[Nathans_Dad]

I have a dilemma I'm dealing with and I'm leaning towards taking the hit on it but I wanted to run things by the group first.

I purchased a set of Fuchs wheels off Craigslist about two weeks ago now. They are 16x7 and 8. I saw the ad on Craigslist and the list price was $250. I texted the guy and asked what the price was for all 4 wheels, assuming he meant $250 each (but hoping he meant $250 for all). He texted back and said he would take $225 for all 4. I asked him what the size was and he said they were 16 inch wheels. I told him I would pay him the $250 and I would be out to look at them that day.

When I arrived at the address he provided it was an auto shop dealing with Porsches and exotics. The guy selling the wheels was an employee at the shop and he said the wheels came off a car the customer was having made into a race car. He said the customer had no use for the wheels and they were taking up space in the shop so he was told to sell them off. I inspected them and found they were real Fuchs. I told him they were real Fuchs and asked again what the price was. He told me $250 for all four. The wheels were obviously used for racing, they are pretty dirty and have some scratches on the centers. They would need to be refinished but I still thought $250 was a great deal so I bought the wheels.

On Monday (10 days later), the guy texts me and says he wants to buy the wheels back. He said that he made a mistake, he was supposed to sell another set of wheels that were 15 inch and that these wheels were a customers wheels that were not supposed to be sold. I called him and we talked about it. He wants me to return the wheels and give me back my $250 that's it. I suggested that I would prefer to do a swap, wheels for wheels. He said he didn't have any Fuchs in the shop right now but would "put me on the list" and let me know if he got any in.

So, I'm torn on what to do here. On one hand, I have been looking for a set of wheels for my car at a good price for years now. These are good wheels and I was planning on having them refinished. On the other hand, I understand that the guy made an error and I feel badly for the owner of the other car (although he did say the owner has three sets of these wheels for his car). The guy at the shop flatly refused to find me more wheels, he also refused to pay any premium above my costs to return the wheels to him. I explained that to replace the wheels I bought would be more than $250 but he did not want to "pay any profit" to get the wheels back. It irks me that he is not willing to do anything to make this right on my end, I asked him if I should talk with his manager about the issue and see if that would help and he quickly said "No, no, this is between you and me." He texted me shortly after we hung up and said "Sorry about the confusion, don't worry about the wheels." I also called him today and asked him if the situation was resolved and he said "Yes, don't worry about it. I'm going to figure something out with the customer. I appreciate your call."

I'm leaning towards just taking the things back to him and moving on with life, what do you guys think? I really want to keep the wheels but I'm not sure it's worth the stress.