eBay and Seller Protection

[Grundles]

Hi All,

 

I am sooo very angry so please bear with me here!

 

I recently sold an old phone (due to upgrade) through eBay. As I put it with my car keys to remember to take to work to post the next day I realised I hadn't declared that it had a small crack on the screen, it didn't/doesn't affect the function of the screen. As soon as I realised the mistake I had made I emailed the winner, via eBay, explaining my mistake and offering him the option to cancel the transaction. I received no response, so emailed again 24 hours later saying if I had not heard from him, I gave him until 10am that morning, I would relist it. I didn't hear from him at all but DID receive payment for the phone that evening. I gave him every opportunity to ask questions re. the extent of the damage or to cancel the sale.

 

He has now received the phone and decided that he is going to open a case against me saying it is not as described. All he does is give me abuse and tell me I think I am smarter than everyone else ( I am definitely not nor do I think I am!!) and eBay are being really unhelpful, although they can see that I sent him two emails they have put my Paypal account into a Negative balance of £51.50. This either puts me £51.50 out of pocket for eight days or unable to use my Paypal account. I asked to speak to a manager and eventually (after 1.05hrs) got a "manager" although her mannerisms etc were exactly the same as the previous girl I had been talking to. They won't escalate the complaint until after 8 days, even though looking at the emails it is quite clear that it is not going to be resolved.

 

To add to my problems, he has given me negative feedback saying that my item was not as described and that he had opened a case, eBay Customer Services would answer whether that negative comment would be removed if they found in my favour.

 

The thought has occurred to me that maybe the phone has been damaged in the postal system but how do I prove this? I have proof of postage but no schedule of condition of the phone when I posted it!

 

Any advice on making sure that the eBay do find in my favour? I am certain that I am in the right but have heard of instances when eBay really don't care about the sellers and nearly always find in favour of the buyer. This buyer wants to keep the phone AND have a refund, I have told them definitely not!

 

I know that there are always two sides to every story but I made two attempts to contact him and am quite worried that I am either going to have my eBay account closed, or some massively negative feedback. I am not a regular user to sell stuff but I do buy quite a bit through them.

 

Any advice? I have reported the buyer and tried to put my point of view across to him but he just gets horrid and it is upsetting!!

 

Sorry for the long winded post

 

Thanks.

[johnym]

Over the past few days ebay messages have been very glitchy. I use ebay everyday as a seller and it’s been a nightmare with messages not going through and not being able to respond, older than 90 days and invalid message errors popping up.

 

There is a good chance your buyer never received your messages but if the damage wasn’t stated on the listing then its down to you. In the worst case ebay will ask the buyer to return it tracked for a refund. Don’t bother with ebay customer services on the phone unless you get Dublin as the Manila call centre is worse than useless.

 

Ebay wont ban you for one bad sale but do keep an eye on your DSR ratings in your seller dashboard. Not much room for error being a small time seller on ebay, all it takes is a couple (3 or so) low DSR ratings and you’re in trouble.

[Grundles]

Ebay have already said that they can see that I sent the messages, does this count towards me? He has also admitted to seeing the messages in his "complaint" against me. To be quite honest if he saw the emails and later decided to pay I can't see that he has much grounds for a refund!

 

The messages were sent over a week ago now, were they having the problems then too?

 

He has gone quiet and hasn't responded to my last "response" on the case, he has either given up or he is waiting for the 8 days to elapse so that he can escalate it, hopefully it's the former. I have put a reply on his negative feedback explaining my side of the story.

 

I am toying with the idea of closing my eBay account and as and when I need it I just use my sisters as to be quite honest I feel thoroughly let down by the whole system!

 

Thanks for your help though,.

[johnym]

Well it won’t go against you if ebay can see the messages you’ve sent your buyer. For me messages have been acting up since last Wednesday but I have read ebay have been tweaking possibly causing the message issues.

 

By the sounds of it you have an awkward buyer on your hands, they might be angling for a partial refund to exploit the unmentioned damage. I would brace yourself as the case will more than likely be found in the buyers favour, finding you at fault. Like I said before all they can do is ask the buyer to return it for a refund, actually since its sub £100 they might issue a no fault refund to your buyer, finding neither of you at fault and paying them out of their own pockets.

 

Its not worth getting stressed over, they’ve done all the damage they can to your account leaving you negative feedback and probably low star ratings. At this stage I might be wise to accept the Phone back before its escalated, if ebay find in the buyers favour (99% certainty) it’s a black mark against your selling account.

 

The system is shocking and very one sided, I’ve scaled back using ebay myself especially for valuable items as its too risky. I wouldn’t close your account over this, you can’t anyway if you have active disputes.

[Grundles]

Thank you.

 

I would have given him the partial refund but he wanted a full refund AND to keep the phone the cheeky so and so!! I have told them, several times, through several mediums that I won't be paying them back a penny if they demand I give him a full refund as I attempted to contact him twice and gave him as much choice as I could. Without emailing after him making payment going "Are you sure?", which to me sounds a bit patronizing, I couldn't do much more I don't think.

 

Hoping the fact that he got abusive in his emails will also count against him!!

 

All I have to do is wait until judgement day now!

 

Thanks for your help.

[MaxxPower]

Well he would be entitled to a full refund but only if he actually returned the goods. He can't expect a full refund and to keep the goods. After all, the item isn't as described since it was sold and purchased on the basis of not having a crack, your messages to him afterwards don't really alter that fact.

If he keeps the goods though, he's being deemed as accepting them in their current condition and so wouldn't be entitled to a refund, unless it was an agreed partial refund.

[johnym]

I had SNAD dispute opened up against me last year. I sold a Laptop as faulty and the buyer was disappointed it was as I described it – dead lol. He tried everything to extort money from me but refused to return it, he eventually opened up a dispute and lost as he had mentioned in the messages he sent me he’d removed parts and ebay noted this, so there is some hope lol.

 

 

If your buyer flat out refuses to return it and only wants a partial or a full refund without returning he won’t get very far with ebay, they’ll require him return it tracked for a full refund. No return, no refund simples. Also if it’s not sent back recorded/tracked and it goes missing they’ll lose the dispute, if its not sent back within a specific time frame they’ll also lose the dispute ….. keep that in mind.

[Grundles]

Ok, thanks Johnym worried he's going to send me an empty box back or something, how do I prove it was an empty box when he posted it :-/ have seen reports of this happening, and it wouldn't have occurred to me if someone hadn't mentioned it elsewhere, maybe I'm doing too much worrying and reading on the matter!!

 

MaxxPower, he paid after I gave him the updated information AND offered him the chance to cancel the sale TWICE, so when he paid he knew what he was paying for.

 

Stressful week to be quite honest!x

[Grundles]

A little update for anyone that is interested....

 

I spoke to Paypal, gave up on eBay, and they were quite helpful. They refunded the buyer his £8.00 out of their own pocket so I got to keep the full amount. To be honest I can't believe that the buyer went to so much trouble for £8. They have also requested that my negative feedback is removed, as he is the only one that can authorise this, not impressed by that system but ahh well, as I said to Frank at Paypal, there are more important things in life than this sort of petty argument xx