Ebay Dilemma - what would you do?

Brookside88

Ok so from the beginning.
My sons 2nd birthday was on the 8th june and he's obsessed with a certain cbeebies character. I decided to make a cake around the theme and had seen some figurines that would be perfect to put on the cake.

I looked on ebay and amazon and found that amazon was selling them for 14.99 but they were pre-order for the 18th June - too late for his party. I then found a set on ebay for 27.99 for delivery 23rd - 25th May. I checked the description very carefully to ensure they'd arrive in time.
They were promptly marked as dispatched so I waited for delivery but on the 29th May they still hadn't arrived so i messaged the seller asking for a tracking number. He said "i'm sorry you didn't notice this item is pre-order for the 18th June". I checked back on the listing and he had changed the title of the listing to pre-order and added it in the description. This was 100% not stated when I ordered them. At this point I knew exactly what he was up to and requested a refund which was received.

I ordered them from a different seller on amazon for £35 and received them on the 8th June.

Roll on to yesterday when a set of the figurines arrived at my work. (!?) I couldn't figure out where these had come from.

This morning I received a message from the ebay seller asking for me to send them back to him. So he's taken £27.99 for a sale and then pre-ordered them for £14.99 on my behalf using my delivery address.

My question is, If i deny all knowledge, can he do anything? Do ebay allow sellers to do this? Part of me wants to keep them to give to my nephew in order to teach him a lesson for being a massive worm but morally of course I know I should return them. Has he done anything that I could report him to ebay or amazon for?

Interested in peoples thoughts on this

LadyDee

The seller did nothing wrong in buying them through Amazon. Morally? Of course you should return them. Probably it's only ebay who can confirm when the date was altered, unless you have a screen shot of course.

ballisticbrian

Just ask the seller to pay the return postage. You've already been refunded so I don't think you can open a case for not as described which I would have done otherwise.
You can tell which bits of the listing have been changed because when viewing on a PC or laptop, there will be a line across the top of the listing which reads something along the lines of, this is not the exact listing, it's been changed and click to see the revision history.

Brookside88

The other issue is that he's breached GDPR by giving my name and address to Amazon without my knowledge or permission

soolin

Brookside88 wrote: »

Ok so from the beginning.
My sons 2nd birthday was on the 8th june and he's obsessed with a certain cbeebies character. I decided to make a cake around the theme and had seen some figurines that would be perfect to put on the cake.

I looked on ebay and amazon and found that amazon was selling them for 14.99 but they were pre-order for the 18th June - too late for his party. I then found a set on ebay for 27.99 for delivery 23rd - 25th May. I checked the description very carefully to ensure they'd arrive in time.
They were promptly marked as dispatched so I waited for delivery but on the 29th May they still hadn't arrived so i messaged the seller asking for a tracking number. He said "i'm sorry you didn't notice this item is pre-order for the 18th June". I checked back on the listing and he had changed the title of the listing to pre-order and added it in the description. This was 100% not stated when I ordered them. At this point I knew exactly what he was up to and requested a refund which was received.

I ordered them from a different seller on amazon for £35 and received them on the 8th June.

Roll on to yesterday when a set of the figurines arrived at my work. (!?) I couldn't figure out where these had come from.

This morning I received a message from the ebay seller asking for me to send them back to him. So he's taken £27.99 for a sale and then pre-ordered them for £14.99 on my behalf using my delivery address.

My question is, If i deny all knowledge, can he do anything? Do ebay allow sellers to do this? Part of me wants to keep them to give to my nephew in order to teach him a lesson for being a massive worm but morally of course I know I should return them. Has he done anything that I could report him to ebay or amazon for?

Interested in peoples thoughts on this

so you want to act dishonestly to teach the seller a lesson? That doesn't really come across as good practice and surely it just teaches your son that dishonestly pays?

Of course you have to send them back or re pay for them, I can see no justification for lying in this case. Just explain to seller that they have arrived and that you want a pre paid label to return them to him.

