[SurfAndSand]

Glad it worked out for you.

Here's a long story of what happened with me. :p

I was asking for my deposit to be returned because it was past delivery date, and he was still not ready to deliver. He kept giving different stories why it wasn't available, but I was like - that's really too bad - I just want my money back - it shouldn't be hard, since nothing was shipped to me.

He said he would lose money because the item was already being made. If I cancelled my order, he would have to strip the paint from the part, and repaint it, and then sell it to someone else, yadda yadda yadda. I smelled BS.

I said that if it was in fact, really that difficult to refund a part that was made yet, I said that in the group buy - any number of people wanted to buy the part in the color it was being ordered in, so it wouldn't matter - he could just send them the part, have them pay, and refund me. Or just have them pay me, and then send directly to them, since nothing was shipped yet.

I couldn't get PayPal to help, because I had placed the deposit more than 60 days before asking for my money back, and PayPal has a period of around 30 days or in which you need to file a claim.

He wouldn't refund and he had a bucket of excuses not to help. So I posted about how I couldn't get my money back. I feel like I wasn't asking for anything unreasonable, and I wasn't flaming him on the forum.

Eventually I get a nasty message saying that here's your money back, and you're causing me all kinds of money loss, and pain, and don't ever come back to me wanting my business. Naturally, I was happy to get my money back, but I it was too bad how there were bad feelings involved. I didn't retort, only just confirmed the money return, and thanked him for returning the money.

Oddly enough - despite how he had to strip the part and repaint and change his records to send it to someone else, about a month and a half later, I received my order. LOL. When I was looking at the part, I was thinking to myself, that this in fact confirms all the bullshit, and that he's just out of sorts with his business.

I honestly considered keeping it for a couple of weeks or so, but after thinking about it, I decided to contact him and tell him that I received my order in error and if he'd like to get it returned to him.

He got mad at me! He's like, "why didn't you return it sooner? I'm gonna send you an invoice. you have to pay for it!"

I'm like, "Uhm you realize I didn't have to say anything to you. You can't make me pay for this - you sent it to me after I canceled my order - it's really your error."

Finally, I got him to agree to taking it back if I sent him pictures that I did not abuse it. :P

It's funny, but I felt I was doing him a favor and he was still pissed about it. In my messages to him, I also explained to him how I'm also a business owner, and the recourse is small, but they pay off is big, just refund for no loss, and don't burn bridges, etc, but he was set in being mad about it.

I guess with age comes patience, and I'm only guessing I was dealing with a younger guy. Anyway, it's all over, and I don't have to deal with it any more.

Luckily, in my photography business, I can choose who I work with now - when I sense a pain in the ass, I immediately refer them to someone else who can deal with butt pains. LOL.