Help! Need Advise!

[Jadzia44]

Hey guys! I really need some thoughts on a situation with a friend of mine at my church.

A friend of mine bought a very expensive keyboard. He decided to sell it to what he thought was a friend at church. A local music shop told him to take no less than $2,500 (which is still little more than half what he paid for it) but since he was selling to a church friend he agreed to $1,800 and to rather small monthly installments. They took the keyboard home and started making the payments. At this point they have only paid $800. The guy who was selling the keyboard found it left out in the open in the room where the kids have kids church. It has been massively scracthed up.He has since taken it home since he could not reach the buyers. At this point he would be lucky if he could get $1000 for it. The people who said that they wanted to buy have since stopped making payments and have refused to return their calls. They avoid him at church. The buyer has also been spreading rumors at church about the situation. Overall, this is a bad situation. My friend cannot afford to just give the money back especially since he cannot sell the keyboard now for what was aggreed to in this deal. My friend would not have gone this low or taken payments from anyone else but since this was church people he did. I hate to see this because people should not do this to people and those who claim to be Christian should NEVER do this to each other. Of course there is no contract. He didn't think church people would pull this.

What should they do? For the records the buyer has not asked for the money back but then again that would be hard to do if you are not returning any calls!

Please help! I don't know how this should be handled. Thanks for the help!

[Joe@actsii]

I would recommend taking this matter to the pastor. I had a similar thing happen with a brother in my church. The amount was much smaller. I ended up just forgetting the matter and forgiving him. From his prospective, he did not need to be forgiven, but that is between him and the Lord. Today we are great friends.

[irishcowboy]

the seller should go to the buyer, first hand, and find out what happened.....

if the buyer does not want to speak with him or work things out, then the seller should then take another person or two and attempt to do it again.... work things out.....

if this does not work either, then bring the matter before the Church body, ( as the instructions are given to us in the Bible )..... the matter should not have been shared with anyone other then the persons concerned until it has reached the level that it is to be brought before the church....

if the matter is not handled in the correct manner, and rumors continue to flow, the persons not directly involved with the transaction are guilty of gossip......

if the seller does not wish to follow through with it in the way of the instructions given us, he may wish to take it to the civil athorities/small claims court for damages, to get a settlement on the damage, weighed out in the amount of the monies recieved compared to the original asking price.....

The Bible says not to sue a brother..... but would a brother really do us dirty????

i do not know both sides of the story... only the one side you have relayed, there may be more to the incendent then we all know....

mike

[Leonard]

I'd just say to myself; well, they rented a nice keyboard for a while and messed it up bad. I'm keeping the dough, and being more careful in the future who I sell to and on what terms.

Remember, anybody can cheat you, but if you REALLY wanna' get ripped off bad, YOU GOTTA DEAL WITH A CHRISTIAN!!!

[eric]

You are not wrong, there, Leonard. A lesson well learnt there I would say. Best to cut your losses in a case like that and let the Lord deal with it.

eric.

[Jadzia44]

I'd just say to myself; well, they rented a nice keyboard for a while and messed it up bad. I'm keeping the dough, and being more careful in the future who I sell to and on what terms.

Remember, anybody can cheat you, but if you REALLY wanna' get ripped off bad, YOU GOTTA DEAL WITH A CHRISTIAN!!!

This was the advise I gave him as well. I felt the damage done was at the least what they guy had so far paid. I think what I am most angry about (aside from this being church people) is the lack of responsibility. They left the keyboard out in the open where kids could damage it. Kids known to have damage things. My feeling is that when they left the keyboard and it was damaged they decided a damaged keyboard was not worth what they are paying for it. I do agree that what they have paid into should be considered rent and damages. After all if you rent a car and wreck it you are responsible for the damages.

Thanks for your advise.