sold a body 9months ago, got paid in full, still have it....what now?

Send him a certified letter (and keep a copy for yourself) specifying a date that the body needs to be removed or it will be re-sold and his money will be deemed forfeit. Make sure it has to be signed for by him, as to cover your ass.

 

How much do you want for it?

 

X2... take paypal for an initial small deposit but never ever accept the full amount through paypal, get it cash in hand when the buyer picks it up.

Paypal is owned by ebay and they will screw the seller every time.

 

Ebay will only refund his money for 60 days , you will not have to refund his money at this time what so ever, resell it you have given him plenty of time. All kinds of things happen in 9 months death, divorce, unemployment, the wife found out , etc.

 

x2 letter should give him 30 days and make sure it's certified

 

This has been my experience as well. The other poster who said they waited 9 months and then Paypal refunded the buyer, I don't believe that without some proof.

If the buyer isn't that far away, bring it over to his address and dump it on his lawn. If he's a long distance away, give him 7 days and resell it. If he can't show up to pick the damn thing up, he isn't going to show to start a fight.

 

Not entirely true. If the buyer used his credit card to pay Paypal to pay the seller, you lose your rights pretty much ENTIRELY. I sold a frame to a guy, he picks it up in person. I had him sign a paper saying he picked it up in person. He left, all was good.

11 months later (yes 11 MONTHS) I get an email from Paypal saying he reversed his credit card charges stating he never recieved property. I sent a copy of the signed letter to Paypal to fight it. It is in Paypals TOS that if a credit card transaction is reversed, you lose, pretty much no matter what. Paypal will not only side with the credit card (not debit cards), but they also charge you a "processing fee" on top of it and tell you to take it up with the buyer and his credit card. The credit card will tell you that the legal trasaction is between the buyer and Paypal, so you have ZERO recourse.

As I read up on it, it is actually becoming a fairly common scam now.

Like said before, Ebay/PP ONLY protect the buyer. Take a few hours and read PPs TOS (terms of service), it will simply amaze you.

http://www.paypalsucks.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=8705&fid=3&block=0 <<<< has a few similar stories on it as well.

www.paypalsucks.com has countless stories. Most people dont ever bother to read the user agreement. Why? Well, mostly, it is over 100,000 words long and constantly grows.

 

So, close your paypal account, then send him the letter. If you have no paypal account, they can not charge you back. If your account was backed by your credit card, you may want to cancel that account as well. Don't know how legal any of this would be, but as carefree as ebay and paypal screw people, they would have to work to get me, but they never got a credit card number from me. Gene

 

well what i would do is resell it.. if you want to be nice send him most of the money and keep a percentage for storage fees or your time or what ever and call it good..

 

First of all be very careful, many things could come back and haunt you, if you re sell it and he comes back...you will be paying him and if a Attorney gets involved...you may have problems, because if it was bought on line a smart Attorney could use the Rico law on you if you are in a different state and used the wire services and it about 15 Garand to defend that mess.
I have a simular thing going on I bought a Rebuilt flathead from someone and when I went to get it he installed it in his 32 coupe and had another that was in the process of being done, well its been years of chasing him and trying to get the motor and he has excuse after excuse...well now he just avoids me and wont take my calls and all I want is another moptor..rebuilt of course or my 32 hundred bucks, back...well I am done chasing him and have spoken with the Attorney Generals office and they are going to prosicute him and file Fraud charges against him....and all I want is what I paid for or my money back...not having to deal with this jackass in court....so becareful and find the guy no matter what it takes and if you know a Police officer or someone else in Law Enforcement...they maybe able to help you find him and explain what happened...you never know the guy might be sick or in jail!!
so make every effort to deliever on what you sold...you dont need the BS of dealing with being sued or prosicuted...and you sound like a nice guy and smart guy and want to make good on what has happened.
BY the way the guy I am chasing down is a H.a.m.b.er also and I did go to get the engine and he had instaled it in his car. I have kept it off here so far, but like I said its time to take care of this nasty business and when its done I will post it and give everyone the heads up on doing business with this guy and hopefully he makes good on this or I will just have to follow the motions to get back my money..I guess!

 

Any chance of posting a pic of the body?

 

The legit way to do it is to notify him preferrably by registered mail that he has X days to get it - 30 is a nice reasonable number - then the storage is $X per day. One tow guy we know down in Oneonta gets like $40 a day for outside storage - if you want to be really prepared, call a couple local places and ask them what they charge and average it out or take a little less. Once the storage exceeds what he paid, sell it again. Inside storage is even more money, so it shouldn't take long for the bill to exceed the value of the body.

