ebay unpaid item case opened against me

likelyfran

Amber_Sunshine wrote: »

OP, you are bordering on obosessive. Is it really worth this much of your time and energy?

+1

Thing is, OP, if you just go ahead and pay, despite 'not trusting' the seller, if your prediction is true and you get no item, you'll get all your money back from ebay. If not, you'll get sent the item you say you want.

About £16 all in? It's not like you're risking hundreds of quid that you'll never see again.

prowla

Amber_Sunshine wrote: »

OP, you are bordering on obsessive. Is it really worth this much of your time and energy?

Probably not; I'm just responding to criticisms.

JimmyTheWig

SeduLOUs wrote: »

Prowla. The agreement/contract is formed at the point you bid. It says this clearly on the page that you bid on.

It doesn't mean you are committing to buy based on whatever convenient terms you decide to make up after the auction has ended.

Yes, parties CAN mutually agree to amend terms after the end of the sale, perhaps if an item gets damaged in the meantime, but there is absolutely NO obligation to do so. The seller laid out his terms, you agreed to them and should stick to them.

You cannot force a seller to renegotiate when the contract has already been 'signed' by you bidding.

Correct. If the seller replied and said "no" to collection then the OP would be stuck with the initial terms. That's a risk the OP took by not checking first.

Yes the seller could have replied and it would have been POLITE to do so - he doesn't have to though. But you should pay, because it is your LEGALLY BINDING CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION to do so.

Correct again.
There has been no agreement to alter what was agreed when the OP placed their bid, so the contract still stands.
If the contract can't be completed due to lack of mutual communication then both parties get a black mark against their names.

I'd also love Martin to read this thread too. I'm sure he will agree that breaching your terms of a contract in an attempt to force a seller to renegotiate AFTER you have shaken hands is not reasonable behaviour.

From what the OP has said (we've only got his word for it, and even then it we don't know the tone used in the messages or whether it was clear from the messages that the OP would pay the postage if the seller refused collection) he hasn't tried to force the seller to renegotiate.
A deal has been agreed between two parties. If someone has a plan that he thinks will improve that deal for both parties then what is wrong with suggesting that plan? If, when suggested, the other party doesn't agree then they fall back to the agreement. But if the other party agrees then both parties win. That's got to be good, hasn't it?
I would have thought that Martin would agree with something that was good for both parties.


I think that we all agree that the OP would have been better off contacting the seller before bidding. Not least from the OP's point of view. What if someone else bid £4.50? The seller may be happy to have paid £5 and collect the item but not happy to pay £20 including shipping. Without getting agreement first they wouldn't be able to bid and would have lost out if the seller was happy for collection.
But for one reason or another the OP didn't contact the seller first.
So the two parties either need to proceed with the agreement as it stands, mutually come to an arrangement that benefits both parties or both lose out.

reason2

Prowla

I read all your posts and yet it comes back to one thing.

You bid and won an item that included Postage.

THe seller did not accept your collection request which he did by not responding, which he does not have to do because and here is the important bit.

YOU HAVE AGREED TO PAY DELIVERY COSTS FOR THE ITEM YOU WON!

this is the part you fail to grasp and accept and look for every excuse possible to get out of making you a chancer.

NEVER win or bid on an item when you DONT have the answer you need.

your inability to grasp how wrong you are is why you are a chancer.

JimmyTheWig

usefulmale wrote: »

The seller has given you an answer to your collection request : an unpaid item case. What have they got to do to make it clearer, beat you to death with the the item, because, man alive, I'd pay the seller double, nay triple, to watch them do that.

What have they got to do to make it clearer? Reply to the message, that's what!

prowla

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

From what the OP has said (we've only got his word for it, and even then it we don't know the tone used in the messages or whether it was clear from the messages that the OP would pay the postage if the seller refused collection) he hasn't tried to force the seller to renegotiate.

Well, there's no reason to assume that my word is bad, as I think I've replied to everything asked here (to the point that someone else called me obsessive - you just can't win sometimes!).

Yes, I never tried to force the seller to renegotiate; I simply asked if it would be convenient if I collected the item. I also cut & pasted the actual message I sent at post #236, and it's pretty open and friendly, I would say.

Anyway, it's done and dusted now; the case is closed and the strike is removed from my account.

JimmyTheWig

SeduLOUs wrote: »

if he hasn't seen the message that's just more evidence that the original terms still stand - how can he agree to something he hasn't seen!

Yes, for now the original terms still stand.
But if they both agree to change those terms then that's up to them.
[Well, I guess they don't know if the case has been closed.]

