Need advice from the people I trust most; about a payment plan incomplete,what to do?

[angllady2]

Okay my fellow snake people, I need some advice and re-assurance please.

Back in June of this year, I sold my Vanilla Mojave female on a payment plan to a nice fellow who had been talking to me about her for a couple of months. I agreed to a 25% deposit, the balance to be paid in 90 days. He sent me the deposit on the first of July. I only heard from him once in the 90 days, but I wasn't really worried. He did let me know his wife was expecting a baby, and was scheduled for a Cesarean the weekend before final payment was due. He sent another $200 towards the snake, and asked for an additional week after the 90 days to give himself and his family a chance to get settled. I of course happily agreed, I was surprised he had not mentioned it before, but after all it's not my business. I waited the additional week, and then sent a polite email asking how the family was doing, and let him know the snake is just fine. I DID NOT ask when he would finish paying for the snake, I didn't want to seem rude and I was sure he'd get right back to me and let me know.

It has now been 10 days since I sent the email, and roughly 4 weeks since I have heard from him. I am starting to get concerned. The weather is rapidly getting too cold for shipping, and that worries me. I don't want to make the wrong choice here, the guy has after all paid about half of what I sold the snake for, but neither do I want to be holding on to this snake indefinitely waiting to see what happens. I know I am within my rights to re-sell this snake since he did not complete the payment plan as agreed, but that seems so harsh and cold. For all I know, something could have gone wrong with his wife and child, and I sure don't want to add to that. Then there is this nagging suspicion in the back of my mind, I re-read his emails and wonder if he was even telling the truth.

To make things worse, yesterday hubby was "being helpful" cleaning up my email, since I get so much spam, and deleted all but one of our emails back and forth. So now, if I do decide to re-sell this snake, he can claim I defrauded him and I have no way to prove otherwise.

So that is my dilemma. Any advice or suggestions are welcome. Even if it's just a little encouragement or re-assurance I'll take it.


EDIT: I just checked my sent box, and thank heavens they are all still there. Now, can someone tell me how to save them on my computer to prevent another accident?
Gale