After this much time, you will probably never see him and if the guy doesn't even have the time or the gas money to come get that body, he's not going to have money to take you to court, especially if it's a guy from out of state who would have to come to New York to sue you. Which is basically all he can do if you sell it - sue you. You come to court, prove you gave him adequate notice to remove it, back up your storage charge, countersue for the storage fees, and concievably you could come out three times on the same car, but worst case it ends up a wash. Because it amounts to a civil matter. I suppose the guy could claim fraud or this or that, but here again, you keep proof you notified him to come get it, and you're in the clear. Yeah, he could get an attorney or whatnot, but how's he going to pay that guy if he can't even find $200 for the gas to get this body?

Just by example, we had to do this twice - the '34 Ford cabriolet we dug up sold once to a guy in Washington. After a year and nothing from him, we sold it again. It took that guy six months to come get it, but he did finally get it. Got a lot of shit for that car on here, but it sold twice, easily, to guys who apparently had money to burn, so go figure.

The other one I did that on was the '53 Skylark. I sold it outside of eBay to a guy from Australia. He paid up front wire transfer, then was supposed to come get it a couple times, then nothing. He had me ship him the tags and a couple pieces off it seperate, so I figured that was really all he wanted anyways. After almost two years, I sold it again to a local guy. Lo and behold, a month or so back I get an email from him, a sob story about losing two kids and his wife leaving him and being sick, I think the only thing that didn't happen was being raped by a kangaroo. He didn't even have my last name spelled close to right. I figured to leave it that way. The guy who did get it combined parts of three shitty ones and already had a body in primer six months after he bought it, by now the thing's probably about ready to go on the road.



Or, alternatively, you could leave it outside and I guarantee it would be gone the next day, just let me know when you put it out....

 

Oh, and never take Paypal on anything you can't ship with a tracking number - either postal, UPS or FedEx - that stops the "item not recieved" scam in it's tracks.

 

Had a guy come buy a 40 Ford dash from me and paid in full--said he would come back and get it--sent him a letter and he called saying he was coming--still here and it's been 14 months--think I'll just send him his $$ back

 

This situation really sucks, since with out a title it is technically a part and not a car. I had a former customer sponge parking off of us for like 9 months. We couldn't get in touch with him to pick up his car because he was avoiding us. In this case we had the advantage of this being a complete titled car, so we filed the paper work to put a lean on it.
The dude was a lawyer so we were super careful, certified letters stating we now had to start charging for storage, notice of intent to recoup losses (back storage) ect. That lean notice really lit a fire under someones ass. On the final day for him to settle up, and still be able to get his car, this old man walked in and plunked down $3,500.00 cash. It turned out that the old man was the customers dad who has the same name, and it was his car! He knew nothing of it until he got a letter from the DMV, boy was he pissed at his kid. I know more often than not there isn't a title with an old body, but if it has a title you could probably get a title-registration place to help you out. I used one just because I needed to make sure everything was right with the paper work since this guy was a lawyer and all.
As far as the ebay thing, it is a legal binding contract that both parties must honor by fulfilling their obligations. I am pretty sure that picking up the crap you just bought is part of the deal for the buyer. So why not try contacting ebay and see what they say about it? Good Luck.

 

Greetings to all! Every state has strict "abandoned property" laws, laws which must be carefully followed if you want to stay out of serious trouble. Properly disposing of abandoned property usually involves expensive lawyers and court time so my policy when selling a vehicle is to not accept any money until the buyer shows up. The reason I do this is because once you accept payment you have entered into a legal binding contract with the buyer, if anything should happen to the item (theft, fire, hail, meteorite) the buyer could take the seller to court and demand not to be reimbursed but "to be made whole", which means if the buyer got a smoking deal on the car the seller could be forced to purchase another vehicle in similar or better condition regardless of cost, then hand it over to the buyer. If no money changes hands the buyer does not have a contract, he only has a "promise".

 

If it wasn't documented, it didn't happen!

 

Greetings to all! Every state has strict "abandoned property" laws, laws which must be carefully followed if you want to stay out of serious trouble. Properly disposing of abandoned property usually involves expensive lawyers and court time so my policy when selling a vehicle is to not accept any money until the buyer shows up. The reason I do this is because once you accept payment you have entered into a legal binding contract with the buyer, if anything should happen to the item (theft, fire, hail, meteorite) the buyer could take the seller to court and demand not to be reimbursed but "to be made whole", which means if the buyer got a smoking deal on the car the seller could be forced to purchase another vehicle in similar or better condition regardless of cost, then hand it over to the buyer. If no money changes hands the buyer does not have a contract, he only has a "promise".

