Do I refund the deposit?

[MrsExpo]

Last weekend, advertised an expensive item for sale, with lots of extras for an asking price was £10,500 - very fair compared to similar for sale elsewhere. A lady (let’s call her Mary) messaged and asked to come along to view it. She arrived with her partner, looked the thing over thoroughly, and offered me £10k, which I accepted.

She gave me £500 deposit but said she couldn’t collect it until Sunday for various reasons. I agreed and, in the last few days, have turned down other interested parties believing the thing to be sold.

Mary has now just texted to say she’s changed her mind and isn’t able to purchase the item after all. Many apologies and could I please refund her £500.

So ....... Do I do so with good grace and re advertise my item? Or do I keep the money? I feel that I should refund, but DH is saying tell her to naff off. We could probably have sold the thing to someone else this week but have probably now lost the opportunity to do so, and I have no idea about the legalities of the situation ..... so WWYD oh wise MN collective?

Give her it back stop being a dick just to make a quick buck, it's hardly like you've missed out as you've claimed you've had other interested parties in only a matter of days.

@LM2028 the op is asking for advice and has updated since that they are going to give the deposit back. The op doesnt sound like a dick at all and has handled it well considering they were the party messed about in the first place. Mind your manners.

Repay it once you have sold it for the price you expected. Then you have not lost out and are whole again

How was the original £500 paid? Was it cash, bank transfer, cheque?

This is an easy way to scam someone. Write a cheque using a stolen chequebook, then get it refunded into your account by transfer.

Or as pp said, it could be money laundering.

Legally deposits have to returned even if you say it's non refundable, in my line of work we're very careful to call a deposit a booking fee

I think you're very generous, I'd have refunded minus readvertising costs.

@DinoDeb

Presumably you’re going to be able to re-sell it? I think trying to keep her £500 would be very unfair unless of course you had a signed contract which stated the £500 was non-refundable.

Honestly - if I was Mary and you told me you’d be keeping my £500 I would stop at nothing to get it back out of principle. I’d be going to small claims court and splashing the details all over social media to boot. And if I had your bank details or knew who you banked with I’d be calling your bank to report a theft/scam which would have the likely effect of them instantly freezing your account.

It’s really not worth the risk in case Mary does the same.

I doubt the bank would do this.

The deposit is non refundable. ...like others have said that is the whole point of it so no.,do not repay it.

Am I the only one who is curious to know what you were selling for that price?

@FancyMinion

Am I the only one who is curious to know what you were selling for that price?

Car

I'm guessing car.

@MrsExpo did she give you cash and you are refunding to a bank account? because if so that is a big red flag for money laundering

@igot20joe and @FancyMinion ... not a car, a caravan.

If you froze someone’s account based on an unfounded (which it is in this case as the OP hasn’t scammed or stolen anything and there’s no evidence to suggest she has), and the customer complained, then the regulator would find in the customers favour and your company would be penalised. Are you up to date with current regulations?

I am. However as every single part of what you just wrote is wrong, I assume that you are not.

‘The regulator’ would be the FCA or PRA and they do not accept consumer complaints - so they wouldn’t find in anyone’s favour as they’re pretty irrelevant in terms of a customer complaining.

I assume you mean the Financial Ombudsman (which operates independently from the FCA and are not a regulator). The FOS are the only body who would look at the case, after the bank had responded to the complaint initially.

A quick look at their published case files will show you that they don’t (and can’t) dictate banks’ policies.

If bank policy/T&C’s say ‘we can freeze your account for indeterminate length whilst we investigate’ - and they ALL do, more or less - the FOS won’t interfere with that. The FOS never uphold a complaint where a bank has complied with its own T&C’s - never.

@DinoDeb I’m afraid I don’t believe for a second you work in banking “fraud” - for a start theft allegations don’t get passed through to the fraud team

And as for this - it’s no skin off my nose if you believe me or not. Theft allegations are routinely passed to an arm of a banks fraud department for input/review.

However, your convoluted and incorrect post about the magical all-encompassing ‘regulator’ - who would apparently investigate a complaint and penalise a bank - already shows you know zero about the banking or financial regulation sectors 🙈🙈 So I think I can get over your low opinion of me.