Caveat emptor – my wild Craigslist adventure
First, let me start out this long-winded tale of banal minutiae by saying that I love Craigslist. I’ve done a lot of selling of things that I previously wouldn’t have been able to move via the newspaper classifieds. In fact, we’ve even bought some things that we’re still using today — like our glider in Jane’s nursery.
I’m writing this because as of right now, I’m in the middle of a pretty wild tale of Caveat emptor – or, Buyer beware.
A perfectly fine Westinghouse 42″ HDTV
My wife and I wanted to downsize our den HDTV and get something smaller and wall-mountable (primarily to keep little hands and eyeballs a safe distance away from the screen). We found a great deal on a 37″ Vizio LED HDTV from Sam’s Club and executed the purchase.
Shortly after buying the Vizio, I put my 2007 Westinghouse 42″ 1080p HDTV on Craigslist, just in time for the Super Bowl. I had a bevy of emails pour in, but nobody serious. That is, until a gentleman – we’ll call him “Tony” (last name omitted) – returned volley with an intense desire to purchase the TV.
I had sent everyone a few pictures of the TV in my reply. Here is what was sent (to prove it was working, etc):
As part of the Craigslist listing, I mentioned that the TV would need to be picked up from our house because I didn’t have a vehicle large enough to move the TV to a neutral site. Also, I wanted to demo the TV to show that it was in perfect working condition.
The night before Tony was going to pick up the TV, my wife and I moved it downstairs to our living room, plugged it in, and hooked up our 1080p up-converting DVD player. I popped Pixar’s Cars in and hit play: perfect picture (as it had been for us since late March of 2007).
Tony’s pickup and subsequent Craigslisting
If you’re still with me, congratulations. This is where the story gets interesting.
Tony calls and makes arrangements to come by the house and pick up the Westinghouse HDTV. We decide to meet around 12:30. I gave him directions to the house, and waited for him outside. We make our way in through the back door of our home, through the dining room, and into the living room. I had Cars playing, and Tony must have liked what he saw, because he pulled out a wad of cash and said “Will you take $300?”
I was asking $375. I politely told him no, but that I would take $340.
He pulled out a secondary wad of cash and gave me an additional $39, for a grand total of $339.00. Marvelous.
I then turned off the TV, disconnected the DVD player, unplugged the power cord from the wall and gave Tony both the power cable and the remote, both of which he placed in his jacket pockets.
Ever the friendly Craigslist salesman, I offered to carry the TV out to his truck, where we loaded it up in the backseat and he drove off, happy.
The phone calls begin
About 40 minutes after Tony left – and 20 minutes after I deposited the cash in a bank ATM – I received my first of many calls from Tony.
“Hey, man, where’s that remote? Is it at your house?”
“No, Tony, it’s with you.”
The next call, a few minutes later:
“Hey, man, where’s that power cord? Did you rip me off?”
“No, Tony, it’s with the remote. You put both in your jacket pocket.”
From there, I received at least 8 more calls between 2:30 and 8:00pm. They ranged from the accusatory (“Hey, man! You sold me a broken TV! This thing doesn’t even have a place for me to run my cable from the wall to the TV!”) to the ludicrous (“Hey, man! This ain’t no HDTV! I only get 720 x 480!”).
Each time, I tried to explain that a) you can’t just run your cable from the wall to your TV and expect to get HD quality; and b) You need to run a line out from your cable/satellite box to the back of the TV and use those inputs to get the clearest picture quality.
And, each time, he never quite understood what I was saying. “If I would have known this, I wouldn’t have bought this piece of junk!” and “Now you’re making me spend more money!” and my favorite “You stole the cable input thing! I know because I once had a HDTV that had one!”
The calls would last a while, as this partial telephone log screencap shows:
Moment of clarity
Finally, after a lot of calls, I missed a call from Tony where he explained that he got the TV to work. I’ve saved that voicemail to my Mac, and uploaded it here for safe keeping:
Tony’s Voicemail – Click play to listen
Done and done, right? I mean, he said he got the TV working. That’s where my involvement ends, right?
Boy, was I wrong.
After the Big Game and subsequent harassment
Monday came and went without contact from Tony. I thought that I had heard the last of him. After all, the TV was working, he had everything finally set up, and likely watched the Steelers lose to the Green Bay Packers. All’s well that ends well!
Then I got a text this morning (Tuesday, 8 February 2011):
I have two questions.
- How does a TV short out a cable box?
- What happened to the TV? It worked perfectly fine at my house, and I received the voicemail from Tony indicating that he got it to work.
The logical follow-up to all of this is for Tony to attempt to return the TV and demand his money back, citing that it’s my fault that his new HDTV shorted out and somehow took down a cable box in the process.
But those two questions above loom large.
The end?
I do not see any legal or ethical obligation to refund all or part of Tony’s money. He purchased the television as-is. He saw it working perfectly with a 1080p picture. If something happened between purchase and transport to his home, that’s not my responsibility. If he failed to plug his new HDTV into a surge protector and a power spike fried both the TV and his cable box, that’s also not my responsibility. I offered no warranty period or return policy. I’m not a big-box retailer like Best Buy, Wal-Mart or Target.
I’m sure I’ll have more to say about this as the saga evolves. I really wanted to get this all down in writing beforehand so that if something were to happen, it would all be fresh in my mind.
Also, I wanted to crowdsource an opinion and solicit comments from others who have sold items on Craigslist and had trouble with some buyers.
Please, share your thoughts below!
