Major issue with eBay and expensive item

the_syco

ArthurGuinness wrote: »

Hi folks, quick update on the current situation. Did not receive item back. Ebay sending me emails telling me to pay them back the £1899.00 plus €242.00 final value selling fee or an agent from their debt collection service will be assigned.

Debt collection services are fairly powerless in Ireland.

Is there anything stopping you from pursuing a case against ebay? Or have you gotten legal advice about it?

Also, have a look on ebay for the same guitar being sold, as unless the scammer wanted the guitar, they'll be looking to sell it on.

CathalDublin

the_syco wrote: »

Debt collection services are fairly powerless in Ireland.

While they might be powerless they can still put a mark against your name with the ICB. They put a collector onto me for unpaid sellers fees for €20 from an account which was supposedly shut down, I had shut the account and unregistered the domain name used for the emails.

the_syco wrote: »

Is there anything stopping you from pursuing a case against ebay? Or have you gotten legal advice about it?

Also, have a look on ebay for the same guitar being sold, as unless the scammer wanted the guitar, they'll be looking to sell it on.

I would be checking both these options out, specifically the first one.

ebay are an impossible company to deal with, I sold a phone recently for €350 and the buyer never paid or made any contact, ebay charged me the seller fees, I received bad feedback and was about €50 out of pocket, I re-listed the phone and the new winner paid immediately, I sent the phone, all was good, and a about 3weeks later he hit me up with a load of really abusive messages and an item not as described claim, he had all these false claims of marks, etc which were a complete lie and I had high resolution pics to prove it. Ebay were of no help whatsoever and were basically going to refund him, my only option was to settle with the buyer, I ended up giving him a €60 refund for him to drop the case.

I spent hours on hold and on those live chats with them. €100 down, it's the last thing I sold on ebay, never again.
a couple of other sellers on ebay seem my 2 bad feedbacks and contacted me to tell me the same thing had happened them with those 2 buyers and were trying to take a case against ebay, I didn't see it going anywhere so I just left it.
I now leave my selling to specialist forums and adverts/donedeal/etc.

the_syco

CathalDublin wrote: »

While they might be powerless they can still put a mark against your name with the ICB. They put a collector onto me for unpaid sellers fees for €20 from an account which was supposedly shut down, I had shut the account and unregistered the domain name used for the emails.

I'm unsure how they can do so. The lender can put the black mark against you, but I'm pretty sure debt collectors cannot.

CathalDublin

the_syco wrote: »

I'm unsure how they can do so. The lender can put the black mark against you, but I'm pretty sure debt collectors cannot.

Really, I shouldn't have paid them so

elastico

ArthurGuinness wrote: »

Hi folks, quick update on the current situation. Did not receive item back. Ebay sending me emails telling me to pay them back the £1899.00 plus €242.00 final value selling fee or an agent from their debt collection service will be assigned.

Keep the money, Ebay are gone totally retarded, its a big bus that's out of control, fees keep rising because they need to set more and more money aside for it,

I had an instance recently where a customer wanted to return something, which is fair enough, so they posted it back but ebay refunded them the full amount so I got caught for the full amount including postage even though them wanting to return it had nothing to do with me.

bluemartin

ShortyGotLow wrote: »

I find Amazon's customer service incredible so try to use them more these days.

I agree Amazon customer service is amazing. I had to return an item that arrived too late for Christmas and they gave fantastic clear guidance on their return policy, I received an email on the date they received the item back and another email to say the funds were refunded. there was also a contact number for any issues. Very good, I was immensely awed, seldom seen anywhere else these days.

peckerhead

ArthurGuinness wrote: »

Hi folks, quick update on the current situation. Did not receive item back. Ebay sending me emails telling me to pay them back the £1899.00 plus €242.00 final value selling fee or an agent from their debt collection service will be assigned.

Tell them calmly and politely that their demands are without foundation, that you'll see them in court, and that if they continue to pursue this line you will have no option but to instruct your legal representatives to sue them for damages under the Defamation Act (2009).

I would never, ever sell high-value items on eBay, or accept PayPal (which they owned until a few months ago) for large sums.

Hang tough, and sorry for your hassles.

sassyj

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057361097

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KT10

My heart goes out to you man, I had to deal with eBay/Paypal on a similar issue a few years ago and its like banging your goddamn head against a brick wall.

