safe from montana in ohio????

HELP!?!?!?!

What is the name of your state? What is the name of your state? Ohio

We sold an item on e-bay to a buyer in Montana. A month after receiving the item, the buyer starting calling us and claiming the item was damaged and he wanted a refund. The item was in excellent condition when we shipped it, so the damage was not done by us, we are sure. We have no intention of refunding any money for an item he has damaged and wants to send back. He is threatening to take us to court and put a lien on our home. He is in Montana, we are in Ohio. We cannot afford to travel to Montana to defend ourselves. What can be done? Would we have to go to Montana or else pay the refund??

was the item insured for shipping?

What does e-bay say about "where" a contract of sale is entered into? Did the buyer purchase the item from Ohio or from his own state of Montana? If Ohio, he would have to file suit in Ohio, assuming you have no other contacts with Montana.

Just curious, but what was the item and what is saying is wrong with it?

stephenk said:

If Ohio, he would have to file suit in Ohio, assuming you have no other contacts with Montana.

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My response:

Do I smell an International Shoe, minimum contacts, discussion about to brew?

IAAL

he sent the money to us in ohio, so i guess that counts as him buying it in ohio??? we have no other contacts in montana. it was not insured for shipping, but he arranged his own shipping, so that is in his hands as well. We sold him a car engine - I am a mechanic and inspected it carefully and there were no problems. Now he says the block is cracked and wants me to pay for shipping charges and to refund it, or to at least buy him a new block, which would cost just as much as what i sold him the entire engine for!!! There was no crack in it when i sold it to him.

also, he is threatening to sue us through the US Postmaster for accepting a payment through the mail for a "fradulent" sale....is that possible???

My response:

It could have cracked because the metallurgical properties of the block were defective, and something you couldn't have seen by visual inspection.

If we told you to refund this guy's money and pay for shipping, would you do it?

IAAL

i don't think i should - even "if" that is what happened - it was not cracked when i sent it - why would you suggest that?

reasoning being that i would have to buy back something that had been ruined and would have no resale value, but would be a hunk of junk i would have no use for - i got rid of it because i'm moving into an apartment and would have no place to store it until i found a car to stick it into, and i don't have the money right now with college expenses to be rebuilding cars. i had the engine running in my old car and it was fine. it had less than 500 miles on it and everything on the head i had professionally rebuilt.

the crack in the block could easily have come from a poor attempt at installation that he caused by himself....which is my guess....

IAAL, if no warranty or guarantee was made, then such a defect, if true, would fall on the buyer's shoulder not the seller's.

I dont know why anyone would buy an engine block online without having it inspected by a mechanic.

You gets what you pay for.

Ames, was any warranty or guarantee given to the seller?

stephenk said:

IAAL, if no warranty or guarantee was made, then such a defect, if true, would fall on the buyer's shoulder not the seller's.

I dont know why anyone would buy an engine block online without having it inspected by a mechanic.

You gets what you pay for.

Ames, was any warranty or guarantee given to the seller?

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My response:

Stephen, while Caveat Emptor is certainly the law in California, notwithstanding some form of warranty or guarantee, I couldn't make that blanket assumption for the two, particular, States involved in our writer's transaction. For all I know, and perhaps you too, there may be some implied warranty, or other consumer protections available for private transactions in either of the two States mentioned. I just don't know.

However, what our writer is conveniently "skirting" is the issue of the defect by insisting that the block was "fine" at time of shipping; i.e., he says that he "visually" inspected the block, and I'm saying that there may have been some defect in the block metallurgical properties that our writer couldn't see; e.g., crystallization, prior to shipping. But, our writer, I'm sure, didn't have a running engine prior to shipping, and there were no tests performed under normal running conditions. He merely "visually inspected" the block, it passed "his" inspection, and shipped it.

For all we know, this block's cylinders were "ground" thin, never tested "under load", and couldn't resist the high temperatures and loads pursuant to the manufacturer specifications, and cracked as the result.

Personally, I don't think anything will come of this matter, and the buyer is only "flexing his muscles" and spraying testosterone all over the place. Even if the buyer spent $2000.00 on this "block", the costs of collecting a judgment over State lines will cost as much, and probably even more.

This is one of the reasons why I tell people to stop buying across State lines; especially when products, parts or services are usually locally available. This is another reason why, for the most part, I no longer respond to questions from E-Bay buyers and sellers - - there's too much "trust" involved, and that trust, more often than not, blows up in someone's face.

Unless you're a company or person who is versed in sales across State lines, doing so for the average person is treacherous at best, and completely crazy at worst.

IAAL

Being a mechanic, I am aware of other factors other than visual flaws. Despite the "grease monkey" stereotype, we do posess more intelligence than apparently some people are aware. Another mechanic, a friend of mine, checked it out as well, and gave it two thumbs up. I made the option available to the buyer to have it inspected by "escrow", but he chose not to take advantage of that option. I gave him no warranty or guarantee, it wasn't even discussed. The buyer actually never even contacted me to request pictures or information, he just suddenly bought it within the last hour it was listed on auction. The engine WAS used in my previous automobile, and worked just fine, without any kind of problem. I took it out of the car when I sold the automobile, because the engine was worth more than the crappy car I put it in, and the buyer of the car just wanted a cheap frame. So I sold the engine separately.

After the buyer bought it, I didn't hear anything from him until a month after it was shipped to him, which I think shows his guilt in and of itself.......I've asked him to investigate the possiblity of it being damaged during shipping, but he seems unwilling to take that up with the shipping company. He says that possibility seems "impossible."