Took someone's word,lost the sale.
 

Pardon me but I need to vent a little. Feel free to tell me I was stupid or whatever. In 35 years as a boat dealer,I rarely take deposits.#1,I trust people,#2 if I take a deposit and they back out,if I don't give it back,it causes too much of a hassle, so what good is a deposit? I had a new $100,000 boat that a guy from NY wanted,I was positive he was serious based on the conversations we had,he called Thurs AM said he had a flight into Bham at 10:30 Friday,could we rig the boat for demo Fri at noon?Short notice, but we did it,I trusted him. Thurs afternoon he called and said he couldn't come Fri,would be maybe Mon.I had gotten a call Tues from a former customer in KY, he wanted the boat,offered to send full payment overnite. I told him I had given my word to the NY guy.I told the NY guy this,I didn't want to get caught in the middle,he assured me he was buying the boat,he would not go back on his word.10:30 PM last nite he emailed me that he had a real estate deal come up and he couldn't buy the boat,gave a short apology for my trouble.I just called my KY guy,and can you believe this,he found a similar type boat in TN, on Fri, basically told the dealer he would take it,he would rather have my boat but he had given his word to the TN dealer,and if he backed out now he would be no better than the NY guy,and I respected his decision. Had I called him Thurs nite after the NY guy called, he would have bought my boat instead,and the NY guy knew this. So for being a nice guy and keeping my word,I lost the definate sale. Other than being stupid and trusting people,what should I have done differently?Sorry for the long rant,I am just mad. Robert

Re: Took someone's word,lost the sale.
 

id be pissed. i always say my stuffs not sold till i got the money in my hand.

Re: Took someone's word,lost the sale.
 

I'm sorry to hear that. I have a feeling he knew he was not going to buy it before last night. I mean how sad is it for someone to "e-mail" you that? Sometimes when you're selling a boat or any other big ticket item for that matter, you almost can't avoid taking a deposit. Next time I would ask for a much larger deposit and if he backs out you made a nice chunk of change. Bajarunner is right too never say it is sold until funds are in the bank.

I hope you are able to quickly find another buyer. Good Luck
Roby

Re: Took someone's word,lost the sale.
 

I agree with Too Old..if it's worked for 35 years then it why mess with it? Like I tell my staff when we have a difficult deal. Focus on the 100 deals that were great, not the one that was a problem.

Re: Took someone's word,lost the sale.
 

Robert,
Don't let one jackazz change the way that you do business!!! You have the reputation that you have because of this. It's gonna happen...put it behind you and carry on. At least YOU can still look at yourself in the mirror and feel good about yourself. The guy from NY looks in the mirror and knows that he is a dick!! :) :D

Re: Took someone's word,lost the sale.
 

The only thing you did wrong was trust someone from New York

Re: Took someone's word,lost the sale.
 

Yeah, what Craig said! I hate to see you get stuck like this.

Re: Took someone's word,lost the sale.
 

buyers are liers,,,

it sucks

Re: Took someone's word,lost the sale.
 

DITTO

Re: Took someone's word,lost the sale.
 

I had a new yorker do the same thing to me.He called 15 minutes before delivery he backed out of the deal.On a good note I did sell the boat soon after.