Paid a deposit for a caravan, now have neither

mervyn114

Hello everyone, I am really hoping for some advice here.
I'll start at the beginning, I saw, bid for and won a caravan on Ebay, really happy with it, put a deposit down (the guy sent his details via ebay requesting £500) and I paid via Paypal with the intention of collecting it a week later as mutually agreed. From there, the seller was uncooperative, failed to tell me where the caravan was located (he cited for his safety) he didn't provide the chassis number, so I couldn't get it insured or registered, and after numerous communications failed, I lost contact with him. I requested PayPal step in and help, they gave him 14 days to respond, he responded on the 14th!! gave his reasons and Paypal ruled in his favour.
I appealed, and again lost the PayPal dispute as they did not cover vehicles or caravans, and recommended I speak to my bank.
I spoke to HSBC and after a week of phoning them and explaining the story all over again, I was told that as the money left my account as a direct debit (£409 from HSBC and £100 from my PayPal funds) that they can't help me because "direct debits do not cover goods not received"
I tried messaging the seller this evening, he has since sold the caravan again (after slating my name) for more money, opened an unpaid item case and is demanding the rest of the payment (some £2800) I sent him an ultimatum, was polite about it and said that unless he answered with a refund in two days, that I would start a small claims court action.
I'm appealing to the knowledge on this board and really hoping that there is something else I can do.
The thing that has wound me up is that it was his bad/ uncooperative attitude that caused this all to fail, he now has my £500, has sold the caravan and I have ended up empty handed.
Please any advice, anyone would be much appreciated.

theonlywayisup

If you pay a deposit by Paypal you have no buyer protection, they won't help.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean in your last comment - do you mean the seller has opened a non payment case on ebay? Or do you mean they are asking you to pay the £2800? If they've opened a case for non payment, there is no issue, this is for the seller to recoup their fees.

If you want your £500 back, you either need to convince your card company/bank to chargeback the monies or you need to start proceedings. Do you know his name/address?

nyermen

Can I check?
1) You buy the caravan
2) You pay deposit (£500)
3) (without knowing details of miscommunication, his reasons etc) He fails to complete the deal, giving whatever reasons to Paypal for this
4) He sells the caravan to someone else (for more).
5) He demands the rest of the money despite having not delivered/allowed collection the goods?

Not sure of ebay rules (are deposits normal?), but make sure you've copies of all correspondance, his reasons in the dispute, the subsequent "where's the rest of my money" demand, etc.
Do you have evidence of him having then sold it to someone else? I assume so if you've found out it's been sold to someone else? (Has he told you this? He may have two to sell on ebay).

Smells like ActionFraud to me if the above is all in your favour...

Peter.

mervyn114

Hello Peter and theonlywayisup, sorry about the confusion, please let me clarify.
1) I win the caravan on ebay - he then requests a deposit privately through paypal, not through ebay (he requests the remainder be paid by cash on collection)
2) I (stupidly) pay the deposit via paypal (£500)
3) He becomes rude and obstructive, eventually leading to a communication breakdown, and me not knowing where the caravan is (so can't even go to see him/it)
4) he sells the caravan to someone else for more on ebay again (exactly the same caravan)
5) in response to my messages asking him to be civil, he counter claims demanding the rest of the money despite him not having a caravan to supply me if I did pay the rest.

To answer you theonlywayisup, I tried my bank HSBC, they said because the money left my account as a direct debit to paypal, and goods not received are not covered in direct debits, then there is nothing they can do.
So far, I have requested ebay to supply his full address, which I assume they are working on doing in their timely fashion, but as it stands, I do not have my £500, any chance of having the caravan as it is now with a new owner, and I do not have this man's address.

Thank you both for your replies.
Kind regards, Will.

m0bov

Best to open a moneyclaim online and sue.

mervyn114

Thank you, I am in the process of ebay giving me his contact details and I think it's my only route.

Rach1509

If you use the advanced search at the top of the ebay page, it should bring up a page with search details - this will give you an option for "find contact information". You can put in the seller user id and item id and the address info held will be sent to you - (hopefully this is a full address, and not just name and county - this comes by email and only takes a few minutes

you can then check this against phone number / public records etc. You should also have some info from the paypal payment you made, depending on how you made the payment

report the fraud to Action Fraud and also use report a seller to ebay. Leave the seller feedback to warn other buyers. - If the new buyer has their details - I would also contact them (this is not really allowed, but you can use contact a member), and ask if they have paid the same as you - or actually got the caravan.

mervyn114

Thank you Rach1509, I for some reason am unable to get his details this way, I have asked ebay, and they (I think) are working on it.
Action Fraud looks amazing, thanks again.

mervyn114

Hello everyone, I thought I'd update on exactly what is happening so far.

EBay has failed to deliver the sellers address and contact information, due to the transaction being outside of Ebay.

Paypal are impossible to contact, but I'm still trying.

What I'm most annoyed about is the time this is all taking.

Thanks again for all the support!

mervyn114

Hello all, a slightly concering update, I can't get the sellers address.
Ebay won't offer it to me as I didn't purchase through ebay, and paypal are saying its a seller's private information "how would you like it if we shared your information" was the response from the extremely unhelpful agent on the other end of the phone.

Have I lost before the fight has even begun?

knightstyle

Really feel for you, put his name, phone number and any other information on here and someone may be able to help track him down.
Where did the listing state the caravan was?