qualified solicitor who can witness legal documents. It is a term rarely used nowadays as any qualified solicitor can do this.

I think he has been using terms he believes you won't understand to frighten you. Even if he worked at the court he would have no more rights than you and no specific entitlement to avoid paying the court fee.

Take heed of what apprentice tycoon is telling you.

apprentice_tycoon

Moe, you do well to have a business icon to look up to and Alan Sugar is a great role model for you.
I go to an auction every 2 weeks to buy my stock, it's china and antiques and I wouldn't suggest that for you at all, you'd be bored stiff with it - but what I see at these sales is other stuff that is just ripe for someone to make money out of, in the last few weeks there has been lots such as stock from shops that went out of business and household goods that have been repossesed.

These are not the kind of things that I would sell as my listings and ebay shop are all china etc and these would look odd but they sold for very little money and the buyer will make money out of these for sure.

They may not be items that will interest you greatly but did Alan Sugar always sell interesting things? no - he sold things that he knew that he could make money on - and that's the bottom line.

While I'm giving you a 'mumsy talking to' take notice about all the advice you've been given about tax, if you are buying to sell you are in a taxable situation.

edit - come and have a look at our Amazon thread, read the first post and see if it does anything for you......