Ebay non-performance as agent

honeythewitch

mrcol1000 wrote: »

Just move on. Life is too short. There are a lot of unfair things on Ebay for both sellers and buyers. Whether you are buying or selling on Ebay it is something you have to put up with. If people went to court every time something unfair on Ebay happened there would be no time for the real crimes.

If the seller had said they had sent it by untracked post. They lost the proof of postage and the item must have got lost in the post. Then you would still be in the same position you are now. Leave negative feedback to warn others and forget about it.

Obviously there are unscrupulous buyers and sellers and Ebay cant actually force someone to sell, but they could stop them doing the same thing over and over, and they could have a proper system for complaints.

forgotmyname

Exactly they cannot force someone to sell to you. You got your money back so no loss.

And you get to leave the seller a negative and low stars. If they relist buy it again and repeat or get someone else to bid for you.

acarden

honeythewitch wrote: »

Obviously there are unscrupulous buyers and sellers and Ebay cant actually force someone to sell, but they could stop them doing the same thing over and over, and they could have a proper system for complaints.

Absolutely, this is part of my point. I raised a case, it didn't resolve the situation, so I "escalated" the case with comments to enforce the sale. It was an "escalation" button that I expected to have Ebay send a final sale reminder, not just take 5 seconds, then issue a refund. At the least, the "Escalation" button should be changed to "Have Ebay issue a refund button" as "Escalation" to me means to consider a number of options / resolutions.

acarden

mrcol1000 wrote: »

Just move on. Life is too short. There are a lot of unfair things on Ebay for both sellers and buyers. Whether you are buying or selling on Ebay it is something you have to put up with. If people went to court every time something unfair on Ebay happened there would be no time for the real crimes.

If the seller had said they had sent it by untracked post. They lost the proof of postage and the item must have got lost in the post. Then you would still be in the same position you are now. Leave negative feedback to warn others and forget about it.

You are mostly right, and thanks for taking the time to post, but you are missing EBay's poor process, and the fact of "Expectation". For three weeks, I actually expected that laptop to be mine, I was planning what to do with it, chasing communicating etc. It was a contract, with Curry's, PC World etc. I would have had right to complain and had recourse. If I had been told I had won the lottery, then was told three weeks later that there was an administrative mistake, would that be different?
You are right though, I (and others) have to move on, but if there is a broken process, why not try and fix it?

acarden

jon81uk wrote: »

I think as eBay only offer a moneyback guarantee and not a definitely receiving the goods guarantee, then a refund is the best you will get. Also as eBay can push a refund out of PayPal automatically a refund is something that eBay can tangibly do, whereas forcing a seller to post something is very difficult to do. Would probably be more effort for them than the 90p fee that eBay receive from the transaction too.

Too true in this case, but what about a £50 lawn mower, a £200 motorbike etc.? The issue shouldn't be scale, or value, it should be the process as a whole. Ebay make the same money as the GDP of some small countries, I think they could make a little more effort here.

campdave

honeythewitch wrote: »

Obviously there are unscrupulous buyers and sellers and Ebay cant actually force someone to sell, but they could stop them doing the same thing over and over, and they could have a proper system for complaints.

This is what the report a seller as a non performing seller is for. Enough reports that they aren't sending what people have bought and they'll get suspended.

campdave

acarden wrote: »

I think they could make a little more effort here.

Such as? Short of physically going round to the sellers house, what do you want them to do.

You have legal recourse to sue for loss of bargain if you wish, but ebay have put you back in the same position when you started, and I don't really think you can expect them to do anything more.

Same as when there's a misprice on a website and the company do not honour it and you're refunded.

shaun_from_Africa

acarden wrote: »

Absolutely, this is part of my point. I raised a case, it didn't resolve the situation, so I "escalated" the case with comments to enforce the sale.

But as already mentioned by others, how do you expect ebay to enforce the sale?
They can't send heavies around to the sellers house and threaten to break their legs if they don't send the goods, so the only option that they have is to enforce a refund.

You still have the legal right to take legal action (for loss of bargain) against the seller but apart from refunding, there is nothing else that ebay could have done.

mrcol1000

acarden wrote: »

You are mostly right, and thanks for taking the time to post, but you are missing EBay's poor process, and the fact of "Expectation". For three weeks, I actually expected that laptop to be mine, I was planning what to do with it, chasing communicating etc. It was a contract, with Curry's, PC World etc. I would have had right to complain and had recourse. If I had been told I had won the lottery, then was told three weeks later that there was an administrative mistake, would that be different?
You are right though, I (and others) have to move on, but if there is a broken process, why not try and fix it?

The difference is that if you brought from PC World, Currys or even brought a lottery ticket and won then you would be dealing with them direct. Ebay acts as a middle man. Imagine you saw a car advertised in the newspaper for £300 even though it is worth £5000. You turned up to buy and the owner refused to sell you it. You wouldn't then take the newspaper to court.

I agree completely that you have lost out and the seller has been pretty rubbish. They should have started the item at the price they were willing to sell. I have had this happen plenty of times. I jump on bargains like that and most times sellers will honour the sale even if they lose out. Just be grateful there is a system to get your money back rather than not getting the bargain and losing your money.

honeythewitch

campdave wrote: »

This is what the report a seller as a non performing seller is for. Enough reports that they aren't sending what people have bought and they'll get suspended.

You would think so, wouldn't you?