when is a deal not a deal, reprise
 

For those who are interested, I am the person that Offshore-Performance skunked. Too Old, probably expressed my feelings about the whole thing the best, without knowing the total circumstances. This was not the first time they did me wrong as a customer. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and went back a second time. One would think that they would have taken this oppurtunity to show me what they are really about. I believe they did this. My wife was more upset than myself and called OP to find if we couldnt match the offer on the table seeing as how we had a deposit on the boat before this other offer even came in. She was told no, we already sold "your boat". No apology was ever offered. No attempt was made to show any kind of good faith on their part. Oh, thats not true, they offered to send me my deposit back. Gee, maybe Ive been wrong about these guys. I am a business owner myself and I understand that as soon as people need to start hiding behind contracts to say that they have done the right thing, you know they are doing the wrong thing. Good business is about common courtesy and doing the right thing, not about holding up a contract and hiding behind it. For those of you who say you have had a good business relationship with OP, Im glad, but maybe your circumstances didnt warrant them to step up to the plate and do the right thing. Maybe what they did for you was really only in their best interest.

You know, In Louisiana, we have a concept similar to a deposit (we have that too), but more useful. It is called earnest money.

For example -- if you had been here and put the $2000.00 down as earnest money, you could back out of the deal, but you would give up the money. On the other hand, if the SELLER wants to back out of the deal, he has to give back the money and add a matching amount. (ie - he has to give you $4000.00 to back out.)

Any common lawyers out there to tell me if common law has something like this? It is recognized by statute here.