How's it going peach parts? I thought I would share this for those of you selling cars and accepting deposits through pay pal. A nice gentlemen from california was going to buy my 1999 E300D and he put a 500.00 deposit on it through pay pal and was going to fly out and get it in a week or two. Well the deal fell through about a couple weeks later when he asked me to fix the ac first and I didn't have time. But i did have a nice W211 he might like better and could take his pick when he got here. I knew this was a bad idea mentioning this but he was planning to drive to Alaska from TN and I knew the modern car and good mpg would be a nice ride for him and a good value given how expensive ac work is. I could have easily just taken the car to my indy and had them overhaul the ac for him with him paying for it and I would have had a good sale.

But I'm not that kind of guy and he was really grateful i steered him to the w211. Once he was shopping for W211s he found a nice color he liked nearby for 7500 and got that. This is 2 weeks after he paid his deposit.

So then he wants his deposit back and says I should keep 200.00 of it. I thought that was nice but that he had no legal right to it and it was up to me if i wanted to return it. He insisted he had a legal right to it. But wtf would be the point of a deposit to hold the car for a couple weeks if you could just get it back anytime. And 200.00 deposit to do that is laughable and no one would agree to it. So his argument made no sense.

All my friends said i should keep the whole thing as i did him a big favor anyway. I told him when i sell the car I'll refund some of his deposit back. He didn't like that and sent me some internet cases about auto deals and that I had no legal right to it. I argued I did and so he puts in a claim with pay pal saying he didn't get his goods and wants a full refund. This was exciting for me and i told him great , lets see how paypal handles it as i have heard bad things about sellers getting screwed and wanted to see how it would play out. I had to post emails on paypals dispute page showing where he was scheduling his flight to come buy my car and him asking for 300.00 of his deposit back and that he could still come buy the car if he wanted.

One funny argument he made was that my ad was still on craigslist and if i was holding it for him why did i keep the ad on craigslist. LOL.

Well finally it went to paypal for them to make a decision. Guess who won? ME . They said his purchase was not covered under buyer protection and put the money back into my account. Sweet.

In the future, any deposits i get through pay pal I will have the person put in the note section "This is a non refundable deposit and I will not ask for it back if i decide not to buy the car." or something like that. Even better to request the deposit from him through paypal with the terms clearly written out as non refundable based on agreement he is coming to buy a car and I am holding it for him.
Also, I think it would be a good idea to do most communication through paypal and not on the phone especially any agreements on price and such.

The way i shared my emails with paypal was i just cut and pasted text into their form from the emails. This is not very ideal as I could have made anything up and he could have too. Lessons learned. Its good to know paypal will honor these contracts.

What would you guys do? Give the money back? do you think i was fair?

Cheers,

Pete

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What Would Rudolph Do?
1975 300D, 1975 240D, 1985 300SD, 1997 300D, 2005 E320 , 2006 Toyota Prius

Think? I think the whole idea of a deposit is you keep it if the person doesn't buy your car. Whether you take cash check or PayPal I have always played it this way. I walked out of a deal as a kid an gracefully lost my deposit (car had a mechanical issue that I didn't want to risk owning). I was happy to leave the guy with his car and my $125. What's the problem, deposit lost its meaning?

That being said the other walk away from this is PayPal doesn't offer buyer protection for this. What if you buy a car from across the country, deposit then come out. Your car isn't even there. Then what? I guess this would be the same issue with a money order.

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79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles

Totally legit. I watch The People's Court.

The only time I've purchased a car out of state I had a trusted friend not only go look at the car and check it out, but pay for it and store it at his place until I could fly out. I just wouldn't have done it otherwise. The internet is a hairy place.

-Rog

I'd of given ALL the money back minus any service charges from Paypal, or postage costs in sending the man his money back.

Why? Guy was a massive waste of time and energy.


Sent from an abacus

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Sorry i'm with skid row joe on this one. I'd have given if not all most of the money back. I know to some $500 isn't a big deal but for me and most people i know it's alot of cash to lose. I guess i look at what justification do you have to keep it all? He didn't take the car sure but you can relist it.

Why leave a deposit if you're not serious about buying? What is the point of a deposit if it's not actually a deposit? Time is money, he wasted time and energy.


Sent from an abacus

__________________
TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

I'm with subman. $500.00 is a lot of money to most men. What possible justification does one have to keep another man's money, simply because the man changed his mind after a few days?

SRJ, subman60 - the world does not work like that. You entered a contract to buy a car with a deposit of $500. You did not take delivery of the car, you forfeit the deposit. It is the same for house, boat, animal. Or SRJ's favorite subject - stock and bond. Which part of the word Contract you guys do not understand??

