As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
Need Help.....A lady wants to sue me for an online transaction
cverebrox
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hello everyone, I have a strange question....I do not know if you are aware of the app called "Poshmark" but it is an app where you can sell your gently used and new clothing items to people....kind of like eBay I guess. Well I "traded" items with a lady (so we wouldn't have to pay money for them), I gave her Lilly Pulitzer items in exchange for Lularoe items from her). When she received them, she claimed that the Lilly items were not described correctly and that I would need to pay her $300 because of it ($80 MORE than what she was asking on the Poshmark app). She sent me my items back, and I told her that I would pay her for the three Lularoe items that I had already given to my mother, and send her the rest of her items back to be fair. She told me she does not accept that. That I have to either send it all back or pay the $300. "All or nothing". Well, I do not have the $300 readily available to send (nor am I willing to send it to her even if I had it because we didn't agree to that), and I can't send everything back as my mother already has 3 of the items. She is claiming she is going to take "legal action" against me if I don't pay the full $300 to her. I was curious if she could ACTUALLY do that because it was an online transaction, and she lives in VA and I live in NC. I am willing to pay what she was asking on Poshmark for the 3 items my mom has, and send her the rest back but she says she will not accept that. Just curious if she could actually "sue" me, and if she did, would it even be worth it on her part. Poshmark has already marked the transaction as "resolved". And via our text messages, there was no agreement to pay for the things if she didn't like what was sent to her. Any advice or input is greatly accepted. I am pretty sure she can't do anything, but just wanted to see what other had to say! Lol!
0
Posts
1) a lawyer
2) Poshmark's lawyer
Via Poshmark, they do not support trades. So according to them, the issue has been resolved. The problem comes in where the lady has my phone number and is constantly messaging me and my poor mother asking for the money or else she will "take legal action". But there was no agreement to pay if she wasn't satisfied with the items she got. So legally there is nothing that can be done, right? Does any of that make sense?
IANAL - You should speak to legal counsel if and when she speaks to her council, and instruct her to knock it off with the harassment and/or involve the law if she doesn't.
Whether OP can do that very much depends on local laws where OP lives.
None of us here can give you a definite answer, if you want a definite answer you'll need to speak with a lawyer. Otherwise the suggestion to contact Poshmark directly is a good one.
Next time don't trade.
Alright, IANAL or anything but like step two or three of suing somebody in small claims court is serving them papers notifying them of that fact. You're six hours away and would have to hire somebody to serve you. That's basically going to make the whole thing unlikely to be worth their while. It apparently gets even more complicated if there are state lines involved.
Personally, I'd make a final summation of the situation, how she altered the deal after the fact, how you attempted to make a reasonable compromise using values she herself had established previously, and how you can not return some of the items as they are no longer in your possession. Mail it certified, email it with a copy to yourself, basically document document document. Then ignore her until you actually get served. DO NOT IGNORE BEING SERVED. At that point get a lawyer but until then it is IMO way more likely to be empty bluster or a shakedown attempt.
She can file in her county regarding a small claims suit. You then have to travel to her county to answer the suit, so if she is willing to pay the filing fee, and the fee to have you served, she might just do it, and hope you don't show, and she wins. You can also counter-sue her.
My advice, is save all contact. Every text, phone call, dates and times etc, including to your mother. If she sues you, you can provide your communication to the court and show the Judge that you have made every attempt to resolve the matter, but she is the one that is not being reasonable. I would recommend counter-suing her for your costs to travel to go to court, missed work, hotel, filing fees, etc.
I would make a final offer to pay her for the items and let her know that should she accept or decline you will consider the matter finalized and not to contact you further for any reason, and any future contact will be considered harassment. If she continues to contact you I would see if you can get a restraining order against her (check your local laws, not sure if this would be eligible).
Best of Luck.
Researching online, if she wanted to sue me, she would have to sue me in the state in which I reside, not where she resides. So she would have to serve me in my state, and travel down to my state, and be seen in a court here in my county. I have also sent her the items I still had in my possession back to her, along with a cashier's check for her asking price via the Poshmark app for the items I no longer have in my possession, and I took a video packaging it all up at the post office and mailing it certified (I wouldn't doubt if she damages it when she gets it to try to say that I damaged it) so she will have to show ID to pick it up. I included a letter stating that by me sending the things back and paying for the things no longer in my possession, no further contact is needed, and if she does contact myself or anyone in my family, it will be considered harassment.
We will see what happens....the box is said to get to her tomorrow. If she does decide to sue, I have all paperwork, screenshots, that video, etc. to prove her wrong. And I will definitely counter-sue for time lost from work, money spent mailing certified, gas traveling to the post office multiple times, harassing my mother for money right after she had surgery, gas traveling to the court house, and anything else I can think of.