Ebay selling problem - never again

jstvj

I have been a member of Ebay for many years and have almost 900 buying feedbacks at 100% positive.

I decided to try selling and recently auctioned my vehicle. The only bidder had nil feedback and failed to respond to the invoice I sent. I accordingly telephoned the Buyer and the person who answered said they had never heard of him. I explained the reason for my call and the person suddenly remembered that the Buyer was his Cousin, who was using his Ebay account. This was untrue because the email address belonging to the Ebay ID was the same as the Buyer's name.

I immediately became more suspicious and asked for the Buyer to ring me that day, which he failed to do. I telephoned again and spoke to the alledged Cousin, who said he had not been able to contact him. I expressed my concerns and asked if the Buyer could pay a small depos it as a sign of good faith and was told that he couldn't because he didn't have a Paypal account. Alarm bells really rang even louder.

I then received a telephone call from someone speaking on behalf of the Buyer and this person tried to negotiate the price down, which I refused.

The Buyer finally texted me and said he would ring me the next morning to arrange collection, to which I replied that I looked forward to speaking to him.

The Buyer failed to contact me the next morning as promised and in the afternoon I received a telephone call from another party ( I had had the vehicle advertised elsewhere) to whom I sold it at £600 less than the Ebay sale.

The only course Ebay allows is for the Seller to request the Buyer to mutually agree to cancel the sale. The Buyer replied refusing and as a result Ebay have stated that I must complete the sale and they will not credit me with their £60 fees.

Being very angry about the whole issue I telephoned Ebay (on their secret line only made available to valued customers) and after being told several times that they couldn't do anything to cancel their charge without the Buyer's agreement, I finally got them to agree to look into the case and whilst they could not indicate when, their service agent said they would come back to me sometime.

Is it all worth it ? I think not and will not be selling again.

sunnysea83

Why did it cost you £60 to sell this item? It should have been £8 plus a fvf which i beleive is about £20.

You should have opened a non paying bidder dispute after 7 days and not a mutual. as your buyer declined the mutual you willhave no option but to pay the fees im afraid

Below are the ebay fees for listing a motor

Insertion Fee £8.00

Buy It Now only
£8.00
Classified Ad
£12.99

Final Value Fee
£0.01 - £1,999.99 = £20.00
£2,000.00 - £3,499.99 =1%

DJ_Mike

Well the pickle you've gotten yourself into is that you sold the vehicle despite being under contract with eBay to go forward with the buyer, which is a little short-sighted - eBay do have these contracts in place to protect both buyers and sellers.

Nonetheless I sympathise that you've been the butt of yet more 0-feedback fraud bidding antics that go on with eBay. While it may be of annoyance to genuine, but new, bidders, I really do think eBay needs a better system in place to deal with large-money transactions where seller security is concerned. There is, after all, very little to stop idiots from signing up and bidding on your auction just to make you foot eBay's hefty fees.

I would stick with eBay's report system - after all, the buyer is refusing to pay you, which is also strictly against eBay's rules. The difficulty for you is that if the buyer did suddenly pay up, you have nothing to sell them.

You can play this one of two ways: If it were me, I'd bluff and try to force the buyer into paying. If he really did pay up (which seems unlikely), I'd just refund his money and accept that eBay was going to take £60 off me, harsh as that seems. But if he doesn't pay up, you get to keep the £60 (since he broke the contract, not you).

If that seems too dishonest to you, then stick with what you're doing, but unfortunately I don't see much in it for eBay to give you a refund unless they definitively prove the buyer is a fraud.

cyberbob

I know the buyer was a bit of a pain but the rest of the situation is of your own making and you got yourself into. You should have really checked if it was possible to advertise it in 2 places and what would happen if you pulled out of the ebay one.

Yes it sounds like the ebay buyer was a fraud but you yourself could have saved heartache and cash with a little common sense

soolin

Unfortunately as you have found to your cost a buyer too dim to complete on a purchase is also too dim to be trusted with a mutual.

jstvj

soolin wrote: »

Unfortunately as you have found to your cost a buyer too dim to complete on a purchase is also too dim to be trusted with a mutual.

I did phone Ebay first to explain the problems, who advised me to request cancellation fromthe Buyer

frivolous_fay

jstvj wrote: »

I did phone Ebay first to explain the problems, who advised me to request cancellation fromthe Buyer

Mm yes... ebay don't tend to give very good advice.

soolin

I have to second what Fay says, both ebay and paypal are not noted for the intelligence of their employees unfortunately. They basically tell you whatever you want to hear just to get you off the phone.