eBay's crooked policy but Small Claims Court?

merseymale

Hi- my 1st post!

I was ripped off by a seller on eBay. It caused me inconvenience but was only for a relatively small amount. Eventually I complained to eBay because they often adverse on their 'site the promise that buyers will ALWAYS get their money back if they dont get the item. However they found in favour of the seller because the Royal Mail claimed that before they returned the item to the seller they had tried to deliver it to me!

I have appealed to other ebayers on the site's forum using my ebay name: dadaoriley & starting wy thread with "W-A-R-N-I-N-G"

I even tried to leave Neutral FeedBack for the seller to warn others but ebay wont let me :-/ i have tried to 'name&shame' on their forum too but ebay wont let me do that either...

I suppose i just feel, somehow, that eBay have added insult to injury but I feel I cannot get 'closure' on this? Should I take this to the Small Claims Court despite the small money involved? Who would I try to claim against? The Royal Mail? The seller who has my item & my money? eBay who is protecting the seller & claiming a cut in his proceeds for selling the same item twice?

I thought part of my statutory rights was that I could not be charged for goods &/or services that I had NOT received nor be charged the same cost as those that had received them!

Am I being petty & just 'want my day in court' or am I in the right?
eBay policy means that others could lose a LOT more money than I have due to their policy...

Thanks for your time :-)

merseymale

TYPO!
That should be "eBay often ADVERTISE on their 'site..."
S O R R Y!

timbo58

The buyer/ME! (dadaoriley)

You should contact the seller politely and ask they re-send the item.

They might do so as a goodwill gesture, based on whether they are a regular/business seller perhaps?
They might even consider a refund for the same reasons.

Of course your 'feedback' etc may have already scuppered any goodwill they might have.

If the item was of low value a lot of the cost would have been the postage perhaps?
This makes it less likely the seller would think it necessary to placate you, despite the fact they have the goods & money.

IMHO the seller has not 'scammed you' - this sort of statement would be guaranteed to get my back up if I were them I am afraid.

I do realise that scam/con/rip off are some of the most mis/overused words & phrases on consumer boards but accusations without good evidence are the sort of hot air that keeps only solicitors happy, and, no doubt, only used on here & elsewhere as a vent for feelings safe in the knowledge that posters are generally anonymous.
A great deal of threads/posts slagging off xxx company etc are nonsense when seen
with any scrutiny, even if an initial posting is factually correct.
People exaggerate very easily, which is understandable, to prove a point and the facts become distorted.

Anyway -the problem is almost certainly either Royal Mails making or your own possibly (i.e. in the past 15 years I've had parcels sent back to me as the seller almost all for 'incorrect address' when those details were on the buyers account as supplied by them to eBay and eBay to me).

The major issue with that is that RM do not have a contract with you, the seller is their client, and it all therefore depends on how the seller feels in relation to 'goodwill' to you.

rach_k

Did the RM try to deliver it to you? If they did everything correctly and you didn't arrange redelivery/collection, it's your fault.

If they did not e.g. didn't leave a card or didn't actually attempt delivery, it is the RM's fault. The seller is responsible for the item until it reaches you, but they have no way of knowing whether you're telling the truth or not so I think it would be unreasonable to expect them to go after RM for a postage refund, particularly if you've been aggressive about it. Calling them a scammer is aggressive.

I would ask the seller to resend the item and you pay the second lot of postage. Then talk to the seller reasonably and ask them if they could try to get a refund of the original postage from the RM and then refund you. If they won't or can't, contact the RM yourself - they may offer you something if you can show that they didn't do their job.

soolin

There is something missing from this story. Ebay do not count an attempted delivery to a buyer as delivery, if tracking clearly shows that item was not received by buyer and was in fact returned to seller then buyer should win.

However, anecdotally there was a report on the powerseller board (user was posting as a buyer) some years back where the buyer had been so aggresive that ebay declined to deal with them further stating the usual run out statement that their employees do not have to suffer abuse at work.

Now, I have no way of knowing the real story at all, or even knowing it was real- and of course there is no sugegstion it has happened here- but it is one of the only times I have heard ebay go against their own policy.

OP, as the policy is that items must show as delivered- go back to ebay, politely and calmly, explain their own policy to them showing that th etracking supplied by the seller clearly shows no delivery to you.