 

Paypal blows, for the buyer and seller. I got taken for several grand on a Harley deal that Paypal and Ebay's buyer protection wouldn't cover. Then a year later I got popped by a buyer who was a scammer and claimed he never got something 5 months after I shipped. They said that a buyer can file a chargeback up to 6 months after a transaction. I told them once we got it straightened out to close my account.

I can't see how they can come after you 9 months later thru Paypal, but they might have legal recourse. If it's an item that sold for a couple of grand it would probably be best to spend a hundred or two and consult a lawyer.

 

You should give it to me, and pay to ship it here. While you are at it you should probably give me the $$$ to finish it as well

 

In a pawn shop it's usually 90 days before it's considered abandoned. And they don't try to contact anyone.

That's why I never use paypal. Too many ways to get screwed with no good way to complain.

 

Gmans356 you said you paid $3200 for a rebuilt flathead,went to get it ,actually saw it and didn"t get it and left,you need to change your name to Weeman 356. that is just nothing to whine about years later.That is your own damn fault for getting screwed.

 

Listen you jackass, he had installed it in his car before I could pick it up and what was I suppose to do? give him a beat down and go to jail, instead I took him at his word and he did have a nearly done engine that he claimed he would finish....so dont jump to conclusions so fast and believe me, I am no punk...and I am also smart and dont want to spend anytime in jail for a fucking thief.
So next time dont write dumb shit before you know the full story...G

 

Nik,How long ago was this incident? Earlier this year,I bought an unfinished guitar body from a guy who dragged his feet after I paid him. Ebay and PayPal's position was: "45 days to file a dispute,period".

 

That's ebay's position, this clown did a chargeback thru his credit card, with them you have up to 6 months from date of purchase. Call you CC tomorrow if you paid with one, if you just did a bank transfer thru PP then you're screwed.

 

This is the body in question.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=391595&highlight=willys

Like i've said, i spoken with this guy about once every two months on the body. First few months he was going to hire me to do some additional work on it, such as hanging the door hinges and decklid. I had him ship me the parts and i was going to install them. I even quoted him the job cheap seeing he bought the body. Months go by and i have to call him cuz i havent recieved the hinges yet. Finally get them in and no trunk hinges. So i hang the doors, and wait. He calls me about a month after i do that and says he doesnt care if im not finished with the work he wants to come get the body labor day weekend. So i tell him that i called him 3 times and left 3 messages on his machine that the doors are hung and im waiting on the trunk parts. "oh, i didnt get the messages" Then i told him i need this thing out and that i am no longer willing to do the trunk. He tells me that he is going to send the hinges, and if i find time to install them... Note, i didnt get paid for any work after the sale of said body,

The last time i spoke with him was about 3 weeks ago, he said that he forgot about sending the parts. At this point i made it very clear that i am not going to do the trunk, and that i gotta move this thing. He says i'll be there the sunday of labor day weekend.(this past sunday) He has my cell and shop #s, I recieved no phone calls. And stayed in town sunday just incase he shows up. Left a message on his home phone today, and have not recieved a call back as of yet. I'll call him again tommorrow.

 

Gmans356 didn"t write nothing stupid,if you paid for the engine and had a reciept for it since you are so" legal" minded when you went to get your property all you had to do was get a local cop to go with you to pick it up,he would have been made to give you what you bought.but since you are so smart,did you get a reciept and how long after buying the engine did you go to get it?so whats the whole story.?

 

Actually, the time frame varies from credit card to credit card. Some credit cards have up to 12 months to do a chargeback (usually credit union credit cards), some are 3 months, some are 6 months.

In order for Paypal to accept credit cards, they have to abide by the terms of the credit cards rules. Unfortunately, Paypal will do NOTHING to help you out if a credit card company gets involved. They roll over like a $2 hooker.

 

Once you started doing additional work on it, you changed the rules/"contract". I would go talk to a lawyer before doing anything. The money you spend on a lawyer cosultation will be invaluable in this.

 

I sold a chevy 6 engine in february, (on craigslist)
and the guy came by today to schedule a pickup this saturday,
7 months later!
This is the 4th time he said he'd pick it up,
so i'd bet $50 he's just buying another month of storage by dropping by!

However, after the 1st month,
I did push it outside.

TP