ebay caravan woes!

soolin

Hezzawithkids wrote: »

Ohhhh Soolin - sure you want to go there???;)

I did try to resist honest. I was rather shocked actually having always believed that sales between private individuals were 'buyer beware' but to see a court find for the buyer has made me rather more cautious.

Steady-Eddie_4

nexuss wrote: »

How much did the caravan cost ?

It cost me £2,102. To me that's quite a lot of money and from what I've been reading on a caravan forum it could cost a lot to put right.

Paypal have now escalated my dispute to a claim and this is taken from the email they sent me today

The seller has submitted an explanation describing the disagreement with
this claim. PayPal will evaluate all available information, including the
original listing and both the seller and buyer statements. A final decision
will be made on this claim in accordance with our User Agreement.

Not holding out much hope here and think I'll have to put it down to experience. Been thinking about the small claims court but think I might be throwing good money after bad. Will ring my solicitor tomorrow for his thoughts.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

DaveAshton

Steady-Eddie wrote: »

It cost me £2,102.

Didn't the seller let you off the odd £2?

Steady-Eddie_4

Well, PayPal have found in the vendor's favour. Fancy that! I've now written to the credit card company asking if I'm covered by purchase protection as the caravan is unroadworthy due to the rotten floor being an integral part of the construction.
Also spoke to a solicitor who said I should lodge a claim at the small claims court. He sounded a bit vague though. It was through the union's legal help line and I'm sure I've spoken to him before at a call centre not of these shores

pinkshoes

Did you actually speak to paypal, or did you just let it "go through the system"? I would phone them up if you haven't already done so.

If your CC company won't refund, then write to the person who you bought it from, stating that unless they refund you and take the caravan back, you will be taking this to the small claims court.

Given someone else has already won a similar court case with far less damage to the caravan...

woodvale_2

Dear Steady Eddie,

Sorry to hear of your caravan woes. You could of course pursue this matter in the small claims court. These days you can start your claim online and once started use the courts fairtly new arbitration service to see if there is common ground for a settlement prior to listing the claim for a hearing.

To issue proceedings would be £85 up to a £3000 claim, it is also likely that if the defendant then responds with a defence the case will move to his local court so be mindful if he lives a long way away, although you can ask the court to move the case for geographical reasons they may not agree.

The process is very straightforward and if you build up a good case (which is simple to do) then you have a decent chance of winning. Remember you only have to convince the judge that it is 51% more likely that you are in the right. It is all about what is reasonable and what is not.

The only other issues to consider are that the claim will take at least a few months to be heard and even if you secure judgement it might be harder to enforce. From experience it is always easier to get judgement satisfied if the defendant is a home owner and the proceedings are served at his home address.

Hope this helps.