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Not MBZ nor A/C trained professional but a die-hard DIY and green engineer. Use the info at your own peril. Picked up 2 Infractions because of disagreements. NOW reversed.

W124 Keyless remote, PM for details. http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-used-parts-sale-wanted/334620-fs-w124-chasis-keyless-remote-%2450-shipped.html

1 X 2006 CDI
1 x 87 300SDL
1 x 87 300D
1 x 87 300TDT wagon
1 x 83 300D
1 x 84 190D ( 5 sp ) - All R134 converted + keyless entry.

I agree, return it all.

Just kidding. Ya, what the heck is the purpose of a deposit. A deposit say "hey, I really want it and to be sure you do not sell it on me, here is some cash up front. I will pay the rest when I pick it up, etc.". The other purpose is to have *some* buyer protection. Some people dont want to give some stranger full price and find out it was never there or sold. By giving some, a person is not totally out.

Anyway, the car was there. A deposit was made. Stupid enough to not buy it after making a deposit? So sad.

The only way I would want a deposit back is if I arrived and found the item not at all as described. In that the case the seller is not being faithful to the advertising. I think there would be a case to be made there.

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1991 560 SEL / 185k miles
1992 750il / 17k miles - project car

Absolutely keep it.

You ONLY put a deposit down if you're ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE that you are going to buy the vehicle. It's an incentive for the seller to not sell it out from under you. It's his own fault that he put a deposit down and then flaked over to the other W211.

I thought this would be common sense... You know what they say "common sense isn't always that common."

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'84 190D 2.2 5MT (Red/Palomino) Current car. Love it!
'85 190D 2.2 Auto *Cali* (Blue/Blue) *sold*
http://badges.fuelly.com/images/sig-us/302601.png
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/a...0/sideview.png

I don't get why this is funny. If you kept an ad active on Craigislist for a car that I had just paid you a $500 deposit for, I'd consider that you had made an agreement in bad faith.

I understand your frustration over his behaviour in the deal, but I would have accepted his deal or made a counteroffer for 50/50, which he likely expected. I believe in karma and regardless of who paypal says was right, I dislike mishigoss in general in my dealings.

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Forget about karma. This is a Contract. I think the OP kept the car for him in good faith for 2 weeks. The deals fell thru after that and then he tried to sell it on CL ( I read between the lines here. ). OP had every RIGHT to keep the deposit even if I read the lines wrong. This thread should be in OD. I am out of here as I have nothing to add, it is a Contractual issue.

__________________
Not MBZ nor A/C trained professional but a die-hard DIY and green engineer. Use the info at your own peril. Picked up 2 Infractions because of disagreements. NOW reversed.

W124 Keyless remote, PM for details. http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-used-parts-sale-wanted/334620-fs-w124-chasis-keyless-remote-%2450-shipped.html

1 X 2006 CDI
1 x 87 300SDL
1 x 87 300D
1 x 87 300TDT wagon
1 x 83 300D
1 x 84 190D ( 5 sp ) - All R134 converted + keyless entry.

If it was me, I would have pulled the ad from CL, or at the very least, edited to indicate an offer had been made and potential sale pending.

Similar to a house not getting officially taken off the market until closing. It is in one of 3 states: available, under contract, sold.

__________________
The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech

Yep. Common sense and contracts are good things. Glad to see most people understand. Earnest money on a house or car or whatever is always non refundable. Thats the whole point otherwise it would be meaningless and not serve its purpose. I was thrilled to see pay pal understands this as well and you don't need signed documents and what not for a contract to be a contract.

I was totally willing to go 50/50 once the car sold which i thought was more than fair on my part and i told him that. But it was my call and when he put in the pay pal claim and said legally i had no right to keep the money I said great, and was happy to play that game

Re , putting the car off craigslist or updating the ad saying sale pending -- bad idea unless you want to scare off potential buyers. Or maybe that would attract buyers in some psychologically twisted way? Anyway i thought it would scare buyers away. A buyer 2000 miles away is not reliable. I did get one call about it while i was holding it and told the person someone paid a deposit and was supposed to come next week to get it and they never came out to look at it or got back to me since.

A friend is supposed to put a deposit on it next week now. So hopefully that will go through. Its a good car if anyone is interested in a nice 1999 E300D . It has 13000 worth of maintenance records on it and runs perfect. The ac compressor is on its way out but its working great now. Everyone wants me to fix the ac but I don't have time right now. I may just get all the parts and take it to the local indy.

Cheers.

__________________
What Would Rudolph Do?
1975 300D, 1975 240D, 1985 300SD, 1997 300D, 2005 E320 , 2006 Toyota Prius