small claims court advice

mah_jong

craftfairy, the time for surface ( the official word) is 2-8 weeks. You might be lucky and it gets there quickly.

I have known things to get there in days (a friends surface christmas cards to Aus arrived in October after being a few days earlier.

martindow

Surely Small Claims Court cannot be used if you are claiming against somebody living abroad?

pennylane99

even if you win your case at small claims court, doesnt mean the other person will actually pay the money owed....

soolin

I am confused here and my advice is different to those already posted.

You sold an item and it went surface instead of airmail to the US as buyer expected. The parcel hasn't arrived as it is too soon, so the buyer has charged back, as any buyer would do in circumstances. What are you suing for?

Buyer does not have to pay for something that they haven't received, so you go to court and say you sent something, no doubt you have your receipt of posting, but you admit it was not tracked or signed for. Therefore you can't prove she is lying about receiving it, and you lose the case and all the court fees you've paid.

I suppose you could sue the PO for not sending it via the method you wanted, but you can't possibly have a claim against the buyer.

If a buyer came on here and said they had bought something from the US and later found out it was sent only surface mail and hadn't arrived, I would be strongly advising them to put in a protective paypal claim to ensure they didn't lose out. Surface mail should not be used if you accept paypal, if you choose to use it then you need an element of self insurance to cover your loss if it goes astray. It is also worth noting that the Royal Mail will considr that you used the wrong service as well as standard mail only covers up to £34 if lost, your item was therefore not insured.

I can understand you are angry and upset, £90 is a lot of money. However, this was an error in communication between you and the PO. It is never a good idea to guess postage costs when selling on ebay, we've all had our share of nasty surprises! An overseas item worth £90 must go signed for/tracked, if it is too heavy then you needed a courier who would also have required insurance.

vaio

Soolin

vaio wrote: »

Am I missing something?

You sold on ebay and didn’t follow the postage agreed in your auction or required by ebay/paypal.

When the buyer complains you want to sue them?

The OP didn’t follow the Ebay/Paypal rules and what she agreed with her buyer and has nothing to complain about.

The thread then moved to a UK to UK sale which is what my subsequent posts were about

vaio wrote: »

I would do small claims on this one. The fact that you got pos feedback and not notified of a fault for 3 weeks would probably convince a judge that they were working when you sent them. In small claims it’s not prove as in 100%, it’s prove as in 51%

soolin

Oh sorry, I missed the change in direction on the thread...blame jet lag I only got back from holiday this morning!