Ebay seller threatening to take me to small claims court. help!

barmybeetroot

Hello

I have recently made an offer on a car on ebay. Not a bid but an offer. I received an email from ebay saying my offer had been submitted. I didn't receive an email from ebay saying my offer had been accepted, so I thought it had sold, and went to buy another car.

I then received an email from the seller requesting payment. I explained what had happen and apologised profusely. I have no unpaid items on my account, and have lots of good feedback. This was his reply:

Good Morning

I am not happy about this and it is people such as you who give eBay a bad name. You know have three choices - purchase the car at the price we entered into a legally binding contract with (£800) or continue to cancel and pay me a good will payment of half that price to make the matter go away (£400) or my only other option is to commence legal action through the small claims court. It is not a problem to do so as it only costs me £20 but will cost you a hell if a lot more!!!!

You have SEVEN days in which to acknowledge this email and let me know how we are settling this sorry issue or I will obtain your details from EBay (which I can do, you may not be aware if this??) and take the appropriate action. I am sick of people like you who give 'Joe Public' such a bad name.

I look forward to your response.

Thank You

What can I do? I am worried sick about this:(
Thanks

soolin

Was it an official 'offer' on a BIN with best offer enabled, or did you just email and offer the seller a certain amount to take it off ebay?

barmybeetroot

It was an official offer.

pulliptears

Binding bid aside the guy is a chancer. £400 to make it go away? Hilarious! I'd like to see him prove those losses in court.

I'd offer him his fees and tell him anything more and you'll see him in court.

theonlywayisup

I wouldn't offer his fees, I would offer to cancel, which will result in the same thing.

Or he could NPB, in which case I wouldn't contest it.

I too would like to see how he came to £400.

jpsartre

Was the offer actually accepted through Ebay? It isn't clear from the OP.

soolin

barmybeetroot wrote: »

It was an official offer.

OK, that means you were committed to pay if seller accepted the offer. There has only been 2 cases ever discussed here on MSE where a seller has taken a buyer to court to force a sale to go through both on much higher amounts than this- so I consider that a wasted threat.

The seller can of course NPB you and issue you with a strike but I think realistically that is about it. You may have a lucky escape even after costing the seller stress and money and I suggest you are more careful about making offers in the future if you have no intention of abiding by them.

soolin

jpsartre wrote: »

Was the offer actually accepted through Ebay? It isn't clear from the OP.

Post 3- an official offer

barmybeetroot

I too was shocked by the £400 to make it go away! I feel glad I haven't ended up buying a car of this crook!

I had an email from ebay saying the offer had been submitted, but no email saying it had been accepted, which was how the mistake happened. The next thing I knew I had a message from the seller asking for payment, and the item shows up in my purchases.

soolin

barmybeetroot wrote: »

I too was shocked by the £400 to make it go away! I feel glad I haven't ended up buying a car of this crook!

I had an email from ebay saying the offer had been submitted, but no email saying it had been accepted, which was how the mistake happened. The next thing I knew I had a message from the seller asking for payment, and the item shows up in my purchases.

You made an offer- it was up to the seller to accept it and he had 48 hours to do that. The offer process makes it extremely clear that your offer is binding on you if seller chooses to accept it.

RainbowDrops

For the last best offer I made (on clothing) i just got an invoice once the buyer accepted the offer - have you been sent any invoices?
If not, maybe query this with ebay, as it might be a glitch.

In the mean time, hold off replying untill you have everything you want to say.
Explain your situation calmly, even if the seller isn't being calm.