Hi I recently sold Kelly's sportka, it was advertised on eBay and I had a bloke message me offering me £800 for it before the auction ended. I accepted his offer and told him to PayPal me £50 deposit and I'd remove the advert. He then got a train from Penzance in Cornwall to Norwich where I picked him up from the train station (free of charge) and brought him to mine to look at the car. He said everything was good and off he went on a 8hr 400mile trip home.

Now, Kelly had the car nearly a year and it has been the most reliable car ever, nothing ever went wrong with it since she owned it and with her grandad being a mechanic the maintainance was always kept on top of. Anyway the next day the new owner sends me a message saying it didn't get home! I instantly phoned him to ask what happened and he replied "I was flying along and the engine light started flashing and the car went really under powered" I told him to take it to a ford garage and get them to plug in and see what was wrong with it.

Later that day I received a text saying "Had 4 faults come on diagnostic saying injectors and cylinders. Could be the ECU gone could be a sensor or injectors are gone. Fucked right off!"
I replied and asked if it still ran ok or was it missing etc to which he replied it sounds like its off a cylinder
I replied again and said its prob a lead/plug etc let me know as soon as you find out.

Now the fun bit. He just sent me this text

Just found out that the cars Ecu is shot. So this is gonna cost around £300 - £400 Pounds which i cannot afford and do not expect from a car that i paid 800 for to fail on me 300 miles into ownership. I think a refund is in order billy. I will claim the money back from pay pal and i will wait for your reply. I needed a car for my wife and kids to drive around in. If you say no to a partial refund i will take it to a small claims court as i have nothing to lose. Sorry billy but all you have sold me is a lump of metal with four wheels not a working car.

I replied this
Buy a 2nd hand ecu of eBay for peanuts. The car was fine when it was sold to you and I have the paperwork from ford for when it went for a health check about 2weeks before you bought it.

Now what are your opinions on this? What would happen if he took me to court? Where do you think I stand?

I didn't even own the car I only sold it on behalf of Kelly so surely that means he can't take me to court anyway?

Any help much appreciated
Billy

 

Sold as seen. Good will offer to put towards a 2nd hand ecu. But only good will. You don't have to.
Just tell him to jog on.

 

Sold as seen, he can poke it. You did get him to sign a receipt with sold as seen didn't you?

 

Ask him which garage he took it to then ring them to confirm what he is saying. Similar thing happened to my wife's fiesta, management light started flashing and it cut out. It was just the coil pack that had failed.

 

Gave no reciept at all. Just had look on eBay and a 2nd hand ecu is only £50-100 inc keys/barrel etc

 

Sold as Seen does NOT exist. Sale of good act 1984 covers 2nd hand goods as well as new and clearly says "goods must be fit for the purpose for which they are sold" In saying that I woud think it quite likely matey boy has kicked it's head in on the way home and broke it. I would offer a 2nd hand replacement ECU and fuck all else. If he wants to go to small claims court tell him to be your guest and take the documentation from Ford with you. I doubt the court would rule against you.

 

sold as seen tell him to do one.

 

let him take you to small claims court, he wont win and to be honest he wont even bother taking you to court due to the costs involved on his part.

Its a £800 second hand car, common sense will prevail.

 

just get a second hand ecu sent to him, that has covered your end.
things can go wrong at any time, this sold as seen doesn't exist as many have said.

 

I would tell him to sod off, if you start to try and sort parts etc then he will be on the next day saying 'wasnt the ecu, was blah blah blah, want more money'

Sounds to me like he had ragged the arse off it on the way home and trashed it. That or there is nothing wrong with it.

 

99% it will be the coil pack not the ecu.
I've worked on literally a hundred ka's and never replaced one,yet the coil packs are a common issue and can fail whenever,5 minute job to change.
As said above get confirmation from the garage that it is an ecu issue in writing then offer him 1/2 the price of an ecu delivered to his address with instructions of how to fit it (printed off the Internet).
I think even that's going a long way towards being a good seller.
I hadn't realised these sport ka's were so cheap now but still an £800 second hand car needing a £100 repair is next to nothing,the guys a dick and knows fuck all fella,don't lose a seconds sleep over it.
Otherwise offer him £300 to buy the car back as a gesture of goodwill,he'll soon fuck off.
Nobend.

 

street ka for 800 quid thats cheap tell him to jog on what year was it btw

 

Was 53 reg in silver with leather aircon etc just wanted it out the way as I gave Kelly the frs to drive I put it on eBay with 800 start bid no reserve and no one bid so I put it back on start bid of 700 then he made me the 800 offer

If he contacts me again I will offer to buy him another ecu, if he says that's not good enough I shall tell him where to go. I think that's fair enough

 

It was to be fair,I just looked on eBay and bumpys are fetching that.

 

ummm might look at getting one off these as i love my hairdressers cars lol

 

Hi, give me the guys details and ill gladly give him £800 for it! Ive got lots of spares at home after doing one with a blown headgasket (hydrolocked)

dont think youve done anything wrong tbh.

 

all the small claims stuff is chaff.

Youre biggest threat is him raping your bank account via a dispute in paypal. paypal are rarely fair.

Your best bet is delete all bank details from paypal. empty the account used for paypal and shut it down.

that way even if you loose and paypal dig up your old bank details you deleted, there will be no money for them to take.

Youre a mug these days if you have paypal coming from your main current account as any scammer can empty you of money