My advise is to keep everything documented, record the times & dates of all phone calls, all email correspondence etc. and if possible, consult a solicitor (the first meeting is usually free), one who has experience in trade law that covers this area and see what they say.

My advice is for anyone considering selling high value items on eBay, at the end of your auction description, put in Bids will only be accepted from buyers with X amount of feedback, recent feedback must include purchases of high value items etc. You can then cancel any bid from buyers you don't like the look of and ban them from bidding again on your item.

This helps (but doesn't stop unfortunately) weed out the scammers who have set up accounts, purchased 50 items at 99p each (normally ebooks, so they've no P&P costs) to quickly build up a good feedback profile.

I sell stuff on eBay every now and again, but I've now limited myself to low value stuff, getting caught out on the bigger items is a pain in the t!ts.

I know people gave out stink about Adverts.ie introducing success fees recently, but I sold a GoPro a couple months back, paid €3 for the Priority Ad (so no success fees when sold), after the usual craic of people offering me half the asking & me politely telling them to GTFO, I got the asking price, met the chap the next day in person, he handed over cash and was delighted at the deal he got.

CathalDublin

KT10 wrote: »

I know people gave out stink about Adverts.ie introducing success fees recently, but I sold a GoPro a couple months back, paid €3 for the Priority Ad (so no success fees when sold), after the usual craic of people offering me half the asking & me politely telling them to GTFO, I got the asking price, met the chap the next day in person, he handed over cash and was delighted at the deal he got.

Agreed, they just need to weed out the low ball offers now or the people who make offers on everything and then don't reply, if they brought in a fee to buy, and a week ban for breaking rules like offering lower than asking in a comment that'd stop that carry on fairly promptly

pleasant Co.

CathalDublin wrote: »

Agreed, they just need to weed out the low ball offers now or the people who make offers on everything and then don't reply, if they brought in a fee to buy, and a week ban for breaking rules like offering lower than asking in a comment that'd stop that carry on fairly promptly

And fix their pretty poor search function...

10-10-20

ArthurGuinness wrote: »

Hi folks, quick update on the current situation. Did not receive item back. Ebay sending me emails telling me to pay them back the £1899.00 plus €242.00 final value selling fee or an agent from their debt collection service will be assigned.

Shocking that, if the story is a straight-forward as it seems, ebay would side with the buyer before examining the full facts, PLUS in the knowledege that the guitar wasn't returned!!!

I was actually about to list a camera on ebay and I'm just not going to do that now.

Maybe you could give consideration to launching a claim through the Smaill Claims Court, but only claim up to the 2,000 euros limit (as opposed to 1899 STG + 242 EUR) as part of an effort to recoup some of your losses.
I previously had a positive outcome to a claim which I made through this process. For them to effectlvely respond to the claim will knock it well above the 242 EUR handling fee, plus you can't be liable for costs.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/justice/courts_system/small_claims_court.html

Please keep us posted and don't give in. They have just lost the sale of a digital camera just because of this.

AndyBoBandy

ArthurGuinness wrote: »

I took photos of it just before putting it into the box, and when it was in the box etc. Offered this to ebay, they had no interest.

I'd assume something like a Les Paul would have a serial number? if so, I'm sure you have a note of it, did you photo it?

dmc17

Andybobandy wrote: »

I'd assume something like a Les Paul would have a serial number? if so, I'm sure you have a note of it, did you photo it?

I reckon that the photos were more proof of condition of the guitar prior to shipping.

AndyBoBandy

dmc17 wrote: »

I reckon that the photos were more proof of condition of the guitar prior to shipping.

of course, but if the buyer sends back 'a' guitar, ArthurGuinness could confirm if it was the same one he had shipped.

Kerrybai

Here mate I might be totally wrong here and this might be irrelevant but has he uploaded the tracking info for returning the item?

I recently opened a case for an iPhone I bought on ebay which turn out to locked with that find my iphone craic. I opened a case and paypal sided with me. It now says the following:

'What happens next

Please provide online tracking information by 24-Jan-2015. Once we confirm that the merchandise was delivered, we'll process a refund based on our protection policies.

If the item is €200.00 EUR or more, you must request that the package is signed for when it is delivered.'

