I sold a PC to a colleague, and it broke...advice?

Samtheman1k

Samtheman1k

Samtheman1k

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Hi,

I sold an old PC to a colleague at another site of ours for a bargain price of £20 (1Ghz, 60GB hdd, on board VGA etc.). He arrange for a friend of his to pick the PC up and take it from our site to his. A few days after arrival, he emailed me to claim that the PC is dead. The fans come on, but no VGA output.

It was completely working fine when I sent it, so it must have either broke when his friend transported it, or he broke it himself.

He is now asking for a full refund. I have said to him to send it back and I'll take a look at it first to see if it isn't something simple or easy to repair, but he isn't accepting this. Do you think that this is fair?

EDIT: Fixed HDD typo!
 
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no, it isn't if it was sold as seen. But you can understand why he's annoyed.

Did you get him to sign/return a sold as seen receipt?

If he won't even agree to let you look at it, then it sounds like he knows he's broken it, and you'll know it when you see it.

It's more the principle than anything else. It was working when you sold it to him, end of tbh.
 
It is the 60 GHz HDD that is causing the problem :p

Seriously, tell him to let you look at it before you even consider a refund.
 
If he wants the £20 back then I'd want the PC back as there will be some parts still working that you can sell.
Tell him that you want the PC back if he wants his cash back and see what he says.
 
The $6m Dan said:
If he wants the £20 back then I'd want the PC back as there will be some parts still working that you can sell.
Tell him that you want the PC back if he wants his cash back and see what he says.
Click to expand...

That's what I think, as it sounds like the mobo is broke, but I should be able to get £15-£20 for the hard drive alone.

I think that I'll tell him to send it back and I'll have a look at it. If it is broken, then I'll give him a refund as a goodwill gesture. If not, then I'll send it back. Sound reasonable?
 
Samtheman1k said:
That's what I think, as it sounds like the mobo is broke, but I should be able to get £15-£20 for the hard drive alone.

I think that I'll tell him to send it back and I'll have a look at it. If it is broken, then I'll give him a refund as a goodwill gesture. If not, then I'll send it back. Sound reasonable?
Click to expand...

Yep, that's what I'd do. There's no point in annoying the guy over £20, but offer to have a look at it and try to fix it. If it is broken, then refund him the money and split the PC for parts.
 
Offer to buy it back for £20 if he won't give it back when you refund him. Slight semantic difference, but he won't be able to reasonably say no to selling you a broken PC for £20 when you (theoretically) did the same to him. Chances are it's still working fine and he's just after getting some beer tokens back :p
 
I would split it. You'll make more out of it and save you endless grief from the guy. If it's fixable how long is it going to take for him to break it again???
 
Roalith said:
Offer to buy it back for £20 if he won't give it back when you refund him. Slight semantic difference, but he won't be able to reasonably say no to selling you a broken PC for £20 when you (theoretically) did the same to him. Chances are it's still working fine and he's just after getting some beer tokens back :p
Click to expand...
I'd go with this suggestion.
 
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