E-bay refunding buyer but I've not received the item back!

DazedAndConfuzed

Not sure if this is in the right section but thought I'd try.

I recently sold a pc on e-bay and stated no returns unless faulty as I knew the pc worked fine so there'd be no issue. The buyer opened a claim saying the pc wasn't as described and didn't work. I received it back, tested it, found it working perfectly well and posted it out again.

There was no communication back from the buyer so I contacted e-bay asking them to investigate and close the case as they had taken £170 from me putting my Paypal account into a negative balance.

To my amazement they refunded the buyer £170 and now say I owe e-bay the money even though they made no effort to ensure the pc was sent back to me or even investigate fully. Their customer services dept even said to me the refund was my choice!

I've been awaiting a reply from e-bay for a week now (72 hours my @rse!) but don't really know what my options are, other then driving to the buyers house to demand my pc back!

Any ideas anyone?


Cheers in advance :beer:

Cheers

RadoJo

Did you have any communication with the buyer regarding the fact that you were sending it our again after you had tested it?

JimmyTheWig

I think this is going to have to be a small claims court job.

Forget eBay. They're going to say that the item was returned to you and so you have to refund. The fact that you re-sent it probably won't make any difference to them.
Do whatever you'd do if this was a transaction facilitated by an ad in the local paper, etc.

timbo58

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I think this is going to have to be a small claims court job.

Forget eBay. They're going to say that the item was returned to you and so you have to refund. The fact that you re-sent it probably won't make any difference to them.
Do whatever you'd do if this was a transaction facilitated by an ad in the local paper, etc.

This is EXACTLY what eBay will claim: their standard policy: once the sale is done & dusted they only then facilitate the return, any further delivery/return is done between buyer and seller outside of eBays rules and jurisdiction.

DazedAndConfuzed

That's ridiculous, I tried to resolve the situation by testing the pc so both parties are happy and THIS happens! I've got proof of delivery so I can always fight that the pc is with the buyer not with me and if e-bay want a scrap I'm more then happy. Luckily I'd already taken the payment out of my Paypal account so it's only my e-bay balance that's been hit.

Everything was done through their resolution centre and I've got transcripts of the conversations between me and their customer services bod saying the refund is my choice, hopefully that'll hold some weight?

lightwarrior

for the next time, accept only wire transfer. that will solve your further problems, only serious buyiers will bid, who don't hope on retuning the item.

JimmyTheWig

OP, you could try following it up on eBay, but I don't think they'll be interested.
They get much more money out of large-scale business sellers than they do out of the likes of you and I.

Forget the fact that you advertised it on eBay.
If you'd put a card up in your local newsagents and this happened, would you chase the newsagent to sort it out for you? I'm thinking not.

DazedAndConfuzed

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

If you'd put a card up in your local newsagents and this happened, would you chase the newsagent to sort it out for you? I'm thinking not.

Of course I wouldn't, but if the newsagent got involved with the money transfer (taking the money off me and giving it to the 'buyer' without ensuring the item was returned to me) then they are most definitely involved, by their own hand.

lindseykim13

did the buyer send the pc back to you tracked?

DazedAndConfuzed

Yeah, was by DHL. I can prove it was sent to him, he can (probably) prove it was sent back to me, I can definitely prove it was sent to him again. There's also loads of e-mails from me via e-bay's webmail thing explaining what I was doing

Esoog

lightwarrior wrote: »

for the next time, accept only wire transfer. that will solve your further problems, only serious buyiers will bid, who don't hope on retuning the item.

You have to list paypal these days, great ey