Difficult buyer dispute

ukjoel

I recently sold a climbing frame on ebay.
Item was several years old and has been outside all its life. This was stated on the auction.
Listing specifically said some bolts were rusted and some wooden parts may need replacing, and it was in urgent need of a coat of wood protection.
Item was collection only and listing stated viewing was welcome and encouraged.

There were 9 pics of the climbing frame and a 99p starting bid.

There were over 20 bids and the item went for over £700 which I was delighted with. Winning bidder did not view prior to bidding or ask any questions.

Item was collected and dismantled and now buyer is complaining that the item is not as described as its not the branded product he thought it was and some of the wooden pieces on the floor need replacing. No mention of brand of any sort was mentioned in the listing.

He is seeking the £700 plus a £250 payment he made to the courier.

My view is he is trying it on. He paid via paypal and is threatening to open a case.

I do appreciate the risk of accepting paypal for collection items but was comfortable on this one as have video evidence and proof of collection and in fairness this is not being disputed.

The climbing frame originally cost approx 5k and 2 bidders went over £700.

Any thoughts on how I handle this. I completely refute his claim thats its not as described and dont see how I could be more open than encouraging viewings prior to bidding.


Thanks,

Rev

Has the buyer opened a case yet?
If he opened a not as described case you can reply saying you're happy for him to return for a full refund of his £700 eBay will tell him to return it for a refund. He will get the refund once he uploads the tracking info. You're under no obligation to pay the currier costs. And ebay can't make you.


However if he opens a item not received case then you're screwed. You can have a video of him saying 'yay this is me 'insert name' collecting my item' and a letter from the queen but unless you have a tracking number to upload to PayPal that shows delivery (not collection) he will win.

theonlywayisup

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

Your winning bidder seems to have bid on several climbing frames.
I wonder how many other sellers he's trying this routine on?

It isn't about what he has bid on but what he has won.

OP, you must be open to the prospect that your buyer is a scammer and is buying several of these to have enough bits to erect a fully working one.

Firstly, the only money he will be able to claim by Paypal is the payment he made to you, not the courier. He may decide to take that to a small claims court.

I would do some research on his user ID if you can and send him a message asking if he is confusing you with another seller as you see he has bid/won on a lot (if that is the case).

If he opens the case, your best bet will be to defend it on the grounds you stated (no brand etc) take each point individually and refute it.

Then, be clear in the dispute it was a collection item. Do not mention a courier, but stress it was a collection only item and the buyer had adequate time to inspect it. This won't necessarily help for an Ebay claim, but it may.

For a Paypal claim, you should ring Paypal and tell them it was collection only. Section 7.3 covers buyer protection on paypal and items for collection are not covered.

7.3 Ineligible Items. PayPal Buyer Protection only applies to PayPal payments for certain tangible, physical goods. Payments for the following are not eligible for reimbursement under PayPal Buyer Protection:

Intangible items, including Digital Goods (subject to exceptions as listed in Section 7.6)
Services
Real estate
Businesses (when you buy a business)
Vehicles, including motorcycles, caravans, aircrafts and boats
Custom made items
Travel tickets, including airline flight tickets
Items prohibited by PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy or by eBay's Prohibited or Restricted Items Policy
Items which you collect in person, or arrange to be collected on your behalf, including at a retail point of sale
Industrial machinery used in manufacturing
Items equivalent to cash, including prepaid or gift cards
Personal Payments

ukjoel

Thanks everyone - Definite sigh of relief as I am reading your feedback.

I responded to original mail, and he is now saying I described item as huge (wheras it was a specific companys standard model) and that you can see I have taken the floor up as it shown in the pics.

The floor he is referring to is a wooden composter I won two weeks ago on ebay which I have yet to get round to assembling:)

In terms of size I provided measurements in centimetres so would prefer he used those.

As he has now sent emails confirming receipt I think an item not received claim is hopefully a non issue.

I will wait for him to open a case and then respond with happy for item to be returned (and reassembled) at buyers cost for a full refund.

I too think he is trying it on.

How can I see what items he is bidding on?
Have been using ebay for years but very rarely have any issues so am not up to date on the tools.

Many thanks,

theonlywayisup

ukjoel wrote: »

Thanks everyone - Definite sigh of relief as I am reading your feedback.

I responded to original mail, and he is now saying I described item as huge (wheras it was a specific companys standard model) and that you can see I have taken the floor up as it shown in the pics.

The floor he is referring to is a wooden composter I won two weeks ago on ebay which I have yet to get round to assembling:)

In terms of size I provided measurements in centimetres so would prefer he used those.

As he has now sent emails confirming receipt I think an item not received claim is hopefully a non issue.

I will wait for him to open a case and then respond with happy for item to be returned (and reassembled) at buyers cost for a full refund.

I too think he is trying it on.

How can I see what items he is bidding on?
Have been using ebay for years but very rarely have any issues so am not up to date on the tools.

Many thanks,

If he goes to an Ebay case, he won't need to reassemble the thing to get his money back. However, cross that bridge when/if you come to it, pointless worrying about that yet.

The privacy on ebay has been tightened in recent weeks, you may need to cast your net wider than ebay, perhaps Facebook, google etc. It could be that he is a business. You have his name and address, do some work on that.

You might be able to see his recent purchases via his feedback page. You should be able to see the seller's id, perhaps a few short messages asking if they had any issues with him……you will need to do some legwork to protect yourself.

Brooker_Dave

Make sure you withdraw the paypal funds to your bank account.

TKPeters

ukjoel wrote: »

Thanks everyone - Definite sigh of relief as I am reading your feedback.

I responded to original mail, and he is now saying I described item as huge (wheras it was a specific companys standard model) and that you can see I have taken the floor up as it shown in the pics.

The floor he is referring to is a wooden composter I won two weeks ago on ebay which I have yet to get round to assembling:)

In terms of size I provided measurements in centimetres so would prefer he used those.

As he has now sent emails confirming receipt I think an item not received claim is hopefully a non issue.

I will wait for him to open a case and then respond with happy for item to be returned (and reassembled) at buyers cost for a full refund.

I too think he is trying it on.

How can I see what items he is bidding on?
Have been using ebay for years but very rarely have any issues so am not up to date on the tools.

Many thanks,

INR not an issue, as he has stated in eBay messages that he is in receipt of the item
Only left with SNAD, which will only give you the option to return for a refund of the original amount paid & then the funds will be held by Paypal.

You've stated the measurements & you can clearly see the items in the Yellow bucket are a different colour / wood, so not part of it.

If you click on the buyers ID on your listing, it will show the other bids; http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBidderProfile&mode=1&item=131272036720&aid=h***n&eu=&bidtid=984445303003

change h***n to his ID for more details

RainbowDrops

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

Make sure you withdraw the paypal funds to your bank account.

This wont protect the seller if the buyer does make a claim & win the case afaik.

philatio

Too late and no consolation... but just another case that proves that for large items like this, collection only should mean collection only. Cash in hand and no "I'll send a courier"

Brooker_Dave

RainbowDrops wrote: »

This wont protect the seller if the buyer does make a claim & win the case afaik.

Yes it will, once you have the money paypal pretend law is of no worry.

theonlywayisup

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

Yes it will, once you have the money paypal pretend law is of no worry.

That's not quite so is it. The OP may want to use Ebay again, so it's not such a cut and dry situation without knowing all the facts.

Paypal do employ debt collectors, the validity of such might be questionable but they do it and they do collect the debts from a lot of hounded customers.