This happened back in the early 1980s, but I'm just wondering what MNs think of it? Not particularly bothered either way, but people to whom I've related the story are either highly amused or truly appalled!
Scene: we're selling our house. The buyers have been, frankly, a pain, delaying Exchange of Contracts date quite a few times with various demands, complaints, insisting on purchase price being lowered yet again ... but eventually, after we've given in quite a bit to their damands, they say they're FINALLY happy with everything and Contracts are exchanged and a completion date agreed. We proceed with sorting out the purchase of our new home, booking moving firm, and of course, the owners of the place we're buying are able to make their own arrangement for their move.
ONE DAY before bloody completion, with everything set in place for the move(s), they phone to say they've decided they don't after all like the fitted carpet that's throughout the downstairs, and they want a further £500 knocked off the price!!!! Now, they've never said a word about the bloody carpet, and we'd included it in the price, not charged extra for it, so we tell them, politely, sorry, no more reductions. Also, they're legally obligated to complete, having exchanged contracts. So what do they say? Basically, that they'll delay completion anyway, even if they have to complete eventually, just to mess us up, and the people in the house we're buying, along with movers we've booked, our solicitors, the mortgage companies and - generally - the whole thing will be a nightmare. They DON'T like the downstairs carpet and they want a reduction!!!!
So my husband gives in and agrees to knock £500 quid of the price, just to avoid this complete mess up of a delay. But I am FUMING. So I take action. I get down on my hands and knees and TAKE UP every square inch of fitted carpet, in three rooms and a hallway. For good measure, I take up the underlay too. Takes hours and hours. Next day, move begins - I give the perfectly good carpet and underlay to the moving men, who are delighted (it was, by the way, extremely good and expensive wool carpet). Legal stuff, financial stuff all goes through, we leave with removal vans and new owners move in.
I'm told their reaction, when they saw bare ground floor, was unprintable! Ha ha ... would have cost them FAR more than £500 to recarpet.
So - was I being unreasonable? The 'we don't like the carpet' stuff was just a ploy to get the price down even more. And in the early 1980s, £500 was quite a lot of money!
AIBU?
Amused or horrified?
oldgrandmama · 02/08/2013 11:11
Ha ha ha - brilliant.
I bet their reaction was an Oscar winning performance. 
Pisstakers like these who use emotional blackmail (which this was because they knew it would cause distress with money and rearranging) aren't used to people standing up to them.
I do wonder if they learnt their lesson.
You were just right.
Same thing happened to us the day before completion on our flat. The new buyer started mucking us about saying that they didn't want the blinds, and the tiles in the bathroom and kitchen weren't to her taste 
. We weren't charging for the blinds, they wouldn't have fit our new windows, I thought it would be handy for the new buyers(they were clean and plain, nothing horrendous).
We were desperate to sell as we had a house to move into, and agreed to know knock a bit of money off. So I spent hours removing every single tile with a hammer and taking the blinds down.
Apparently they weren't amused.
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Well you learn something new every day!
I was reading it with porn film connotations then decided it must have been an autocorrect of big mouth!!
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