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Does this guy have a case against me?

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stream41

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? I live in Arkansas, he lives in NJ.

I sold a guy 75 Motorola Razr cell phones. He saw them on eBay, but did not actually purchase them through eBay. He paid me by PayPal e-check. I then put in the order with my supplier, a company that I believe is based in Virginia. These phones do NOT come with any kind of refund policy - but they do come with an exchange program that covers ANY defective phones for 30 days. He was made aware of this program.

A week or two after he receives his phones, he sends me an email demanding that I give him a full refund for all 75 phones - nearly $12,000. He said that he's had all kinds of eBay customer complaints, PayPal disputes, and unhappy customers who have defective cell phones. I informed him that he needs to use the exchange program to get his customers new phones. He refused, basically saying that was too much trouble, and he just wanted to return all 75 phones and get a refund. At this point we were still on good terms, so I agreed to try to help him get a refund from my supplier.

I talked to my supplier, and they agreed to offer him a full refund if he returned all the phones - even though they normally don't do that. He said "Okay" and then disappeared for 3 or 4 weeks. After a week or two, my supplier informed me that since we hadn't heard from him, they were revoking their refund offer.

A few days ago, he e-mailed me and said that he has returned 22 defective phones to my supplier, and he wants an immediate refund **from me** for $3300. A lot of somewhat angry e-mails passed back and forth between us, but I've basically told him that he's not getting a refund and that he will have to use the exchange process just like I did when I had unhappy customers.

Keep in mind that I'm very angry with my supplier as well, because the quality of their merchandise is obviously sub-par. However, they offer the warranty exchange program, which I've had to use upwards of 20 times now. This gentleman has the exact same access to this program that I do, and he's been made aware of it on countless occasions.

So, here's my question. Does he have a case against me? He has threatened legal action if I don't refund his money. I've told him that I don't have his money (which I don't), and that he needs to use their exchange program, which he knew about from the very beginning. If he does actually come to Arkansas from New Jersey and file a case against me in small claims court, will he have a good case? We offered him a full refund, then he disappeared for several weeks. We then told him he can use the exchange program for those 22 defective phones, but he is refusing - he just wants his money back. How will this play out?

I'm thinking he won't have any kind of case whatsoever because A) We offered him a full refund, and he didn't comply within a reasonable timeline and B) we have continuously told him to use the warranty exchange process for the defective phones, and he hasn't cooperated. He just wants his money back.

Thanks in advance!

-JesseWhat is the name of your state?
 


moburkes

Senior Member
He might have a case from you without moving from his computer screen-if paypal allows him to dispute the charges.
 

stream41

Junior Member
He might have a case from you without moving from his computer screen-if paypal allows him to dispute the charges.
He already tried a PayPal dispute, but since he didn't actually buy the phones on eBay, PayPal wouldn't let him.

I don't see how he could possibly have any kind of case, since we offered him use of the warranty exchange program more times than I can count.
 

moburkes

Senior Member
When you sold them to him, did you state that YOU had a no refund policy? Since he didn't buy the phones through your distributor, he is not obligated to deal with YOUR distributor.

You state that you've had to return faulty phones before. So, how soon did you realize that your distributor was shady? After you spent your customer's money, or before?
 

stream41

Junior Member
When you sold them to him, did you state that YOU had a no refund policy? Since he didn't buy the phones through your distributor, he is not obligated to deal with YOUR distributor.

You state that you've had to return faulty phones before. So, how soon did you realize that your distributor was shady? After you spent your customer's money, or before?
Well, it's not exactly that THEY are shady - it's the suppliers in China from whom they buy the phones. My supplier is actually very good about getting replacements sent out when I have a defective phone. I'm just very tired of them getting sub-par phones from their sources in China.

This situation with the gentleman in NJ is basically the straw that broke the camel's back for me. After that, I decided to break off all business with this supplier and stop selling phones. I'm still in the process of trying to do that. Back at that point, I still had 10 or 15 phones of my own to sell before I could break all ties to my supplier - actually, I still have 2 left.

I never actually stated anything about the refund policy, simply because my supplier has that warranty exchange program in place. It pretty much makes refunds/returns pointless. I did, however, explain the warranty program several times in detail.

Let's do an analogy. If you walked into Best Buy and bought an item that you couldn't return - say, a music CD. You opened it up and listened to it, and it has a big scratch on it. If you walked into Best Buy and told them you wanted to return it and they wouldn't let you, you can just threaten to sue them. They would tell you to exchange it, and if you didn't want to exchange it, then you're out of luck. This is the exact same situation - a perfectly good warranty exchange system is/was in place for any defective phones, but he is choosing not to use it. He can't just sue me because he doesn't want to use our exchange program.
 

moburkes

Senior Member
I'm going to disagree. BBs refund policy is clearly written. You don't have to guess, or find out LATER that you can't get a refund for the CD.
 

stream41

Junior Member
Well, I have an update. One thing that I left out of my original post is that my supplier actually sent this guy 10 extra phones that were supposed to go to a different customer. They can prove this with tracking info, and they can prove that he signed for them - it's in black and white on the USPS's website. He has not returned those 10 phones.

I talked to them this morning, and they're going to take the 22 phones he wants refunded, and subtract 10 phones out of that for those that he hasn't returned to them. They've now offered to refund his money for 12 phones (22 minus the 10 that he has). I think that's pretty darn generous.
 

stream41

Junior Member
Update:

It's looking like we're going to be able to settle this without any nasty legal stuff. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks for the advice anyway.
 

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