Can I sue Ebay

OnlyNow

Can I sue ebay for wrongful advice by one of their customer support operatives who advised me to cancel my bank card.
Since the issue of the new one took/takes 7-10 days and planned purchases and work will have to be postponed I asked for compensation

They have issued a £20 voucher but have point blank refused any other compensation even though they admit responsibility for incorrect advice.

and/or is there a way I can circumvent their customer support and contact a higher power in the organisation to make a complaint?

Thanx for any advice on this

thearchitect

Well, I'm no lawyer however as a general principle in both Scots and English law you can only sue to recover actual losses which may have arisen due to the culpable actions of another party; there is no general right, say, to recompense in respect of general inconvencience. Moreover there will be a duty of mitigation, hence you will have to show that you could not make alternative funding arrangements with your bank.

Ask yourself; if the simple cancellation of a bank card really something you think you can sue someone for?

pinkshoes

Advice is just that - "Advice", and it really depends upon the source it comes from.

Taking advice from ebay about the cancellation of a bank card sounds a daft thing to do. Did you not speak to your bank and ask their advice?? Did you not think in advance the pros and cons of cancelling a bank card??

Ultimately, it was you who cancelled the card (and not ebay), and you need to take responsibility for this decision.

I would take the £20 and be grateful, as I think you're rather lucky getting that!

soolin

Why did you cancel your card?

Premier_2

OnlyNow wrote: »

Can I sue ebay for wrongful advice by one of their customer support operatives who advised me to cancel my bank card.
Since the issue of the new one took/takes 7-10 days and planned purchases and work will have to be postponed I asked for compensation

They have issued a £20 voucher but have point blank refused any other compensation even though they admit responsibility for incorrect advice.

and/or is there a way I can circumvent their customer support and contact a higher power in the organisation to make a complaint?

Thanx for any advice on this

You can sue who you like. Whether you win is an entirely different matter.

... if we are found to be liable, our liability to you or to any third party is limited to the greater of (a) the total fees you paid to us in the 12 months prior to the action giving rise to the liability, and (b) £100....

...Except as explicitly stated otherwise, legal notices shall be served by registered mail to eBay Europe S.à r.l. (ref:eBay.co.uk), 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg. ...

...This Agreement shall be governed and construed in all respects by the laws of England and Wales. You and eBay both agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts; for claims falling within the jurisdiction of a County Court, you and eBay both agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the County Court of Wandsworth. ...

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/user-agreement.html

OnlyNow

The details are this

I tried to purchase some cutlery from ebay.

After I agreed to purchase this cutlery set on a ' Buy it Now' item an ebay web page appeared asking for verification of my card details.

I was a little apprehensive about this as ebay do not hold my card particulars anyway and I had never encountered this before with ebay in 100's of transactions.

After checking the page ( it looked totally bona-fide) I complied but after submitting that info the next page informed me that the card details I had filled in were incorrect and invalid.

I submitted the details again taking great care as to there accuracy, again they were rejected as invalid.

I then rang ebay customer support where I was advised that ebay never ask for card details or authentification of such and that I had probably encountered a fraudulent website.

They advised me to contact my bank and cancel the card.

I rang the bank and explained the situation and they also advised me to stop the card off of ebay advice.

I then rang ebay again to find out more about this policy of verification and was informed that after all the verification web page was in fact authentic.

I was also informed there was a known issue with the page for rejecting correct card details and that they were working on it.

They also explained that the verification was necessary because of the new knife law


Ebay mistakes off the top of my head are:

1) Since the verification site wasn't working correctly and it was a known issue the web page should not have been available anyways.

2) Since this verification site was a departure from their normal procedure information to this end should have been exhibted clearly on the page itself.

3) The direct info given by their customer support operative was incorrect and directly led to my card being stopped.

4) Incidently I imagine that sellers are not able to sell there cutlery goods since customers cannot get by the verification page

This event originally occured last sunday 14th june 2009.

I checked the site yesterday 18th June and the verification site is still accessible and still rejecting correct card details.

I suspect that ebay do not withdraw the faulty site as there is probably some legal requirement to have this. The fact that it inconveniences their customers seems to have elluded them

Since I am directly suffering from ebays mistakes compenstaion seems entirely appropiate and not just the measly £20 voucher.

PS. For Pinkshoes. After the advice given by ebay it would have been both negligent and foolhardy of me not to stop my card. Since the bank agreed with ebays advice the card was stopped.

If I had not, and frauds had occurred, I would imagine the bank would have held me responsible for not alerting them originally.

lisawood78

Can you explain how you have lost out and deserve compensating for this?

OnlyNow

lisawood78 wrote: »

Can you explain how you have lost out and deserve compensating for this?

Please see the 2nd and 3rd line of my original post

cyberbob

I cannot see how you have lost out financially? Yes it may have been a little inconvenient. Unless you have evidence that ebay told you to do this, which you dont as it was a phone call and that you lost out financially in a serious way. There would be know way you could win anything if you took them to court. Youll just be wasting your own time and money.

Forget it mark it down to experience and move on

cyberbob

You gained from it as they gave you compensation for inconvenience. I think you need a little perspectice

StaffsSW

It rained this morning and my hair got wet.

Does anyone know if I can sue the weatherman for the invconvenience of having to change my shirt and brush my hair before a customer meeting. He said on the news it would be clear this morning.

I'm very distressed by it all.