Can't even sell on BMFA now without it being a PITA

[PeteStewardson]

<sigh> I assumed if you didn't put your email or phone number on a BMFA ad that you'd be pretty safe to sell on there with loads of headaches. Turns out I was wrong.

I sold my 180cfx and DX6i from an ad on there, guy was buying for his son as a beginner. Got an email today demanding a full refund because 'the heli is in bits'

Turns out he's crashed it, and now says the throttle on the DX6i failed and it's no good and that's caused the crash. He's also going on about the servos being broken or something.

Fed up, so now I'll be wasting time with paypal as he's straight out said he's going to complain to them if I didn't refund him in his first email...

Never had an issue selling on here, I assumed BMFA would be ok to, looks like I was wrong.

[bigbladelittleblade]

If it was in perfect working order when you posted it then don't refund him, contact PayPal ASAP and explain the situation. I had a similar situation a while back I contacted PayPal before the buyer and explained that the Heli was in perfect working order, after that I never heard from the buyer or PayPal again.

[jimmyhorns]

I think you will have to stick to your guns with paypal and await the dispute... it will be a while til you get your money, but you will probably get it. If not then just threaten the guy with a small claims court application. It costs peanuts and usually a justice of the peace or magistrate will have very little difficulty in working out what has happened in the balance of probabilities (if they think that it is 51% likely or more that you are telling the truth, then you get the money). Save all the emails and correspondence, and then threaten to submit it to the courts.

[PeteStewardson]

So I just got another email from him saying the throttle failed on the TX and the servos were damaged in the crash. In the mean time I've just found another email in my spam filter from the other day saying he was happy with it but it needed new servos as the plastic holding the servos in were broken. Well I guess he'll have to go to paypal, I'm not being conned because they've crashed it a few times.

[Grumpy]

The guy sounds like a complete arse. His boy obviously crashed the heli and he's looking for someone to blame, some people cant accept that a crash is their fault.

It's good policy to always put 'due to nature of hobby strictly no refunds'.. or words to that effect on any listing just to cover yourself from the jokers out there.
I got scammed by a guy i sold a fixed wing to. The plane was mint, no issues whatsoever. I got bombarded with emails texts and calls from him saying that the wing fell off in flight causing the plane to crash and he wanted a refund. Either he had simply crashed it and was making excuses or he'd not fitted the wing properly when he re-assembled it, there was certainly nothing wrong with the wing when i sold it. But in the end to stop him leaving bad reports on the site i part refunded him, which makes me mad even today.

[PeteStewardson]

Update: So now he says I knew the servos were broken as they had 'special washers made up for them' now I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. But now he's just demanding a refund for the servos. Strangely seems to have forgotten about the DX6i which was supposedly faulty. hmmm odd. Basically it's sounding like his son has crashed it a few times, and he's realised it's not a toy and thinks he can con the money out of me.

I am a fully skilled heli pilot i have my a test and b test i fly 500 600 700 and 800 helis so i know what im talking about the servos where broke when i got the model the bolt hols in the servos were broken im not bullying you i just want you to do the right thing and pay for what was broke before you sent it to me.

Fully skilled pilot with a B cert and flew a heli with broken servos? Erm... Yeah this really is getting silly now.

[waveydavey]

Pete tell him to go do one. As Grumpy says above due to the nature of the hobby you can't be held responsible for the stupidity of the person you sell to.

[George J]

I'm struggling to see why you're giving it a second thought Pete, as Dave said above tell him to f~ck off.

[trillian]

If you have pics of it as it appeared in the ad, maybe one of them will show enough to see no damage or oversized washers or whatever on the servos?

Also, if he's talking about going to Paypal, did he not send the money as a PP gift? If it was done as a gift then he'd have to figure out a way to weasle out of that. (as others have said though, if he already admitted crashing it then he has pretty much painted himself into a corner)

[ChrisB]

Who is the twat?

Tell him to **** off.

[tigeral]

maybe he should be named and shamed on here and bmfa so others dont have the same issues you are having. on small items the only things you can do is video the heli working and then put into its box none stop as a personal record!!! I do take pictures of the item when handed over the counter at the post office just as a reference, but he is being totally un real!! But I have been in Midland heli when a person had bought a blade 450 and it was well damaged and when questioned as to whether he had crashed it he said no but that he had only flown it in his house and it only hit a chair!! I couldnt believe what I was hearing!! stick to your guns and get your money.

[Granpappy]

Just send a final email stating:-

'All equipment was serviceable, accurately described and fit for purpose on dispatch. I am not responsible for the end user's inability to use the equipment supplied without causing subsequent damage. If you wish to take the matter further then please feel free to take any course of action that you feel appropriate. However, please be aware that any course of action that you take that requests any form of financial recompense will be strongly contested by myself including the use of legal action if required.'

Just ignore any follow up emails and see what transpires.

[pooleman]

Sorry to read about another idiot using PayPal the wrong way... the world seems full of them, unfortunately you have to treat everyone like they are out to have one over on you sorry it's not worth much but you have my sympathy, hope you get it sorted relatively painlessly. If he can or does go to paypal stay on top of it and close to them, supply everything they want and pictures if you have them as previously mentioned, it may drag on for a few weeks but you will get there

[Mikej]

Pete,

The 180 has very thin "washers" that spread the load of the bolts on the servo tabs - all standard on a 180CFX.

Agree with the others - all part of the hobby unfortunately (as we all know to out cost....)

cheers,
Mike

[tourerjim]

Brings back memoeries, I sold 250se good 2 years ago & the matey started asking question about it that obviously new nothing about helis, then said he'll buy it as his other helis are to big for his garden, then startd to ask if i had a tx...! so I sold it to him knowing I had doubts about his flying knowledge, within two days he put in a dispute to PayPal, however I won the day as I had a video of it flying on the day of posting it out & pictures of it being packed.
At the time I just had that feeling this would happen, paypal where really good & helpful so my advise is let PayPal know now & if they would like email copys & few words to why you don't think it should be disputed.