Buyer Backed out of Sale NEED Advice regarding deposit.

[Ember1]

Hi there,

I am having a huge problem with a buyer.
I agreed to a payment plan with a buyer for a pricey pony.
She paid $500 deposit on the pony. She wrote me a few weeks ago
saying that she has to back out of the sale and wants me to sell her
something worth $500. I don't currently have anything that I am selling
worth $500.

Generally as far as my experience buying ponies on the arena,
deposits are usually non refundable.. BUT... I am perfectly willing to have this pony
on hold for her indefinitely until she can resume payments on it.. She is not
interested in buying the pony anymore though..but has asked for something else instead.

I am out of a job and am more worried about paying utilities for my apartment than anything else.. I can't afford to send her the deposit back..

She has now said she is going to petition the amount she paid me on her credit card

How to I proceed?

Moving this over to Trader Support for you. Snork Maiden, WYP Mod

[Ember1]

Hi there,

I am having a huge problem with a buyer.
I agreed to a payment plan with a buyer for a pricey pony.
She paid $500 deposit on the pony. She wrote me a few weeks ago
saying that she has to back out of the sale and wants me to sell her
something worth $500. I don't currently have anything that I am selling
worth $500.

Generally as far as my experience me buying ponies on the arena,
deposits are usually non refundable and this is not always spelled out before purchase.. BUT... I am perfectly willing to have this pony
on hold for her indefinitely until she can resume payments on it.. She is not
interested in buying the pony anymore though..but has asked for something else instead.

I am out of a job and am more worried about paying utilities for my apartment than anything else.. I can't afford to send her the deposit back..

She has now said she is going to petition the amount she paid me on her credit card

How to I proceed?

[Galactica]

Did you tell her before hand that the deposit would be non-refundable?  Probably not right?

But she agreed to buy the pony for a certain amount and you agreed to sell it for a certain amount, and she made some progress payments on the purchase.

I would think you have an enforceable contract to require her to finish her payments.  If you want to let her out of her obligation, it would be up to you. 

Sounds like a sticky situation.

[banditpony]

Ember, I'm really sad to hear this.

Out of curiosity, was it clearly understood that the deposit was non-refundable? If so, do you have any documentation of it...? :/

[Ember1]

It didn't occur to me to say anything before she paid the deposit. I figured we had an agreement and by her sending the deposit she was was serious about this purchase. She has bought expensive ponies from me before without a problem so I never figured I needed to plan for these situations or that anything like this would happen.

[Ember1]

It didn't occur to me to have this understanding before she paid the deposit. I figured we had an agreement and by her sending the deposit she was was serious about this purchase. She has bought expensive ponies from me before without a problem so I never figured I needed to plan for these situations or that anything like this would happen.

[NovelNerd]

I'm not sure how this would work but without documentation if she paid through PayPal couldn't she have the money pulled and refunded through PP anyway?

[Galactica]

What a terrible situation-  I think it is totally unfair of her to threaten to reverse her credit card charge on you, but it does seem like the credit card companies side with the buyer automatically when a dispute comes up, so if you don't work something out with her, I suggest saving all of your emails and PMs to show that you had a contract to buy that she was still paying on.

[banditpony]

Oh...
I'm not sure you can do anything, except try to scrape up the $500 ( if you have nothing else to sell at that price point.) That sort of thing needs to be clearly stated up front. :/

[Ember1]

It is not my fault though that she backed out on our agreement. I feel that from my side I am being willing to hold the pony for her indefinitely.. until she can make payments.. thus holding to the original agreement. I do not understand why this is not acceptable.

At the very least i think it should be agreeable to offer the deposit back to her once the pony is bought by someone else

[LadyMoondancer]

Yikes, that's a difficult situation.  Do you have multiple ponies that would add up to $500, like a $300 pony and a $200 pony?  Or five $100 ponies?

[Ember1]

Yes i have 3 g3 protos for sale at the moment.
I have offered her this option.

[banditpony]

It is not my fault though that she backed out on our agreement. I feel that from my side I am being willing to hold the pony for her indefinitely.. until she can make payments.. thus holding to the original agreement. I do not understand why this is not acceptable.

At the very least i think it should be agreeable to offer the deposit back to her once the pony is bought by someone else

It's not your fault she backed out, no. But as a seller you need to state your terms upfront-- to try to protect yourself. And yes, you do have a generous layaway... however if you didn't say your deposit was non-refundable, then it will be looked at as refundable by third parties (paypal or a cc company)

Since it wasn't defined-- I don't think it's fair to hold someone else's money -- as in, holding the money until someone else purchases the pony.

[Ember1]

i did state to her that i was selling because i was in need of money due to job loss and that the payments from the payment plan was going toward paying rent.

[banditpony]

i did state to her that i was selling because i was in need of money due to job loss and that the payments from the payment plan was going toward paying rent.

I know... and it makes me literally ill to my stomach you are in such a tight spot right now.