Viewing a car and then being told the price is £500 more than ebay listing

katharine_arnkels-webb

Hi

I saw a van for sale advertised on ebay at £5495. We arranged to go and see the van 150 miles away and when we where there we hadnt realised that he had quoted a differant on his forecourt.

We went ahead not realising he had quoted differantly and gave him a deposit. Only when we returned we noticed the differance.

He says the forecourt price is differant to the ebay price. But sureley this couldnt be legal as we went to see it after seeing the ebay price, surely he cant change it while because we where inspecting it???

Advise please as this happened yesterday and I need to know what I should do next.

There is no indication that we have bought the van on ebay as the item is only said to have ended.

Do I have no legal leg to stand on???

many thanks
Katharine

gemstars

If you haven't bought through ebay then you can't expect the ebay price, although I see your point.

Your purchase has been made outside of ebay.

davetrousers

Surely you should have negotiated/haggled over the price at the time.

DCodd

katharine_arnkels-webb wrote: »

Hi

I saw a van for sale advertised on ebay at £5495. We arranged to go and see the van 150 miles away and when we where there we hadnt realised that he had quoted a differant on his forecourt.

We went ahead not realising he had quoted differantly and gave him a deposit. Only when we returned we noticed the differance.

He says the forecourt price is differant to the ebay price. But sureley this couldnt be legal as we went to see it after seeing the ebay price, surely he cant change it while because we where inspecting it???

Advise please as this happened yesterday and I need to know what I should do next.

There is no indication that we have bought the van on ebay as the item is only said to have ended.

Do I have no legal leg to stand on???

many thanks
Katharine

You should have bought it via paypal on EBay instead of leaving a deposit, then you would only pay the "Buy it now Price".

pinkshoes

Firstly, print the ebay advert off as evidence.

Did you actually buy it on ebay, then go and see it? Technically he's breaking ebay rules by selling it elsewhere too... Did you contact them and mention the ebay advert?

I'd just write asking for the return of the deposit, or the van for the balance as per the price on ebay. If they refuse, send a "letter before action" giving them 14 days to return the deposit, otherwise you'll take them to small claims court.

gemstars

pinkshoes wrote: »

Firstly, print the ebay advert off as evidence.

Did you actually buy it on ebay, then go and see it? Technically he's breaking ebay rules by selling it elsewhere too... Did you contact them and mention the ebay advert?

I'd just write asking for the return of the deposit, or the van for the balance as per the price on ebay. If they refuse, send a "letter before action" giving them 14 days to return the deposit, otherwise you'll take them to small claims court.

I didn't know ebay had a rule whereby the van couldn't be sold elsewhere?

scooby088

As i always say and it's a true saying 'buyer beware'

pendulum

I would say you have no problem getting your deposit back, you saw the van advertised somewhere for X amount and went to see it on the basis of that advert and assuming it would still be that amount. Tell him he either does the deal for the full eBay price (which he should be happy with) or otherwise you will be requiring your deposit back as there was a mutual misunderstanding about terms so the contract isn't valid.

neilmcl

pendulum wrote: »

I would say you have no problem getting your deposit back, you saw the van advertised somewhere for X amount and went to see it on the basis of that advert and assuming it would still be that amount. Tell him he either does the deal for the full eBay price (which he should be happy with) or otherwise you will be requiring your deposit back as there was a mutual misunderstanding about terms so the contract isn't valid.

I disagree. The advert was for tha van to be purchased via ebay. The buyer chose to conduct the business outside of ebay therefore that price may not apply. There are plenty of retailers that have a different online prices to their store prices.

drsquirrel

They haven't mentioned if they bought it Buy It Now/BIN yet... although "went to see after seeing the price on ebay" shows otherwise.

It should be the sellers "problem" that they are selling outside of ebay, not the buyer (since the buyer could just be anyone else) As for not selling else where... I thought that was allowed in eBay Motors, and that is why they charge a special listing fee?


Q to OP:
Did the garage know you were viewing based on the ebay auction? Unless you mentioned it how could they know? Did you have any paper work that mentioned the price? Since you could have had to agree on a price at some point... did you actually say about the price on ebay?

If they are playing tight - you could always suggest that it was the same as ebay on their forecourt - you can prove the listing cost on ebay whereas they probably won't be able to prove that it had a different price on the car initially (and you could even suggest they changed it after you paid the deposit). Obviously this is not the "nice" way to go, but if they are playing nasty then hit them back. (does anyone know if the garage will have any kind of way to prove they were listing it as X price on the forecourt?).

barvid

Motors are different from other ebay sales - you can sell via auction or Buy It Now as with anything else, or you can advertise as a Classified where no one wins or buys it. It's just an advert.

So whether this is fair or not depends on whether the ebay ad was a classified. If it was, then it's no different to seeing a note pinned to the newsagent's free ads board. I don't think there would be any way to insist on the lower price.