Item arrived in good condition but damaged when used by buyer, buyer asks for refund

[huntcentraloz]

Hi, I'd like your thoughts on this please.  I sold a brand new tarp to a buyer that arrived in good condition, he said he used it when camping and he claimed that the "first bit of wind tore it apart and pulled all the eyelets out".  He is asking for refund because he expected it to be a lot stronger.  It was advertised as "tear resistant" as per manufacturers ad, but  with this warning "We strongly advise not to put excessive pressure on grommets, as this may cause damage to your tarp".    This is not a canvas tarp, just the polyethylene type, it cannot be expected to stand against stronger winds.    Do you think I should refund the buyer?  What would you do in this case?  Thank you in advance for your advice.

[clarry100]

Buyers will try on anything...

Several months ago we sold a pair of barefoot sandals to suit a baby about 12-moths old.

A few weeks later we get a message stating that the first time her baby wore these "...they fell apart..".

We were puzzled on how they could fall apart so we requested a photo. We had never had any complaints before.

She sent a pic and the things were totally demolished. Clearly the baby (or something) had monstered them. Possibly dog chewed even!

Anyway they were relatively inexpensive so in the interest of avoiding a NEG we sent out a replacement item.

After she received these she left us glowing POS FB.

Then a few weeks later once more we get another message to say the same thing about the replacement pair.

Anyway we sent out yet another pair (possibly should not have) and then blocked the buyer on all our IDs, hoping this would be the end of it.

A couple of months after that we get an angry message from her saying she had tried to buy some of our other items but we had blocked her all because our items were not good enough quality. That it was not her fault.

We never responded to that one at all and never heard any more.

I though that people on your BBL could not send messages as we have that option ticked.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

she may have hit the reply button on a previous message and that let her message you as the system 'thought' the message was in relation to an item you had sold her.  Your block probably only applies to 'new' messages from the blocked member and not replies to previous messgages.

[mbselections00]

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@cq_tech wrote:

Bloody hell, did you manage to find your chooks (or what was left of them) ?

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one was caught up in the shed, two others were blown out into the main yard, but survived & one remained in the chook yard.  The really sad thing was, we built a temporary shelter for them, but even with the chain wire fence, it wasn't enough to keep the neighbours dogs out & 2 nights later, they got the remaining 3   Twas very sad, as they were like pets.  (It was that first Thursday storm we got at the beginning of December & that photo was of the way & position in which it came to rest)

This one is what our front yard looked like - we had started setting up our Christmas light display & all those trees were held in place with thick reinforcing rods up the inside of the trunks - the big tree (in the first photo) was over 10' tall - 3 weeks of hard work obliterated !

[mbselections00]

Sorry, lost the 2nd photo in last post

[cq_tech]

Those poor chooks! To survive such a ferocious storm, only to get eaten 2 nights later by dogs. 😞

I'd have been gutted too and I hope you had some pretty severe words with your neighbours.

[mbselections00]

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@cq_tech wrote:
Those poor chooks! To survive such a ferocious storm, only to get eaten 2 nights later by dogs. 😞

I'd have been gutted too and I hope you had some pretty severe words with your neighbours.

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I know, & yes, I was gutted, so was hubby & worse part is the reason we believe it was the dogs not the foxes, it was a killing spree - they didn't eat or take the chooks, they left them for us to find, whereas we are told the foxes generally only kill to eat

Believe me, this isn't the first incident, but as we didn't see this one with our own eyes we didn't approach the neighbours on this occasion, but have done previously.  A few stories there . . . . .

[peri-landlubber]

When foxes have their fill, they kill for fun.  

We had a shed full of chooks, thought it was well fox proofed, they bit right thru the solid wood.  We found nearly all the chooks with their heads bitten off.  None survived.

With those same chooks, we had crow problems, used to walk in the door & pick up the whole eggs - even pinched a china egg - still wondering how that went down, never did find it.

[clarry100]

Foxes will kill chooks by chewing off their heads and then they drink the blood.

In the morning you just find a bunch of carcasses with no heads.

[davidc4430]

lovely picture you paint but whats it got to do with the subject of the OP?

[robinsonmarineparts]

I personally would refund the money and tell them to throw the tarp in the bin.

I wouldn't offer a replacement because you may / will have the same issue.

You can argue the point, as a fellow posters said "what's a bit of wind", but you won't win.