Ebay User Wants to Sue Me

Desk123

Here's a short story:

I organise a sale from an ebay seller for ten green garden spades, at £10 each.
They arrive but one is purple.
I contact the seller and say I'd like to return one for a refund of £10.
The seller asks why that much and I reply that it is the total amount, divided by the number of spades bought.
Seller says he will get back to me but doesn't.

I start a PayPal claim for the amount of £10.
Seller does not respond.
I escalate claim through PayPal for the full amount.
Seller does not respond, despite PayPal's emails and time scale for them to respond.
PayPal awards me full refund.

Currently, I have all the spades and the money,
Morally, it's perhaps not right but I'd appreciate leaving that by the side at the moment.

Seller then emails me asking for me to pay again for the spades.
Seller tries to add me on Facebook.
Seller contacts me through ebay.
Seller emails me directly threatening court action.

The seller has now written (recorded delivery) and stated they would like me to pay for the spades again, minus the £10 for the purple one. They have also stated they will charge me interest for each day I do not respond.

At the moment, I have not responded to anything.
I feel harassed by the way the seller has tried to contact me.

I believe, as PayPal have given enough time, and contacted the seller reminding them they need to respond to my case a number of times, the seller will have very little to go on.

Should I just pay up to get them off my back?
Should I fight this out in court (never done anything like this before)?
Should I respond with my own letter stating that I believe the matter to be closed as per PayPal's judgement? I would add in the details of when PayPal contacted them and the fact they did not respond to the initial email.

Morally, perhaps I should re-pay for the spades but realistically, the seller had well over three weeks to respond, with numerous emails from PayPal - which they ignored. I'm only really interested in what may or may not happen if this does go to court.

Kernow666

usefulmale

Desk123 wrote: »

Morally, perhaps I should re-pay for the spades but realistically, the seller had well over three weeks to respond, with numerous emails from PayPal - which they ignored. I'm only really interested in what may or may not happen if this does go to court.

Quite simply, you will have to either pay for the spades or return them to the seller.

Browntoa

good luck defending a moneyclaim online case when the other party can prove you have ALL the goods and ALL the money


He is being reasonable in requesting payment for the goods supplied , you are being unreasonable in not paying him when you know you are in the wrong and owe him money

robatwork

Putting aside any hassle/harassment issues, you should both be "whole".

You have £190 of money/goods plus one purple spade. The other party has nothing.

You need to return either 10 spades or 1 spade and £90.

If I were you I would pay £90 and keep the purple one.

You will lose if it goes to court.

campdave

Desk123 wrote: »

Morally, perhaps I should re-pay for the spades but realistically, the seller had well over three weeks to respond, with numerous emails from PayPal - which they ignored. I'm only really interested in what may or may not happen if this does go to court.

Here's a story.

You know you're in the wrong, but you've started a thread on here in the hope that people will tell you that you can keep the spades and the money.

You can't - the seller is not in the wrong through their lack of response, but it no way does that entitle you to their money.

What an unpleasant thread.

pinkshoes

Dear Seller. Thank you for your recent letter. I ordered 10 green spades from you on <date>, but received 9 green and 1 purple spade. I requested the return of the purple spade and a refund of £10 (its value), but did not receive a response to this request. I therefore opened a paypal dispute, that you also did not respond to, and was issued with a refund. Please can you either:

1. arrange collection of the 10 spades at a time convenient to me.

2. Accept payment of £90 for the 9 green spades, and arrange collection or pay postage for the other, as previously requested.


The matter is not closed, and legally the seller can take you to court and will win.

Norman_Castle

I believe in calling a spade a spade. Give them their £90 and take the purple one to the charity shop. They'll dig it.

ballisticbrian

Green, red, purple? I just call a spade=, a spade!

Desk123

I understand where you are all coming from, but it's not the issue of morality here.

The fact is the seller had more than enough opportunity to set things right and didn't.

If I will lose in court, what's the point in PayPal having such a system that allows sellers and buyers to work it out?

How can the seller simply dictate terms (like the interest payment)? If that's okay to do, then surely I can say the terms of re-payment have an administration fee of £50 for 1) lost interest on money being in their account, 2) time I have to spend sorting it out, 3) Stress for the whole thing.

In no way has the seller warned me such "fees" would be applied to our contracted terms of sale. The payment was for certain items, which were incorrect. I have been honest and open with the seller, allowing them time to put things right. Because they didn't, they've caused all sorts of hassle.

Like I say, the fact the spades and money are in my possession are not what I'm asking for advice on. I'm simply not happy to repay the whole amount again after the seller refused to work it out. It's only because PayPal automatically took the money back that they are acting.
They should have done this before and had more than enough time to do so.

anotheruser

Interesting topic. What is the person suing you for?
Fraud? So long as you went by the book, I don't think it's fraud.