Ebay dispute

[Lazarus]

Guys,

Cut this from the ebay II thread so not to fill it with crap.

I was the highest bidder on a pair of Burton Snowboard boots

guys - just submitted a dispute over undelivered goods.

Bought something from a buyer, sent the cheque on 11th November - notified him that I was sending it.

Contacted him 2 weeks ago , contacted him again on Tuesday of last week, telling him that if I had no response that I would report to ebay as undelivered.

Anyone else had to file a dispute and, if so, were they pretty good at resolving?

So, I heard absolutely NOTHING from this guy until afterI raised a dispute on ebay where he replied :

i have not received payment its been so long that they were sold to the next person who was bidding....

I responded:

You didnt even think to communicate that you had not received payment, even tho I specifically mailed
you directly that I had sent the cheque and also with follow up communication?

So he doesnt receive a payment so immediately sells to a lower bidder without following up the highest bidder who has communicated that payment was on its way

Anyone experienced anything like this before. Anything I can do short of paying him a "visit" (I have his address).

Was thinking about -ve feedback, buck dont want him to reply in kinds, even tho I have nothing to hide.

 

[Chilly]

report it to ebay certainly, although it does seem like it might have been a breakdown of communication?

 

[Lazarus]

ive experienced a potential "non payer" before, but I ALWAYS contact them to make sure that there hasnt been a problem etc before selling onto the next bidder

 

[Cask]

What an idiot. That's the thing that scares me about using Ebay, the possibility of dealing with people that don't seem to understand what their responsibilities are as a buyer/seller. In this case I would be referring to actually checking and reading the ebay messages occasionally.

I'd at least leave neutral feedback, have to warn people about them. Other then that can't see how the situation could be improved really. Just out of interest if you cancelled the cheque how did you go about it? Just for my future reference.

 

[Lazarus]

havent cancelled yet - cheque hasnt been cashed.

Will be phoning the bank, quoting the cheque number and they will cancel it.

 

[Lazarus]

this gets a little bit stranger.

I emailed the second highest bidder asking if they were offered the gear :

Sorry,i wasn't offered anything.

personally, I think hes lying through his teeth cos he didnt get that much for the boots.

 

[GDW]

Not much you can do. Ebay can be frustrating at times but thankfully not too often.

 

[ECA]

Actually, he has a legal responsability, you could take him to small claims court.

 

[Lazarus]

Just out of interest if you cancelled the cheque how did you go about it? Just for my future reference.

Cask,

Phoned the cheque book issuer (bank), quoted my sort code & account number and the very nice lady at the bank stopped the cheque.

Simple really.

 

[DaGaffer]

Actually, he has a legal responsability, you could take him to small claims court.

No he doesn't. Only a contract if there's an 'exchange of goods or services', the key word being 'exchange'. If he hasn't cashed the cheque, there's no exchange. eBay's Ts & Cs mean you can get him banned, but that doesn't get the boots.

 

[Lazarus]

according to ebay :

When a seller lists an item on eBay, and a buyer bids for and wins that item, the seller and buyer have entered into a contract. Both members are expected to honour that contract. In accordance with that contract, the seller may not:
1. Fail to deliver an item for which payment was accepted.
2. Significantly misrepresent an item by not meeting the terms and item description outlined in the listing.
3. Refuse to accept payment for an item at the end of a successful sale.
4. Refuse to accept a buyer’s PayPal payment using a credit card if the seller included the PayPal logo in the listing which signifies the seller will accept PayPal payments. Sellers are not permitted to state in their listings that PayPal payments made via credit card will not be accepted.

Breaches of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:

* Listing cancellation
* Limits on account privileges
* Account suspension
* Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings
* Loss of PowerSeller status

A buyer who believes that a seller has not honoured a contract should read the additional information below to understand what remedies are available to the buyer.

As usual, these rules are pretty generic and dont cover my specific example (i.e. seller is a complete tosser who doesnt follow up and "claims" to have sold to next bidder - which he didnt do)

But, we did enter a contract - no denying that.

 

[Tom]

I suggest this thread becomes the official 'I've got a problem with Ebay' thread?

Anyhow, bought an in-car CD changer from a guy off Ebay, he only lives 10 miles away but refused to allow me to collect. It arrives, and the cassette and CDs are all mangled, confused, so obviously it doesn't work. I had to dismantle the thing and remove all the stuck bits, reset it, and then rebuild it - it now works fine.

Theres no way the damage happened in post, so I reckon he wouldn't let me collect it because I'd see straight away that it was knackered. So he sold a faulty device and hoped to get away with it. Luckily I'm skilled enough with a screwdriver to fix things like this, but someone else might not have been.

So should I leave -ve feedback? Hes already left feedback for me....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5835653919

 

[DaGaffer]

according to ebay :


As usual, these rules are pretty generic and dont cover my specific example (i.e. seller is a complete tosser who doesnt follow up and "claims" to have sold to next bidder - which he didnt do)

But, we did enter a contract - no denying that.

Like I said, you haven't entered into a legally binding contract, just a contract according to eBay's rules. As you can see from your own post, the remedies available are all about hurting his ebay status (suspension of account etc.), not about forcing him to give up the goods promised. This is the problem with sites like ebay, its basically a trust network that relies on people not being dicks, but people think they have the same consumer rights they'd have if they bought from a shop; they don't. Legislation like the Distance Selling Directive doesn't apply to individuals, only companies.

 

[TdC]

So should I leave -ve feedback? Hes already left feedback for me....

impho you should tell it exactly like it is.

in the bid's Q&A he says:

Yes it does work and no there isn't any damage

if your damage could not have been caused by the postal service then you have to let him know. you could email him first and discuss it before resorting to things you can't control (like negative rep).