What's my position??

Rotor

Hmmm thats interesting.
I had thought , as a buyer, that effectively( rather than explicitly stated), i did have a 45 day warranty.
It seems , for a buyer, the best advice is to leave no feedback until day 46.

Crowqueen

Buyer protection on items from private sellers is only on items as described. If the item breaks down a few days later then yes, they have lost their money, unless the seller accepts responsibility above and beyond what is legally required of them (since even SOGA only states that items from a private seller must be 'as described' when received). eBay as above has adjudged the buyer's claim not to be one they want to enforce, but I think OP has acted reasonably in the end - it's nice to see that he does have a conscience in all of this.

On item from a business you have the backing of consumer law. If the item had been new, then it would have had quite a significant time to be returned; independent of eBay you would have had to offer better customer care. What is problematic with eBay is that they tend not to enforce legal rights and fall back on the same situation. I have also never heard of them taking feedback into consideration - I would never myself leave feedback on something like this until I was satisfied it was properly working; maybe not on day 46 but at least a few weeks in, probably.

This is why I don't sell such items with a limited shelf life - it's a false economy for the person buying it and I wouldn't be able to live with it if it broke down days into being with its new owner. Either I sell them unused or I sell completely faulty - I sold a faulty iPod in September 2010 that had started playing up in July. Had I been unscrupulous I could have sold it as working back then and got £60 or so, and then turned round to the buyer in September when it broke down completely and said 'Tough, you can't enforce anything'. I think it is up to the seller to decide whether or not the item is worth selling as electronic items do have problems with wear-and-tear.

No-one wants to pay £100+ for something that will be useless in a few weeks and therefore it's up to people to trade ethically.

theonlywayisup

Rotor wrote: »

Hmmm thats interesting.
I had thought , as a buyer, that effectively( rather than explicitly stated), i did have a 45 day warranty.
It seems , for a buyer, the best advice is to leave no feedback until day 46.

If you carefully read the OP's follow up, then it is not against what you have suggested.

The OP seems to have contacted ebay (live chat?) who have given advice (as we know on these boards it can be wrong and plain against policy). The OP seems to have negotiated a partial with the buyer.

I have no doubt, had the buyer pursued the full refund, then I'm afraid the OP would not have had the outcome he wanted.

darich

To clarify I did have a chat via "live chat" but also exchanged messages via the message centre. It was via the message centre that I was advised it would be my decision whether to accept a refund.

Here's an extract of the message I received from ebay :
"[FONT=Arial, Verdana]eBay doesn't see or handle items, so it's difficult for us to determine the exact condition of the item when it was sent or received. I can confirm that your buyer has left a positive feedback to you which you can use to weather accept or decline your buyers return request."[/FONT]

From Ebay's rules available on their website :
"Where the seller is a private individual, the goods must be "as described". The goods are not legally required to be of "satisfactory quality" or "fit for purpose"."

Since the buyer had left positive feedback, the advice I received concurred with this rule - the goods were as described because they worked perfectly well.

I apologised to the seller and explained it was not my intention to deceive or scam him and I offered him a partial refund. He accepted this and I've completed the partial refund. The case is now closed and all parties are satisfied.

Many thanks to all for the replies.

darich

Crowqueen wrote: »

eBay as above has adjudged the buyer's claim not to be one they want to enforce, but I think OP has acted reasonably in the end - it's nice to see that he does have a conscience in all of this.

Many thanks for this.
I recently sold a faulty iphone and described all faults accurately - positive feedback.
I sold this PS3 in working condition but had no way of knowing it would fail so soon after the buyer bought it.
I could have walked away but had no intention of scamming or deceiving anyone with the sale.

Main thing is, everyone is happy with the outcome.

theonlywayisup

darich wrote: »

To clarify I did have a chat via "live chat" but also exchanged messages via the message centre. It was via the message centre that I was advised it would be my decision whether to accept a refund.

Here's an extract of the message I received from ebay :
"[FONT=Arial, Verdana]eBay doesn't see or handle items, so it's difficult for us to determine the exact condition of the item when it was sent or received. I can confirm that your buyer has left a positive feedback to you which you can use to weather accept or decline your buyers return request."[/FONT]

From Ebay's rules available on their website :
"Where the seller is a private individual, the goods must be "as described". The goods are not legally required to be of "satisfactory quality" or "fit for purpose"."

Since the buyer had left positive feedback, the advice I received concurred with this rule - the goods were as described because they worked perfectly well.

I apologised to the seller and explained it was not my intention to deceive or scam him and I offered him a partial refund. He accepted this and I've completed the partial refund. The case is now closed and all parties are satisfied.

Many thanks to all for the replies.

I am glad it worked out for you.

But, don't be fooled into thinking that had you tried to defend the case you would have won, the likelihood is that your buyer would have been told to send the item back for a refund. You have been lucky in that they accepted a reimbursement.

Rotor

darich wrote: »

To clarify I did have a chat via "live chat" but also exchanged messages via the message centre. It was via the message centre that I was advised it would be my decision whether to accept a refund.

Here's an extract of the message I received from ebay :
"[FONT=Arial, Verdana]eBay doesn't see or handle items, so it's difficult for us to determine the exact condition of the item when it was sent or received. I can confirm that your buyer has left a positive feedback to you which you can use to weather accept or decline your buyers return request."[/FONT]

It does suggest that ebay have used the feedback as proof of a working item .
From a weasel words point of view though they don,t catergorically state that they would support the decision on a refund. i.e.

darich

Rotor wrote: »

It does suggest that ebay have used the feedback as proof of a working item .
From a weasel words point of view though they don,t catergorically state that they would support the decision on a refund. i.e.

You're right....the positive feedback proves to ebay I sent a working item.
You're also correct that it doesn't state they'd support the seller 100% but thankfully it wasn't necessary to go that far.

Rotor

darich wrote: »

You're right....the positive feedback proves to ebay I sent a working item.
You're also correct that it doesn't state they'd support the seller 100% but thankfully it wasn't necessary to go that far.

Oooh - I like being right ; it happened so rarely at school.
According to the wife it's quite rare now!