So I sold a used turbocharger that I cleaned up, never opened up, there were no cracks in it as far as i could tell. No shaft play that I could tell, the compressor and turbine fins looked fine, everything looked perfect from the outside. I was intending to use it myself but decided to scrap the idea of turbo charging a an RX7. So I sold it here. The guy receives and tells me there are broken fins, the turbo was just fine when I had it as far as I know, I believe I packed it good enough to survive shipping. What do you do in a situation like this? Used parts are sold as is right? Not to mention I have no control of what shipping does.

If this is in the wrong section please move it. I wasn't sure where to place it.

 

I think if you mentioned that you thought it was fine but never opened it up yourself then the person buying should know they are at risk.

What you can see of the wheels from without opening the entire turbo up is relatively small. The part of the wheel that really counts is inside the housing where the big fins are. So it could look fine like you though, but then when opened up, you could potentially have broken fins. Check out my turbo rebuild thread to see what I'm talking about.

Either way, internet sales of used parts are always touchy. If you want to be super nice, take it back and refund, or give nothing at all as it is really buyers risk.

If it were me, I'd meet in the middle. You stated you hadn't opened it up but it looked fine, maybe the buyer didn't know that you can't really tell without opening it up (unfortunate for him). So maybe a partial refund and he can use that money to cover part of the rebuild cost. You would be a generous seller if you were to do that. If you can live with it you can do nothing, so it really depends on the kind of person you are (do you think the buyer would do the same? if so then I'd lean towards being generous)

 

Thanks for the advice so far guys. But so far, the guy originally told me he got another turbo before he got mine as well, so this one I sold him would be a spare, here are the pictures:

 

Looks damaged to me.. look at the turbine wheel.. every single fin is missing the tip..

 

I understand that, but when I shipped my turbo, it didn't have that damage.

 

That damage does not occur during shipping