Small Claims Court For Broken eBay Purchase?

Get_rich_or_try_dying

Hi All,

I bought a used games console on eBay. I managed to haggle the price down (through the 'Make an offer' option) and the buyer accepted my offer. The seller said that eBay wouldn't let him make any further amendments to the invoice and asked my to pay him direct through PayPal.
I thought it seemed a bit fishy but having looked at his feedback and seeing that he had a feedback score of around 430, with no negative reviews, I went ahead and paid.

The console arrived, I plugged it all in and it didn't work. I checked the packaging to see if it had been damaged in transit but it was all fine. I googled the problem and apparently it's a common problem with that particular console (Faulty HDMI socket)

I contacted the seller and he just kept coming back with excuse after excuse. Saying that it was working when he had it, then he couldn't refund me as he had spent the money, then saying that he has a new baby, then the fact that he is having to look for a new job because the one he was in wasn't paying enough.

The only thing he said he would do was to make a claim with Parcelforce. Because I just wanted the matter done with, I gave him the option to give me a partial refund. With the intention of selling the faulty games console on eBay.

He phoned me up at 7:40am in the morning ranting and raving saying that I he wasn't going to agree with my offer. So I just waited to hear back from him with an update on the Parcelforce claim. I didn't hear anything back from him so I sent him a message via eBay saying that I've waited long enough and that if the situation wasn't sorted out soon, I would have no other option than to take it to the small claims court.

He replied to me with several "GO F... YOURSELF" and "DO IT, SEE WHERE IT GETS YOU" and also claiming that i'm a "messer".


I'm so angry about this as I've essentially lost £255. Is the small claims court the best way to go with this?

glentoran99

just a raise an ebay/paypal dispute, no need to get court involved

agrinnall

There's no chance that Parcelforce would entertain a claim anyway if you tell them there is no sign of damage in transit - not that you could claim anyway, as it's the sender who has the contractual relationship with them, unless you provided some sort of prepaid sticker, which I doubt.

Get_rich_or_try_dying

glentoran99 wrote: »

just a raise an ebay/paypal dispute, no need to get court involved

I didn't think I could do that as I didn't pay via eBay, it was via an invoice the seller sent through PayPal?

Get_rich_or_try_dying

agrinnall wrote: »

There's no chance that Parcelforce would entertain a claim anyway if you tell them there is no sign of damage in transit - not that you could claim anyway, as it's the sender who has the contractual relationship with them, unless you provided some sort of prepaid sticker, which I doubt.

No, you are right. They said that the seller would have to make the claim. When he sent me the abusive message he said that he ended the claim with them and that I could shove it up my ......

qsk

Get_rich_or_try_dying wrote: »

I didn't think I could do that as I didn't pay via eBay, it was via an invoice the seller sent through PayPal?

Then why not raise a Paypal claim of "Not As Described"? Paypal sides with buyer most of time.

fleshandbone

I would go round his house and demand the money

glentoran99

Get_rich_or_try_dying wrote: »

I didn't think I could do that as I didn't pay via eBay, it was via an invoice the seller sent through PayPal?

do it through paypal then

glentoran99

fleshandbone wrote: »

I would go round his house and demand the money

and when he says no then what?

[Deleted User]

glentoran99 wrote: »

and when he says no then what?

Well, he forgot to mention the baseball bat he'll bring along!

soolin

Log into PayPal. Find the transaction and as long as it shows named goods you will be able to make a SNAD claim.

I'm just hoping that having fallen for the whole 'eBay won't let me' excuse, that you did at least check the invoice to make sure you knew what you were paying for.

The only thing I'm not clear about is how you managed to make a proper offer via the best offer service on eBay and not have it show on your purchases screen. Are you saying the seller did not accept your offer formally and just told you to buy 'off ebay ' instead, that should have raised alarm bells.