A young man’s friend recently got back at a grumpy old man who was out to make a profit.
Here’s what he had to say.
The friend had advertised a water heater online for $150 but ended up accepting an offer of $100. The water heater was used for boiling water for tea and coffee, the kind of thing used in community halls or church kitchens.
Two weeks later, the buyer, who owned a landscaping company, complained that the water heater was not working. The seller responded in a fair and decent way by offering a full refund or covering the cost of repair if it was under $100.
However, the seller of the water heater was shocked to receive an invoice for repairs totaling $400. He was also told he had 48 hours to settle the debt. Otherwise, a debt collector would be coming after him.
Out of fear and panic, the seller paid the $400, only to receive an email from the buyer saying, “This is the price you sometimes have to pay when selling second-hand electronics… have a great day, don’t let this hold you back.”
A month later, the seller overheard a girl in a bar talking about how her boss, who ran a landscaping firm, “screwed over some idiot selling a water heater.”
The seller asked if he could join in the conversation, and the girl told him that her boss had bought a broken water heater from a second-hand store for $25 and a working one for $100.
He then billed the original seller for the repair of the broken one before selling it for $300 to some community group.
She told him the name of the company, which confirmed it was the same guy that had bought his water heater!
He was angry, but then Covid arrived, and he got distracted.
However, 18 months later, he was browsing the website from where he originally sold the water heater and saw a load of landscaping materials for sale, shovels, wheelbarrows, drills, construction materials, etc., and a generator.
He knew that if you’re selling a generator, you need to have a Warrant of Fitness, proving that it works, it’s safe, with no frayed wires, etc.
Most people ignore the requirement, but since he recognized the seller as the guy that ripped him off, and he could tell by looking at a picture of the generator that it wouldn’t pass a Warrant of Fitness, he decided to get his own back.
He and his flatmate clubbed together to buy the generator for $800.
He’d never actually met the landscaping owner before because when he bought the water heater, it was left outside for pick-up.
So when he arrived to pick up the generator, he noted that the landscape owner was a “grumpy old looking man who enjoyed yelling at his employees,” and the deal was very much “as it is, no refund.”
He picked up the generator and left; no Warrant of Fitness was provided.
Failure to provide one within two weeks of the request is punished with a hefty fine, a refund for the buyer, and any costs they may have incurred.
The generator was taken to an electrician friend, who agreed to check it over and gave him an invoice for repairs.
The electrician said, “It would be cheaper to buy a new generator and to be honest – this generator shouldn’t have been sold. It should’ve been scrapped.” He also found that the main identifier number had been scratched off.
The buyer emailed the seller and told him that the generator was faulty and the cost of repairs totaled $5000. Of course, the seller said he wasn’t paying for any repairs as the terms were “as it is, no refund.” So the buyer then asked for a Warrant of Fitness.
The friends emailed the man for over two weeks, and when they didn’t hear back, they decided to report the man to the government.
“Four months later, my friend was in court, and the guy went up to him. He tells him that he will take back the generator for $800 and that my friend and his flatmate will be going in to tell the judge that the seller has refunded them and that they want it all dropped, and that’s what’s happening here full stop end of the story they are doing what they are told to do.”
The friend said no.
The judge ordered the landscaping firm owner to refund the flatmate the $800, pay the $5,000 for repairs to the generator, AND was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine – which would be given directly to my friend’s flatmate as the affected party.
“When they left the courtroom, the owner was furious and told them that under no uncertain terms was he paying them a penny more and that he couldn’t understand what he had done to deserve such treatment.”
The buyer simply responded, “Remember the water heater you sold me for $100? Well, I do – because I know you had a different one repaired and invoiced me. What goes around, comes around.”
The seller was stunned and realized he had been caught in his deceit.
So, did the landscaper get what he deserved?
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Source: Reddit
