I loathe scammers; or how I learned my lesson

Having sold some useless and some not-so-unless stuff on Craigslist myself, I assume that most people who sell on there are like me and describe their products honestly and don't try to scam. I was wrong.

The last few months I've been trying to get my hands on the Sony Ericsson W880i phone (there's nothing wrong with my old one, except that it's not new anymore), which is pretty price here since it was only released overseas. The price finally came down low enough where it was fathomable to buy one. Current price is about $300. I found a guy on Craigslist that listed it for $300 but after some sweet talking, I got him to give it to me for $280...if no one else offered him more.

Long story short, I bought the phone. I tried to import my address book via Bluetooth and that's when my troubles began. I called Sony Ericsson and they said that it would be free for the original owner, but if I couldn't show them proof that I was, it would cost $100 just for them to inspect it, and then another $200 for them to fix the problem. I laughed, said "That's absurd!" and hung up.

So I called the guy and said that the phone is not working properly and I'd like to give it back in exchange for my money. Obviously, this idea was as ridiculous to him as Sony Ericsson's price quote was to me. "What am I going to do with a broken phone?!" he asked rhetorically. "No one's going to want it when it's broken. How do I know that it was broken before I sold it to you? You probably put a virus on it!" I wanted nothing more than to reach through the phone and smash his face in with something large. After many more lies and accusations that I was responsible for the phone, I told him I just wanted my money back, that as a seller it is his responsibility to give me my money back for a faulty product.

In the end, he gave me back all but $40 of the money I paid for it, saying that he didn't feel right giving me back al my money since the phone doesn't work correctly. If I had ever had to hurt anyone physcially, it was this guy.