Next time I go to Asda, I might just walk out with a trolley full of shopping and leave a post it on one of their bins promising that I'll pay next month as long as they phone me on my new premium 0845 number, seeing as you think it's OK to just request a change in terms after negotiating a contract wihout any regard for the seller.

Would be more like filling up your trolley in Asda then asking at customer services (before paying for the goods) if someone can help you load it into your car, once you've paid, as you've got a bad back.
If it's clear that you're going to buy the stuff anyway, just would prefer it if someone could load them in the car for you, then I think that's a reasonable thing to ask. They can agree if they think it is appropriate and have the available staff to do it. Or they can refuse.
If it was asked in a way that suggests you were just going to leave the trolley full of shopping there if they refuse then I think that would be out of order. [Some people have got the impression that the OP is doing the equivalent of this, though he says he isn't.]
If customer services refuse to answer your question then you may well end up fed up with the whole shop and walk out leaving your trolley there (even though you would have been quite happy to pay for it had they said no). This may well result in you no longer wanting to shop there and/or the shop no longer wanting you to shop there. I.e. both you and the shop lose out. [This is the equivalent of what appears to be happening in the OP's case. Which is a shame.]

JimmyTheWig

prowla wrote: »

Well, there's no reason to assume that my word is bad, as I think I've replied to everything asked here (to the point that someone else called me obsessive - you just can't win sometimes!).

Yes, I never tried to force the seller to renegotiate; I simply asked if it would be convenient if I collected the item. I also cut & pasted the actual message I sent at post #236, and it's pretty open and friendly, I would say.

I agree.
But you need to accept that many people on this post thought that you were trying to get out of what you had agreed.
If many people on here thought that then there is a fair chance that the seller also thought that.
I don't see how, from the message that you sent, but sometimes people take things the wrong way.

Anyway, it's done and dusted now; the case is closed and the strike is removed from my account.

Nice one.
Glad eBay customer services did what they said they would do despite some of the warnings on here.

Shame you didn't get your item, though.

prowla

reason2 wrote: »

Prowla

I read all your posts and yet it comes back to one thing.

You bid and won an item that included Postage.

THe seller did not accept your collection request which he did by not responding, which he does not have to do because and here is the important bit.

YOU HAVE AGREED TO PAY DELIVERY COSTS FOR THE ITEM YOU WON!

this is the part you fail to grasp and accept and look for every excuse possible to get out of making you a chancer.

NEVER win or bid on an item when you DONT have the answer you need.

your inability to grasp how wrong you are is why you are a chancer.

Hi, (un)reason.

I looked up a definition of "chancer", and found the following:

an unscrupulous or dishonest opportunist who is prepared to try any dubious scheme for making money or furthering his or her own ends

I've not sought to make money; I've simply sought to avoid paying money to a third party (to repeat, the P&P is not the seller's revenue, and they would not lose out by it).

The seller was due to earn the grand total of 99p from this sale, and that amount was not what I was questioning.

You might also note that I found out that the item could be shipped for 1/3rd of the amount the seller was charging, for the same service, therefore they would presumably be pocketing the difference; perhaps you might think about turning your accusations of "chancer" elsewhere.

Regarding the seller's response, your assertion that they replied is incorrect.

The seller did not respond to my message; that was an automated action set up on the account which happened completely independently of any messages; you and me have no way of actually seeing whether the seller received my message or was even aware of it! I've pointed out that they gave an invalid phone number, so at least part of their contact information was incorrect, and thus it is not unlikely that their email address could also have been an old one.

And I repeat that I only wanted a reply from the seller before proceeding.

Finally, I would say to you that ebay agreed with me and removed the strike from my account.

prowla

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I agree.
But you need to accept that many people on this post thought that you were trying to get out of what you had agreed.
If many people on here thought that then there is a fair chance that the seller also thought that.
I don't see how, from the message that you sent, but sometimes people take things the wrong way.

Nice one.
Glad eBay customer services did what they said they would do despite some of the warnings on here.

Shame you didn't get your item, though.

Thanks; I think a couple of people picked up on nuances that weren't there, and then some sort of momentum built up.

It never was in any way my intention to leave the seller out of pocket, and I don't believe that has been the result; they'll be able to re-list if they choose. Who knows - when they do, they might even find my messages there!

I'm OK on the item though, as they are not uncommon, and I mentioned that the other nearby seller who I picked up something from yesterday actually had a similar one too so I made him an offer, and also that I'd bought a couple more during the course of this thread.