Brookside88

soolin wrote: »

so you want to act dishonestly to teach the seller a lesson? That doesn't really come across as good practice and surely it just teaches your son that dishonestly pays?

Of course you have to send them back or re pay for them, I can see no justification for lying in this case. Just explain to seller that they have arrived and that you want a pre paid label to return them to him.

I never said I was going to lie and keep them, I was asking for people's opinions. I'm quite hacked off at what he's done because he's misled me and blatantly tried to rip me off (and many others I presume). Saying I'm tempted to keep them and actually keeping them are 2 very different things. I'm tempted to throttle my partner sometimes but that doesn't mean I would

I'm happy to send them back but he'll need to pay for postage. If I did keep them then I would offer him 14.99 which is what he paid, not the 27.99 he changed me originally

Thanks for your input

NBLondon

I'm confused (often). OP bought from eBay seller; found the listing was misleading; cancelled and got a refund. Then the items arrived anyway. Sounds like the eBay seller placed the order with Amazon then failed to cancel it when the eBay order was cancelled. The fact that they were effectively drop-shipping from Amazon with a big mark-up is irrelevant - that's how people make a profit - the failure was to not have the correct delivery date/pre-order information in the original listing. That might have been an oversight or it might have been a bit of slippery dealing and the OP caught it and got the refund. That could be reported to eBay but I don't know if they would react. Nothing to do with Amazon though.

Does this now make the items unsolicited goods? Probably not, the original order is a solicitation - but the OP didn't solicit them from Amazon but from a third party.. If the delivery had been refused - they would have gone back to Amazon. Yes - the answer is to ask the seller to send a return label or arrange to collect the goods at no expense or effort from the OP.

soolin

Brookside88 wrote: »

I never said I was going to lie and keep them, I was asking for people's opinions. I'm quite hacked off at what he's done because he's misled me and blatantly tried to rip me off (and many others I presume). Saying I'm tempted to keep them and actually keeping them are 2 very different things. I'm tempted to throttle my partner sometimes but that doesn't mean I would

I'm happy to send them back but he'll need to pay for postage. If I did keep them then I would offer him 14.99 which is what he paid, not the 27.99 he changed me originally

Thanks for your input

You asked for opinions as to whether to be honest or dishonest, this is a money saving forum, not one that recommends dishonest actions. It is not up to an individual to 'teach sellers a lesson' the seller did nothing wrong. Your original order cannot be changed regardless of updates to the listing, therefore if you go through your purchases and click on your order it will show the listing as at the time you ordered. Seller has acted legally by allowing your cancellation request anyway and has asked for the item to be returned. Seller is responsible for return costs though and you can ask him for them. If you decide to keep the items then you can't choose what to pay the seller, that is just daft.


Be aware that seller will have proof of delivery, any attempt by you to retain unpaid for goods potentially could end up in small claims court.

soolin

There's a great layman's version here of unsolicited goods:

https://www.thecomplainingcow.co.uk/all-you-need-to-know-about-unsolicited-goods/

Not unsolicited goods


5) If you have had any contact with any company and you have any order with them and they send you something different/additional

Brookside88

Well when I click on my original order now it states that the seller is suspended so clearly he's up to something dodgy, I suspect many reports of the same thing.

Please don't misunderstand me, I've no intention of trying to deceive anyone.

My question was, are they allowed to do this, what if I denied all knowledge as surely this practice is very risky for the seller and very annoying for the buyer too. And is ot something i should report to eBay or Amazon.

I'm unable to contact them now as they've been suspended from eBay by the looks of it

martindow

Brookside88 wrote: »

The other issue is that he's breached GDPR by giving my name and address to Amazon without my knowledge or permission

I don't think this is likely to get you anywhere. GDPR allows data to be used in ways specified in their t&cs. It will probably be stated that data can be given to third parties to allow delivery to take place. Carriers often require the recipient's phone number and the name and address is useful too!