RFW

The buyer/ME! (dadaoriley)

merseymale wrote: »

I suppose i just feel, somehow, that eBay have added insult to injury but I feel I cannot get 'closure' on this? Should I take this to the Small Claims Court despite the small money involved? Who would I try to claim against? The Royal Mail? The seller who has my item & my money? eBay who is protecting the seller & claiming a cut in his proceeds for selling the same item twice?

Never go to Small Claims Court on a principle, it is solely about money, it sounds like it would cost you far more money that you possibly wouldn't get back.
You paid a seller for an item that you never received, your problem is with the seller, your only recourse is to the seller.

As above, it doesn't sound as though the whole story has been told.
Perhaps make a timeline of events including any pertinent factors and see if anyone on here can help further.
Some questions I think need answering, what was the time from purchase to complaint? What postal service was used to send item? What type of seller was it? Did you change address? How did you contact Ebay/seller initially?

The consensus on here is that Ebay always favour the buyer so something must have gone awry for that not to have happened in this case.

merseymale

Hi everyone & thanks for your replies!

Obviously I don't seem to have explained myself well.
I really thought that the 2 pages of as-&-when I posted on ebay's community forum I mentioned was a timeline! SORRY.

Yes I asked for refunds from the seller but he would only do so IF I contacted eBay and said it was all sorted. I asked eBay if this was wise & they said NO!

After the case was closed I also asked him to refund as did eBay but he never responded. I suppose thats why I called it a scam but if I am wrong then what do I call it, please?

As for being an angry type, hmmm... Well, I honestly believe I have been very restrained under the circumstances! But -again- please correct me if I am wrong.

As for neutral FeedBack scuppering my chances, well, why should it matter if I am in the right? Besides, as I say, eBay has not allowed me to leave it anyway!

Oh and for the person who kindly replied that eBay would never go against their policy- that is my point! They DID! Their policy now means that proof of posting IS proof of receipt! So, maybe I was wrong to call it a scam, then..? How about 'loop-hole?'

Please check on the posts by me dadaoriley (see? I do reveal who I am!!) & then consider using the poll I've placed with my OP here as I feel this is prob the only UK site I can think of that can spot an 'underdog V big corp' kinda situation OR, as your texts abundantly show so far(!) a "hey! Don't pull a fast one on us, pal!" attitude ;-)

Both views are healthy as I need to know what (if anything?) I should do next -as much for others as myself, y'know?

Cheers for your time ;-D

nicholaswitchell

The buyer/ME! (dadaoriley)

How much money are we actually talking about here?

merseymale

G U L P!

I knew I'd have to answer this eventually!
.. a FIVER,
Now hang on! Seriously! My point is that eBay confirmed that it did not matter if it was £5 or £500 or £5000 they still say that despite Royal Mail leaving me no collection card AND despite the seller agreeing that he has my item AND despite him having my money too AND despite him able to resell it again on eBay & eBay claiming their cut for BOTH sales they maintain that they ARE allowed to do this and advertise their famous money back guarantee too. Y'see?

Yep I only lost a small amount (well not really by my standards I get by on DLA) but my point is it COULD've been a LOT more and I'm concerned that others may fall into this trap!

I must say I am surprised that my poll is 100% against me on this one but maybe I'm missing something..?

I just want to be a Whistle Blower is all, to help others & that

jeffuk

The buyer/ME! (dadaoriley)

merseymale wrote: »

G U L P!
I must say I am surprised that my poll is 100% against me on this one but maybe I'm missing something..?

I just want to be a Whistle Blower is all, to help others & that

You've made on to my BB list.

soolin

merseymale wrote: »

G U L P!

I knew I'd have to answer this eventually!
.. a FIVER,
Now hang on! Seriously! My point is that eBay confirmed that it did not matter if it was £5 or £500 or £5000 they still say that despite Royal Mail leaving me no collection card AND despite the seller agreeing that he has my item AND despite him having my money too AND despite him able to resell it again on eBay & eBay claiming their cut for BOTH sales they maintain that they ARE allowed to do this and advertise their famous money back guarantee too. Y'see?

Yep I only lost a small amount (well not really by my standards I get by on DLA) but my point is it COULD've been a LOT more and I'm concerned that others may fall into this trap!

I must say I am surprised that my poll is 100% against me on this one but maybe I'm missing something..?

I just want to be a Whistle Blower is all, to help others & that

Some more questions for you:

1) Did you open a full INR case in ebay
2) did you escalate it
3) assuming answers to A and B are yes, did seller add tracking details to the dispute console- if so exactly what did that tracking say?