Hello again!
I've been holding onto a premade fursuit head for about 3+ months now. The buyer paid half of the owed money back in late February/early March.
I'm VERY frustrated. I understand they're going through some stuff right now involving their own health (a pregnancy), but I keep getting promised the remaining amount "by the end of the month"... And it's been 3 months. Every month they say this.
I honestly don't know what to do at this point. I can't financially afford to pay them back the money and attempt to re-sell the head because I may not be able to re-sell it.
I sent them a friendly note asking when they'll pay again and reminded them that they've been saying that they will ending with a no show.
Help?
I've been holding onto a premade fursuit head for about 3+ months now. The buyer paid half of the owed money back in late February/early March.
I'm VERY frustrated. I understand they're going through some stuff right now involving their own health (a pregnancy), but I keep getting promised the remaining amount "by the end of the month"... And it's been 3 months. Every month they say this.
I honestly don't know what to do at this point. I can't financially afford to pay them back the money and attempt to re-sell the head because I may not be able to re-sell it.
I sent them a friendly note asking when they'll pay again and reminded them that they've been saying that they will ending with a no show.
Help?
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Its unfair to you to sit on this head while they give you excuses, you likely could have either repurposed the head or sold it off again at this point.
So just be firm with them that they have x-time to give you the rest of the owed money (invoice them over paypal if you can); if they can't, you'll just end up paying them back $20/biweekly or half of profit from the resale of the head.
In the future, strict payment plans should be outlined, and a missed payment = tough luck.
They broke the contract, not you. You do not owe them money.
Edited at 2014-06-13 01:17 am (UTC)
If you cannot afford to refund them the payment made, you basically just have to wait until you can, or until they finish making payments.
You may want to consider a compromise, if you feel that this person is reasonable: ask if they would like to cancel and receive a refund. You can explain that the funds have been used, so if they would allow you to list and sell the head to another buyer, you can refund them with that payment.
Also in the future you may want to reconsider taking payment plans. I work at an animal clinic and we don't take any sort of payment plans which frustrates people to no end but the bottom line is, we are not a bank or a credit institution. While we are not selling goods, it does cost us money to hire a collections agency or have our financial manager devote time to overdue accounts.
Technically, instead of spending this money without shipping the item you should have just sat on it until the buyer paid in full and you were able to ship the head. I know that is incredibly hard to do when you are budgeting. Maybe in the future your TOS could say something like "if you are not paid in full by X time, then you will be refunded and the item will be resold". It's all well and good to be nice to people in certain circumstances but it really only works when you know and trust the people involved.
Also, echoing everyone else...OP, you should never spend money that isn't entirely yours. It sucks when you need money and there's some sitting right there, but you just have to pretend it's not there. If you don't feel comfortable leaving money sit in your Paypal--or if you need to make payments with Paypal and the money is "in the way" as it were--open a savings account with your bank, link it to your Paypal, and transfer money that you need to leave alone to that account when you get it. In the event a refund is necessary, it's right there for you to pull to Paypal to send it. And if the transaction is completed, it'll be primed to be instantly transferred to your checking account for use.
I didn't spend the money, I'm actually able to refund the buyer if I wanted. I chose to say "financially unstable" because I'm attempting to save up to head off to college and live with a friend of mine in 2-3 years, so I need to plan more carefully.
The buyer has agreed to send me the rest of the money by August 1st. They said they should have it by July.
That's where people are getting the impression that you've spent the money.
And I know you probably want to save the money, but I say that if they don't pay the rest by that deadline, refund them and call it good.