Why Do ebay Force us To Refund But Don't Refund Themselves?

cyril82

bluejake wrote: »

Once again you completely miss the point. It is not ebay who decides if the sales on their site are auctions or not. It is what UK law states that matters. Just stating something on your website does not grant you an exemption from the law of the land.

And you provide a link to a completely irrelevant court case which merely confirms that you don't know what you are taking about.

Similarly, we do not automatically agree to all terms and conditions when do business with a company. Just because a company states something in the small print (or even the LARGE print) does not make it so.

Consumer sites like this and others and individuals can make a difference and change the way businesses are operating. For example, the recent changes to bank unauthorised overdraft charges.

I appreciate it is useful if someone with knowledge of the law points out during a discussion that a particular course of action is unlikely to succeed and then explain why. But people clearly without any knowledge or understanding of how law works just endlessly stating we should accept whatever companies tell us is unhelpful.

To go back to my example the banks said their unauthorised overdraft charges were lawful and as posters above 'helpfully' state people had the choice to accept them or not use a bank. However, some people and some consumer activists and sites like this refused to accept that and the banks have been forced to change their practices.

Spot on!!

Ebay saying, "our sales are not auctions" does not mean they are not legally deemed to be auctions.

I have provided the dictionary's definition of what is an auction already, Basically it states goods sold by bidding, what reason does the law have to class it as anything else? and what proof is there that the law does?

Therefore ebay allow sales by auction on their site (regardless of whether or not they are the auctioneer) and UK law says we do not have to accept returns or refunds on auctions, but ebay force us to, removing our legal rights, therefore i believe we could reclaim this money from ebay in circumstances were refunds on auction sales were forced by ebay, i have seen nothing yet to make me question this, French law is meaningless in the uk and counterfeit sales are a totally different issue.

Smart_But_Casual

The point that seems to allude people is that if ebay were breaking the law they would have been pulled up for it by now. Someone would have challenged it.

They employ very, very clever and expensive legal advice to cover this sort of thing.

Moral? No. Legal? Yes.

If people are so sure of the law then I'm sure that they'll be happy to launch a small claim action against ebay, safe in the knowledge that their knowledge of the law and drafting contracts is superior to ebays lawyers.

cyril82

Smart_But_Casual wrote: »

The point that seems to allude people is that if ebay were breaking the law they would have been pulled up for it by now. Someone would have challenged it.

They employ very, very clever and expensive legal advice to cover this sort of thing.

Moral? No. Legal? Yes.

If people are so sure of the law then I'm sure that they'll be happy to launch a small claim action against ebay, safe in the knowledge that their knowledge of the law and drafting contracts is superior to ebays lawyers.

If people took this attitude they never would have challenged bank charges,

Surely the banks were not breaking the law, but, oops, turns out they might well have been.

The fact is smart but casual, there are certain laws which companies break, and they will continue to break them until someone, or a group of people stand up to them. Your argument of, "if they were breaking the law something would have been done by now" is weak, how long did the banks get away with it before (thanks to people like martin lewis) people stood up and said "enough is enough".?

MilkyJoe

Why are the banks having such a hard time then? They probably aren't breaking any laws either (unlike eBay and PayPal - apparently, I don't know), just being unfair.
The banks got away with it for a long time, who's to say eBay and PayPal won't be challenged on this in the future? They just obviously haven't been challenged on such a big scale yet.

MilkyJoe

Beaten to it...

cyril82

In response to smart but casuals statement that people would submit a claim if they were sure, i am sure, i would submit a claim, i will look into my records on paypal to try to identify a forced refund, it's been a while so i may struggle, but if i can find one i will launch a test claim, it only costs, £25.

Are there any others who have recently had a refund forced on them by ebay that may be prepared to launch a claim? i am happy to provide the template letters you should send, and word all your responses, i May even be prepared to refund the £25 fee if you actually launch the claim and loose.

MilkyJoe

The banks weren't breaking any laws...... Also, Cyril has pointed out he is no lawyer, just clued up. Maybe we should advise this site to stop fighting the banks?
Would you if they fought PayPal for being unfair/unlawful?