Private sale gone wrong. What are the consequences?

Sandwich

So long story short I sold a laptop on Facebook Marketplace. The buyer came yesterday, inspected, was happy with it, paid by bank transfer and then left. Today I get about 20 messages in quick succession about ‘screen burn’ (there was none as far as I could see, just minor marks from four years of use), which concluded with him saying he will be coming back to return it. I told him not to and that the sale was final, but he’s obviously still not happy and says he’s going down the legal route. 

My question is, should I be worried? I’ve been selling stuff online for many years and never had anyone unhappy with something I’ve sold so I’ve never been in this situation before. I presume small claims court is one possibility? What would I need to prove innocence in that case? 

 

user1977

There is no "legal route" assuming you haven't misdescribed the item. Doubt you'll hear anything about a small claim.

billy2shots

The buyer came yesterday, inspected, was happy with it, paid by bank transfer and then left. 


You have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Well, apart from someone turning up at your door trying it on. 

Block his number or choose not to reply. 

Sandwich

user1977 said:

There is no "legal route" assuming you haven't misdescribed the item. Doubt you'll hear anything about a small claim.

Thanks for the advice. I wouldn’t say I misdescribed it at all. I noted there was no ‘damage’ as such, but that there were ‘age related marks’. And like I say, he fully inspected it. 

I suspect he’s trying it on because in one of his messages he gave me an ultimatum of a full refund or ‘some money back’. Even when we concluded the sale he tried to get some money knocked off the agreed price even after agreeing the laptop was ‘mint’ (his words). I knocked another £10 off just to get the sale done but it was a bit annoying. 

Sandtree

Even if he has no grounds that doesn't stop him issue proceedings and you having the faff of going to the county court but that's unlikely and you could see it as an interesting experience

Sandwich

Sandtree said:

Even if he has no grounds that doesn't stop him issue proceedings and you having the faff of going to the county court but that's unlikely and you could see it as an interesting experience

I see. Yep I wouldn’t really be bothered and I’d probably find it interesting, as long as I was confident I was ‘innocent’. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Sandwich said:

user1977 said:

There is no "legal route" assuming you haven't misdescribed the item. Doubt you'll hear anything about a small claim.

Thanks for the advice. I wouldn’t say I misdescribed it at all. I noted there was no ‘damage’ as such, but that there were ‘age related marks’. And like I say, he fully inspected it. 

I suspect he’s trying it on because in one of his messages he gave me an ultimatum of a full refund or ‘some money back’. Even when we concluded the sale he tried to get some money knocked off the agreed price even after agreeing the laptop was ‘mint’ (his words). I knocked another £10 off just to get the sale done but it was a bit annoying. 

For a private sale the goods have to be as described, is screen burn damage or fair wear and tear?

Is it actually screen burn as Google suggests it's not a common thing to occur with laptops?

Sandwich

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Sandwich said:

user1977 said:

There is no "legal route" assuming you haven't misdescribed the item. Doubt you'll hear anything about a small claim.

Thanks for the advice. I wouldn’t say I misdescribed it at all. I noted there was no ‘damage’ as such, but that there were ‘age related marks’. And like I say, he fully inspected it. 

I suspect he’s trying it on because in one of his messages he gave me an ultimatum of a full refund or ‘some money back’. Even when we concluded the sale he tried to get some money knocked off the agreed price even after agreeing the laptop was ‘mint’ (his words). I knocked another £10 off just to get the sale done but it was a bit annoying. 

For a private sale the goods have to be as described, is screen burn damage or fair wear and tear?

Is it actually screen burn as Google suggests it's not a common thing to occur with laptops?

He said screen burn but I don’t think that’s what he meant. He’s basically talking about the panel not being perfectly uniform, as in if you display a single colour on the screen you can see minor variations in the colour dependent on the angle etc. That can happen with a new machine but can get worse over time. It wasn’t something I ever noticed and you do need to be looking for it to notice in this case. 

billy2shots

Sandwich said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Sandwich said:

user1977 said:

There is no "legal route" assuming you haven't misdescribed the item. Doubt you'll hear anything about a small claim.

Thanks for the advice. I wouldn’t say I misdescribed it at all. I noted there was no ‘damage’ as such, but that there were ‘age related marks’. And like I say, he fully inspected it. 

I suspect he’s trying it on because in one of his messages he gave me an ultimatum of a full refund or ‘some money back’. Even when we concluded the sale he tried to get some money knocked off the agreed price even after agreeing the laptop was ‘mint’ (his words). I knocked another £10 off just to get the sale done but it was a bit annoying. 

For a private sale the goods have to be as described, is screen burn damage or fair wear and tear?

Is it actually screen burn as Google suggests it's not a common thing to occur with laptops?

He said screen burn but I don’t think that’s what he meant. He’s basically talking about the panel not being perfectly uniform, as in if you display a single colour on the screen you can see minor variations in the colour dependent on the angle etc. That can happen with a new machine but can get worse over time. It wasn’t something I ever noticed and you do need to be looking for it to notice in this case. 

And it's something a lot of brand new panels have from factory. 

When getting ready to spend serious £ on my 65" Oled, the horror stories I read online were enough to make people not bother. 

I concluded it's best not to go looking for imperfections. 

MalMonroe

When buying from Facebook Marketplace, there are procedures in place to protect both sellers and buyers if there are any (real or perceived) problems. Did you tell your buyer to follow those? If not, it might be the place to start.

Why can't you just let him have his money back and return the item though? He isn't happy with his purchase, for whatever reason.

I'd feel awful if I took somebody's money and they weren't happy with what they had bought from me.

billy2shots, above, says 'you have absolutely nothing to worry about'. Which is perfectly true if you're happy to take someone else's money for something that they are not happy with.

But you won't get good ratings and besides anything else, won't your conscience bother you?

Or is that just me?

Give him his money back and let him return the laptop. You know that's the right thing to do - otherwise you wouldn't have even bothered to come on here to ask.  Be the better person. If there's nothing wrong with the laptop then why can't you accept it back to resell? What's all the fuss about? 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Sandwich said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Sandwich said:

user1977 said:

There is no "legal route" assuming you haven't misdescribed the item. Doubt you'll hear anything about a small claim.

Thanks for the advice. I wouldn’t say I misdescribed it at all. I noted there was no ‘damage’ as such, but that there were ‘age related marks’. And like I say, he fully inspected it. 

I suspect he’s trying it on because in one of his messages he gave me an ultimatum of a full refund or ‘some money back’. Even when we concluded the sale he tried to get some money knocked off the agreed price even after agreeing the laptop was ‘mint’ (his words). I knocked another £10 off just to get the sale done but it was a bit annoying. 

For a private sale the goods have to be as described, is screen burn damage or fair wear and tear?

Is it actually screen burn as Google suggests it's not a common thing to occur with laptops?

He said screen burn but I don’t think that’s what he meant. He’s basically talking about the panel not being perfectly uniform, as in if you display a single colour on the screen you can see minor variations in the colour dependent on the angle etc. That can happen with a new machine but can get worse over time. It wasn’t something I ever noticed and you do need to be looking for it to notice in this case. 

Sounds like you should be OK in that case and there' no requirement to accept the laptop back.