Deposit question

[NEWReptiles]

I would like others imput on the return of deposits if the sale falls through.

It is KINDA like this.

IF I were to recieve a $400 deposit ( almost 20% ) on an animal and within 24 hours the buyer contacted me and said he wished to back out of the deal, would it be wrong to keep the deposit?

The terms "non refundable" were never brought up.
The reasons for backing out were all on the buyer.


The buyer was looking into 2 different animals, 1 from an unknown seller and 1 from a reputable person that he purchased from in the past.
The buyer had not heard anything about the original deal, so the buyer then went ahead and sent a deposit to the person he had never heard of before.
Within an hour of sending the deposit, the original deal became available again.
Well, the buyer felt ALOT more comfortable dealing with a guy he knew and trusted, so the next day he informed the other seller that he sent the deposit to that he would like his deposit back.

What would YOU do/expect as the buyer/seller?

Sorry if this is hard to follow, I started this when I was on my way out the door.

[Wilomn]

Due to the short amount of time involved I would refund the deposit, minus any fees you incur for doing so and put the guy on your "probably best not to do business with" list.

Since you never brought up the non-refundable aspect unfortunately it doesn't really apply even though it should.

Having been in this situation as a seller I know put in writing on all reciepts or in an email that all deposits are non-refundable. If you do that you can always be a nice guy and refund it if you want to but you will not be obligated to do so.

Hopefully whatever he wanted will not be a problem for you to sell to someone else.

Wes Pollock

[maria]

Once again, I cannot log Becky off and sign in under my own user ID. Oh well.....

I think I placed this thread in a dumb location, but thank you for your imput Wes. I doubt this will get read very often here. When I get home I will paste this in the GBD forum...


AL Guetzkow

[ExoticPetsWS]

I have been in this situation, as a seller, many times. For business reasons I generally refund the money...less a small fee. Makes the customer happy and brings business back to me.

Just my 2 cents! Good luck.