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I recently bought a fridge from an auction site. There was also a mini-fridge included that I didn't need so I decided to sell it. The first couple of people that responded couldn't understand why I wasn't willing to give free delivery over 100 km away. Then I got the guy that I ultimately sold it to. I can't explain exactly what I didn't like about this guy, it was just intuition. His messages of "give me your address" were just too rude and abrupt but it was his constant badgering question of "is the fridge working" that really got to me. Certainly I can understand a certain level of skepticism when you are buying a used product from an unknown anonymous party, but a certain level of trust is needed. I assured him that, as stated in the ad, it has been tested, it is working fine. This was questioned at least a half dozen more times. He got my spider sense tingling so much that I refused to allow him to come to my home, I insisted on a neutral meeting site. This was unacceptable to him because he would not be able to test it. After more badgering, he was near me so I told him that I will deliver it. In spite of being available to come to my home, he was not available to be at his home but his roommate can accept delivery, he'll pay me after he gets home and tests it. Yeah, nah. Cash is required on delivery. I give it one more test before taking it to him then get the delivery done. One more quick test and I'm paid and it's finally done. Of note, I found it a little odd that he had three fridges in his garage and various parts lying about.
Late the following day, I get a text complaining that the fridge is running but is not cooling, he wants me to come back to pick it up. I ponder a reply. My first instinct is to just give him his money back, I was selling it very cheap so it's not like it's a significant amount of money. But then I get to thinking about things. I double tested it and it was tested on site. We didn't do a full cooling test on delivery, but it was running and appeared to have no problems. It is entirely possible that it suddenly broke down, these things can happen but that's highly coincidental, and it's an accepted risk of buying used product. I really think he was planting a seed of doubt in my head with his constant badgering then he wanted to see if I would fall for it. The extra fridges in his garage make me think that he buys and strips them, attempting to rip people off in the process. Of course there is the possibility that something broke loose while I was transporting it and I delivered a broken fridge to the poor guy.
Either way, I decided that I'll pull a him and "not see his message", so I didn't bother replying. Two weeks later and I haven't heard another word. I don't want to say that because he's failing to harass me, he must have been trying to scam me, but I would certainly expect more than one single text message. I believe that he threw a line out, when I didn't take the bait, he just moved on to the next victim.
Late the following day, I get a text complaining that the fridge is running but is not cooling, he wants me to come back to pick it up. I ponder a reply. My first instinct is to just give him his money back, I was selling it very cheap so it's not like it's a significant amount of money. But then I get to thinking about things. I double tested it and it was tested on site. We didn't do a full cooling test on delivery, but it was running and appeared to have no problems. It is entirely possible that it suddenly broke down, these things can happen but that's highly coincidental, and it's an accepted risk of buying used product. I really think he was planting a seed of doubt in my head with his constant badgering then he wanted to see if I would fall for it. The extra fridges in his garage make me think that he buys and strips them, attempting to rip people off in the process. Of course there is the possibility that something broke loose while I was transporting it and I delivered a broken fridge to the poor guy.
Either way, I decided that I'll pull a him and "not see his message", so I didn't bother replying. Two weeks later and I haven't heard another word. I don't want to say that because he's failing to harass me, he must have been trying to scam me, but I would certainly expect more than one single text message. I believe that he threw a line out, when I didn't take the bait, he just moved on to the next victim.
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