Can a seller take buyer to small claims courts?

harveybobbles

Private seller sells item for £200, plus postage of £10. Buyer lived local (30 miles away) and wanted to collect.

Agreed day/time: buyer failed to turn up (Child ill)

Rearanged for another day/time: buyer failed to turn up (car broken)

Meanwhile 8 days have passed. Case not opened as buyer seemes genuine (!)

Offered to drop off at their address as I was passing, they agreed and said they'd pay cash. Delivery day came, buyer messaged to say working late and will collect over weekend (!)

Item originally sold on April 26th..

The item was a bit of a one off and not many arouund, had a few watchers/questions and pulled any adverts that was elsewhere and turned down subsequent enquiries.

Just a bit annoying. If it was a sub £30 item then I wouldbt be bothered, but for a £200 item..! Just wondering if a MCOL is a good idea if they fail to collect this weekend?

TrickyWicky

Well it's money they owe you right? Thats what MCOL is for isn't it?

bxboards

Meanwhile 8 days have passed. Case not opened as buyer seemes genuine (!)

I would have filed an Unpaid Item Dispute at that point - those are excuses, and are very unlikely to be genuine unless you've met the worlds unluckiest buyer.

Legally you can file with MoneyClaimOnline, but you'll need to be prepared to front up to court. Luckily you are close enough. I wonder if you'll be asked why you didn't simply follow Ebay procedure - the case may be thrown out as vexatious.

When a buyer comes up with multiple excuses, it's clear they don't want the item, so generally I'd file an NPB, as while you can try to force payment, an unwilling buyer can cause a lot of trouble for your account.

RFW

TrickyWicky wrote: »

Well it's money they owe you right? Thats what MCOL is for isn't it?

Not quite, the seller still has the item.

If the item is now worth less than the buyer paid for it, the seller can relist and sell again and deduct the new sales figure plus any charges from the amount the buyer paid. The resulting difference is the only amount the buyer could be forced to pay.

If you went to court for the full amount and still had the item it would get thrown out quite quickly.

pinkshoes

Request their contact details, PHONE them, and ask if they still want it.

If not, send a cancellation, and re-sell.

...Time_for_a_brew_then..

As there is no 'actual' loss to the seller (other than fees that can be claimed back) as soon as it hits the court it'll be thrown out.
You need to start an Unpaid Item Dispute to reclaim your Final Valuation Fees, once you get them back, that's your lot I'm afraid.

There is no way you would get £200+costs from someone in this situation.

Get your fees back, relist and add the original buyer to your blocked bidder list.

I still wonder why sellers believe that a bid on a website is considered 'legally binding' ...after ten years of selling on eBay, maybe I'm getting a bit cynical about it all...

RFW

...Time_for_a_brew_then.. wrote: »

I still wonder why sellers believe that a bid on a website is considered 'legally binding' ...after ten years of selling on eBay, maybe I'm getting a bit cynical about it all...

It is, sellers have won cases against non paying bidders. Most of the time, as in the case here, it isn't worth going to court for.