Being sued over a used cell phone..

[shige]

Hello,

I sold a phone on Kijiji about a week ago and today he texts me saying the WiFi doesn't work and demands a full refund or for me to pay half of the repair costs. I deny both of these options as in my experience the WiFi worked fine and that it has been a week since the phone exchanged hands. At first, he was threatening me by demanding a refund or that he'd hand my phone number to his "brother's friend" (this guy is well over 50 years old.) I phoned the police and I asked the constable to call him and ask him to smarten up. Almost instantaneously afterwards he sends a very long and aggravated text saying that I have furthermore "motivated" him to make this "right." He is telling me that he will sue me in smalls claim court for the cost of the phone plus any additional repairs as well as the court costs themselves. I realize this is kind of a rant but I can't believe anyone would be bothered to go to court over a used cell phone. I want to know if I should even take this guy seriously or not. He obviously has a ton of free time to worry about this situation considering I sold him the phone well below average market price and that he even haggled down the price a few more dollars. In my opinion he should just take the money he saved from haggling to fix it.

If anyone can give me their 2 cents on this situation I'd greatly appreciate it! Has anything similar happened to you?

[sr20s14zenki]

Does he have a receipt from you for the phone? How about a warranty..

Tell him to get fucked. This isn't judge Judy.

Plus be sure to keep record of his threats.

edit: made this comment before he mentioned he KNEW the wifi doesnt work all the time.

[spikerS]

just ignore it. it is a private sale, with no offer of guarantee. buyer beware, sucks to be him.

if you get a court summons, file a counter suit for costs, but you wont.

same shit has happened to me a couple times.

[top_speed]

LMFAO tell him to pound sand, buyer beware, he can't do shit

[frizzlefry]

Pain in the ass to sue. If there is no factory warranty than he is SOL. Buy a used car without factory warranty, bitch to the seller if it's not perfect. See how far that gets you

[shige]

Thanks for your input

The only evidence he has against he is that I said that "Yeah, the Wi-Fi can be temperamental"

Would this be something to be concerned bout?

In the original Ad I did not mention anything about the phone being perfectly functional, I don't know if that makes a difference.

[FraserB]

If you do take it back, you could sell it to MGCM for "testing" purposes.

Edit: Only if it's an iPhone 5

[thetransporter]

how does the wifi not work?

bad module?
does firmware need to be restored?
using encryption with compatibility issues?

[Kloubek]

With the vast majority of goods, it is simply buyer beware. The only way he would have a case is if he can prove you said the wifi was working perfectly and it wasn't, and even then it would be a hard case to win - as it is possible the wifi was working just fine and then died after he claimed possession.

If you truly did tell him the wifi was "tempermental", then that also absolves you of any moral responsibility in my mind.

So in short, you're fine.

[FiveFreshFish]

Can't remember the thread or the poster who said "this isn't Future Shop."

Text that to him.

[shige]

Haha I'm pleased to hear he doesn't have much of a case!

He claims it's the motherboard that is faulty..

Thanks for your replies everyone

[rx7_turbo2]

Best thing to do is cease all correspondence.

If he continues to contact you keep a record for your own purposes, but there's no point in going back and forth with the guy.

If he chooses to sue, which is highly unlikely you'll be notified and can deal with it at that time.

[guessboi]

Kijiji = Buyer beware. He doesn't have much of a case here.

[botox]

I don't know anything about law, but if you said that the wifi can be tempermental after the sale, isn't that like admitting that you knew there was a problem with it but didn't mention it before the sale? But for a couple hundred bucks I really doubt he's going to go through with a lawsuit.

[googe]

But who here would be pissed if they bought a phone and it had broken wifi?

[D'z Nutz]

Originally posted by FraserB
If you do take it back, you could sell it to MGCM for "testing" purposes.

Edit: Only if it's an iPhone 5

Caveat: wifi has poor signal when tunneling.

[msommers]

Selling a broken phone to MGCM sounds racist to me

[Jeff TYPE R]

Wait, so you knew the wifi was "temperamental" and assumed a quick mention would do the trick? Maybe technically, but you obviously didn't impress that fact on the buyer very well, or else they wouldn't be on your ass right now. IMO, YDI. Hopefully the money you made was worth this hassle.

[cancer man]

hope he doesn't where you live.Broken windows ,keyed car etc.

[khanan]

He can't do nothing. The cost to start a small claim is about $250 lol If he does all the paper work himself, which I doubt he can seeing as he sounds like a total idiot. Don't reply to him at all. Ignorance is your best options, unless he can afford to spare a few grand on a lawyer for an iphone lol.