eBay -Buyer demands refund after closed Resolutions Case 6 months Later!

al1960

Hi there,

I am a private seller and sold 4 identical lights on ebay. The buyer stated that 1 was missing a tiny screw, I sent another but it was the the wrong one so sent another.

I then got a message that upon cleaning the items, the buyer noticed another screw was missing, I had a spare light that I was going to keep, so I agreed to dismantle it to provide the spare piece, I sent it by Recorded delivery but it was never signed for and remains unclaimed.

The buyer opened a case in the Resolution, stating that the item was not as described and wanted to return it, I stated that it was fully intact and that they could have mis-placed the screws whilst cleaning them, but sent the screws as a goodwill gesture.

After a lot of tooing and fro-ing of mesages on the resolution, I sent it to eBay to decide the outcome, and as they always do, found in favour of the buyer in that they said he could return the items for a full refund.

He had gone away though within this period and missed the deadline for getting the item returned and before they returned, I got my money back and that was that.

However they have privately emailed me just over 6 months after the case, demanding DSR's and a full refund including a demand that I pay for the return, this.

I explained that I am not a private seller and that these items were mine and had been used by me, they said with the total of my feedback in 2 years they doubt that was true! A 5th of this is items that I have bought and a large part is my childrens used clothing, however I have been selling alot of family Heirlooms as my parents have quite a bit to get rid of and they were worth much more compared with second hand clothing, so have been concentrating on that.

They accused me of acting outside the law and want their money!

I explained that I would be out of pocket as I have paid ebay and paypal fees. They dont care about that, and still want their money.

They have given me until the 18th october to respond so I therefore presume that they are intending to take me to the small claims court, though have not said so much.

Any advice would be much appreciated, thank you.

custardy

ignore them

al1960

I found myself having to explain my items for sale, becuase she said I was a private seller, and sent a long rambling email, then thought, why the heck am I even trying to defend myself like this! I do have a private account too which is seperate, and not at all connected to this and which I haven't used in ages, but this was on my genuine private account and were items owned by me and used by me, I have a photo of them in situe.

She said she wants a proof of return being booked and a refund immediately, not even giving me chance to get the goods back (all stuff allowed if you are a private seller)!

I told her that I would seek legal advice and she replied that she hopes to hear from me before the 18th, ie still thinking I was selling the lights privately and that she had rights under DSR's, and wasn't hearing any of what I was saying.

The silly thing is that she said that 3 lights were perfect and one had had the screws sent to them, but they were not in to sign for them and didn't go to get them from the Post office, (I have the tracking number info still), and in order for me to get this screw off the spare light I had, I had to use a DIY tool as they were so hard to remove, which is why I believe that the lights were fully intact when they recieved them.

techspec

Your posts are very confusing as you say the buyer is accusing you of being a private seller - then state you are a private seller, but have two private accounts - one of which is a real one?????

I'm confused dot com. I think you meant to say business seller.

But anyway - your first mistake was to argue with them. You should have just ignored them - thats what i now do if they are talking nonsense. They had their chance of a refund and blew it. Even if DSR's did apply - its 7 days - not 6 months,

Mindless_Clone

Oh blimey I would just ignore. She has absolutely no case that I can see. Even if it was a business sale, even if she was invoking DSRs and even if your returns policy was non compliant... she'd still only have 3 months to return them.

Is her reason for wanting to return because of the missing screws or some other reason? If it's just the screws, even if she did take you to small claims, I doubt she could claim for more than the value of a screw to make the item useable, and since you can show you have made attempts to correct this and that you have sent them already and that she failed to act in a timely fashion then she's got little chance. That's all assuming you were selling as a business of course.

Just out of interest, what's the value of the item? I'm perplexed why anyone would go to such lengths for the sake of a screw.

shaun_from_Africa

Mindless_Clone wrote: »

I'm perplexed why anyone would go to such lengths for the sake of a screw.

Are you sure that you don't want to rephrase that?:cool:

al1960

Many thanks for your helpful responces.

Yes - I meant I'd got one private account and one business, but these lights were my own personal items that I was selling, and therefore I was selling them on my private account.

They cost around £100 for 4 but were originally a fortune. The screws were quite specialist which is why I dismantled a fitting that I was going to keep to use in my garage as she would probably have had trouble getting some to fit, that is if I believe that 2 were missing in the first place as I had to use a pair if pliers to remove the ones that I sent her.

Thinking about it, she took the case to eBays resolution claiming item not as described and now she's wanting a refund on the grounds on DSR's

What upset me was the accusations that I was a business due to the account being just over 2 years old with a score of 550, and said that I ought to re think my refunding her as she thought I was trading outside the law!!! In other words send my money or I'll report you to the tax man!!!

As this is so not true, that is why I answered her email, though wished I hadn't now, though I didn't argue or get shirty, I just explained the facts again, that was that I'd sent several screws and she had had the chance to return said items but went away.

theonlywayisup

Perhaps you confused them with your reply and you won't hear back.

pinkshoes

Why are you even bothering to reply. Just BLOCK them and ignore.

Mindless_Clone

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Are you sure that you don't want to rephrase that?:cool:

Ha ha...er, nope, no I'm good thanks. :o

al1960 wrote: »

Many thanks for your helpful responces.

Yes - I meant I'd got one private account and one business, but these lights were my own personal items that I was selling, and therefore I was selling them on my private account.

They cost around £100 for 4 but were originally a fortune. The screws were quite specialist which is why I dismantled a fitting that I was going to keep to use in my garage as she would probably have had trouble getting some to fit, that is if I believe that 2 were missing in the first place as I had to use a pair if pliers to remove the ones that I sent her.

Thinking about it, she took the case to eBays resolution claiming item not as described and now she's wanting a refund on the grounds on DSR's

What upset me was the accusations that I was a business due to the account being just over 2 years old with a score of 550, and said that I ought to re think my refunding her as she thought I was trading outside the law!!! In other words send my money or I'll report you to the tax man!!!

As this is so not true, that is why I answered her email, though wished I hadn't now, though I didn't argue or get shirty, I just explained the facts again, that was that I'd sent several screws and she had had the chance to return said items but went away.

Ok making more sense. Frankly, if your business dealings are above board and all tax completed etc. then let her do whatever she wants or try and report you however way she feels like. End of the day, tax man might be interested if you were making thousands and thousands, but presumably you haven't and it's all just personal and random/varied stuff that's been sold.
If they only cost you £100 for the 4 lights, what did she pay for one of them? Just trying to establish why she would be bothering with this 6 months on. Seems like she's chancing it in the hope you roll over and give in.

I'd just ignore her from now on, unless you get an actual court summons or anything official.

al1960

Thanks again everyone,

The lights were sold to her for around £100 but they cost much more than that when they were new as they were from a specialist light fitting company.

My business account was a private one that I've had for 6 years, however my husband owns a bar and he got lots of alcohol related freebies which he gave me to sell on eBay, such as badges and lanyards for Jagermeister etc, so eBay made me into a business on that account even though I wasn't one (I wasn't buying goods to sell at a profit but given them for free by my husband who also didn't buy them to sell, but came for free with a large order as promotional tools to do with what we wanted)! But thats a whole other story.