Seller has cancelled laptop order, already paid for!! Advice please

Purdybread

I think this one is going to get quite complicated! Sorry if its a long post.

First a bit of background to the whole order.

My uncle asked me to purchase a laptop for him as a present for his wife, as he knows very little about them. The budget was around the £400 pounds mark.

I decided to purchase one through ebuyers ebay store (ebuyerexpress) as I had a voucher from ebay for 10% discount on selected items, valid until tonight (24/5)

The laptop I choose was a Compaq CQ61-427SA Laptop @ £387.98 + £9.99 postage, and this laptop was included in the promotion resulting in £38 discount.

I placed the order and paid through paypal. The voucher code was accepted and £359 was taken from bank account for the remainder, bank transfer is my usual payment method with paypal.

The sale is showing as complete and paid for on "My Ebay" and the payment status on paypal is showing as "completed"


I have just checked my email.....


Order Number: XXXXXXXX


Dear XXXXXXXX

Customer security is paramount at Ebuyer.com. Therefore, in order to maintain a
secure shopping experience for all our customers, all our orders are subject to
strict security checks.

Before we process your order we require the following information:

A copy of the picture page of your passport OR picture card of your UK drivers
licence along with your passport or drivers licence number.

A utility bill that is at least two months old.

Please note: Non GB passport holders will also need to inform us of the issuing
country of their passport. Acceptable utility bills are gas, water, electric we DO
NOT accept telephone bills or bank statements.

Your order has been cancelled pending the information requested. Once we have
received and verified your identification we will email you to confirm and all
further orders will be dispatched without delay. Please allow 48 working hours for
your identification to be processed and verified. In accordance with the Data
Protection Act your details will not be stored or shared with any third party
companies. All copied documents will be destroyed as soon as the identification
process is complete.


I am annoyed to say the least, never before have I had a seller cancel an auction after taking payment!

The ebay account has been active for three years and has 100% positive feedback. My paypal account is active for as long. It is a premier account and has been verified.

I could contact them as they suggest, but I dont have any "Acceptable utility bills" in my name. The only thing I have is bank statements which they wont accept.

Another annoying thing is I actually have a proper ebuyer account which I have spent over £3000 with no problems or security checks.

Can they actually do this without breaking some ebay or paypal rules? Should I contact ebuyer or ebay/paypal?

Is there anyway I can stop or reverse the payment?

I cant afford to get another laptop in the meantime and I certainly cant go back and ask my uncle for another £400!!

Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated

gone4gold62

hi cant really help but this sounds very dodgy to me I've been a ebayer for many years too and have never heard of this proceed with caution .is my advice sorry not very helpful .x

theonlywayisup

Firstly if you read the email, it says cancelled PENDING the info requested. So not cancelled at all, just held.

Reading between the lines, could it be that you are buying and the item is going elsewhere than your address? If so, I can see why they need this info.

If not, then it could just be a security check in place either from them or Ebay, so you will have to let them have as much info as you can give. Do you have a copy of a council tax bill with your name on? You could give that to them, you may have to ring and explain you have no utility bills otherwise and see if there is a compromise. It may be worth letting them know your Ebuyer account. Ebuyer on Ebay may be a similar scenario to Argos on Ebay, so not necessarily using the same systems to access info.

soolin

I'd be referring this one to ebay, a seller cannot put conditions of sale on after a buyer has purchased.

cyberbob

I would not be happy handing that sort of information to a company. As Soolin refer it to ebay if you get no joy there open an INR after 7 days and escalate for a full refund once that is received you can leave appropriate feedback

TurkishDelight

They can stick that.

I would ask for a refund since you don't want to have to wait for a item not recieved claim to go through.
I'd also leave them negative feedback, as they should say they have stupid requirements before you buy something.

Report to ebay as well, I'm guessing they are a outlet seller so nothing will happen (yes that is a note of bitterness ) but it's worth expressing your disapointment, you never know they may bung you a voucher code to keep you happy (mention you lost the last one on this trasaction )

papito

I would call them as it seems too dodgy really; I found this in one of their listings:

If you have any questions, you can contact a member of the Ebuyer Customer Support team by emailing ebay@ebuyer.com. With all email enquiries we will endeavour to reply within 24 hours (Monday to Saturday). If you require to speak to a member of our team urgently, you can also contact our Customer Support team on 0871 528 5101. We are open Monday to Friday between 9am and 10pm and Saturdays between 9am and 5pm (excluding bank holidays).

Purdybread

Thanks for the feedback guys.

"going elsewhere than your address?"

It is to be delivered to my paypal registered address (the same as my ebuyer account registered address)

"Do you have a copy of a council tax bill with your name on?"

I live in Northern Ireland, we do not have council tax here.

My instinct would be to do as soolin suggested and refer this to ebay, I can only imagine what would happen to my ebay account if I pulled a stunt like this, but my main concern is knowing both compaines reputation for customer service this will end up dragging on for weeks. That is of no use to my uncle who has already given me the cash for the laptop in good faith, and as I said I am not in a position to buy another one when I am waiting for this to be resolved.

If I thought I could get my money back quickly I would them to 'deposit it some dark' and purchase elsewhere.

I suppose I may have to give in and phone one or both of them to get this resolved.

Enterprise_1701C

Sounds a bit excessive - this is the sort of ID you need to open a bank account!

Could it be that they have to comply with money laundering avoidance procedures as they are a large business, even though this is not a massive amount of money to them?

Just another thought - would it be worth emailing them asking why they need this information, and referring them to your other account with them as ID? Personally I would refer to their email but not reply to it, just in case it is a spoof email.

macfly

This would be the type of thing you do to comply with the money laundering regulations, but not at this level of spend. If a buyer bought one a week, then those purchases add up to a reportable level. Ebuyer should certainly know what they are doing though, an email may sort it out.

pinkshoes

I certainly wouldn't be handing over information like that!!

Personally I'd just ignore the request, then open up an "Item Not received" dispute if it doesn't arrive in say 5 days. I'd also refuse a mutual if they request one, and I'd leave perhaps neutral feedback stating they were asking for suspect information!!