Has he sent you back anything with that you had to sign for ?

A Dub in Glasgo

The buyer has not sent anything back, ebay has refunded the buyer and is now chasing the seller for that refund

Kerrybai

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

The buyer has not sent anything back, ebay has refunded the buyer and is now chasing the seller for that refund

That's odd, according the Papyal I won't get my money refunded until I upload tracking info and if the item is over 200 euro it must be signed for, I would recommend the person in this dispute contact Paypal about this.

A Dub in Glasgo

See this post

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=93632736&postcount=54

Kerrybai

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

See this post

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=93632736&postcount=54

That's fair enough, but doesn't the buyer still have to upload tracking info before they can be refunded?

foggy_lad

Kerrybai wrote: »

That's odd, according the Papyal I won't get my money refunded until I upload tracking info and if the item is over 200 euro it must be signed for, I would recommend the person in this dispute contact Paypal about this.

The scammer was refunded by ebay not paypal.

The buyer made a complaint about the product to ebay and they have refunded the buyer, scammers will do this instead of opening a paypal dispute as they will have learned that paypal will insist on certain procedures being adhered to but Ebay just give a full refund without any investigation when a buyer makes a spurious claim of an item being different to what was advertised or counterfeit etc.

TerrorFirmer

Why do people still use Ebay? It's a joke - I used to sell there but after being stung for a scam in which Paypal sided against me in something very similar, I've never gone back and that was years ago. It's an absolute joke - they automatically side with the buyer.

flutered

i have not read akll the posts, i asked the op had he approached his carrier, as the item was surely sent by insured post, i had a somewhat similar problem a while back, i mailed a watch to the former ussr, i used anpost, the buyer said the watch was badly damaged, pics were supplied, as i sent it in a box which would need a few thumps of a hammer to damaged it i appealed the case, no joy,i contacted an post, they said if photographic proof was given to them they would pay out, i then asked for the watch to be returned so as the insurance company could examine it and then destroy it before shelling out, i also notified ebay and paypal as regards this, no watch was returned so i did not claim, ebay sent me the usual schite letters, i told them no watch no refund, they no, that i had to shell out, i said see you in court, i did not shell out

Kerrybai

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Why do people still use Ebay? It's a joke - I used to sell there but after being stung for a scam in which Paypal sided against me in something very similar, I've never gone back and that was years ago. It's an absolute joke - they automatically side with the buyer.

Its's still the way to go for some items, iv'e put up a DKNY watch worth 150 euro on adverts and donedeal, Its second hand so i've it listed for a great price and I have no replies. At least on Ebay it would be seen by millions of people in across Europe as opposed to a few thousand on adverts and donedea.

TerrorFirmer

Kerrybai wrote: »

Its's still the way to go for some items, iv'e put up a DKNY watch worth 150 euro on adverts and donedeal, Its second hand so i've it listed for a great price and I have no replies. At least on Ebay it would be seen by millions of people in across Europe as opposed to a few thousand on adverts and donedea.

But how do you avoid all these scammers? It doesn't seem to matter what they say, they just find in the buyers case. I have stuff I find it hard to sell on adverts but I don't sell on Ebay. Buyer says they received an empty box, buyer says it arrived broken in bits, buyer says whatever they like, and they seem to find in their favor! Happened me once before and I swore never again.

Incidentally, what's the best way to send something? I heard someone say the other day that registered post isn't enough, you have to use a very specific type of post for it to be 100% traceable and carrier to have full liability for its arrival to the indicated address.

Kerrybai

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

But how do you avoid all these scammers? It doesn't seem to matter what they say, they just find in the buyers case. I have stuff I find it hard to sell on adverts but I don't sell on Ebay. Buyer says they received an empty box, buyer says it arrived broken in bits, buyer says whatever they like, and they seem to find in their favor! Happened me once before and I swore never again.

Incidentally, what's the best way to send something? I heard someone say the other day that registered post isn't enough, you have to use a very specific type of post for it to be 100% traceable and carrier to have full liability for its arrival to the indicated address.

I just use standard post for lesser items and registered or a courier for more expensive items. The way to avoid scammers is to sell only to ebayer's with 10 feedback or more, this doesn't always work as they might buy 10 1 euro items,but you can always checker what they have bought before shipping them something of worth.