Consumer Law, Warranties Verbal Contract

[ruthere]

I work for a manufacturer. One of the resellers that I worked with sold used hardware and contacted me to see if I had any customers that would be interested in some used hardware he had. He had 2 optical libraries and he was asking 10k each for them. He told me if I could find a buyer, anything over the 10k each he would pass on to me as a finders fee. I found a buyer for the libraries and told the buyer they would be 20k each thinking the buyer would try to dicker on the price with the reseller, instead, he agreed to buy both of the libraries for a total of 40k. Once the deal had been made there was contact from the reseller to me saying they were just ironing out shipping details. The customer took possesion of the libraries and wired the money into the resellers account. Now, the reseller is telling me that he was a broker for the boxes and that he would not be able to pay me the finder fee. What do you suggest I do?

Thank you in advance!

 

[Michael Wechsler]

You are in a tough situation. I don't know all the details and whether what was really agreed to in both your minds was identical. Your version of the deal may not be easy to prove -- how much work did you do or did you just pass the number on to the seller? This is not a small claims matter and you may have to finance a lawsuit if you cannot settle. You may want to send a written demand letter stating that, in addition to the deal, it is also ludicrous that after finding and negotiating the price with the buyer, that the seller believes he has no obligation whatsoever to pay any commission. You hope that other action is not necessary and that he/she should call you to discuss the matter, hoping to resolve it amicably. This is just what I might do.