Debt collection eBay fees - help

craynerd

eBay have sold a debt to a collection agency. I have never been in this position before - I’ve had the odd parking fine, even with stupid private ones I’ve just paid! However, I will not pay this as I don’t believe I owe anything. I appreciate we could have a big discussion around the circumstance but it relates to eBay fees for an unsold it. I fully dispute the fee.

So I have the letter from Transcom. The letter is addressed to initial with a surname. They don’t have my name. I also despute the debt.

Am I right in thinking that if I send a letter and despute the debt it has to go back to eBay? Then what happens or what is likely to happen from your experience?

The fact that they have a first name initial only (no Mr or Mrs either) and I genuinely don’t know who it is addressed to, is there any technical issue here or am I clutching at straws.

I’ve not been in this position before and if you think the best thing is to pay then so be it but I’d rather take some action and not just ignore it.

Thanks for any thoughts or comments.

sourcrates

Hi,


Ebay have not sold the debt, Transcom are there default "go to" debt collector of choice.
The usual story with non payment of ebay fee`s is that you sold something, and the buyer raised some kind of dispute, which resulted in you not receiving payment, does that sound about right ?

If you dispute the debt, send the provit letter to them, how much money are we talking about here ?

It would also depend which kind of fee you were been charged for, as some ebay fees are unenforceable, the final value fee for example is deemed to be a penalty clause.

Traditionally, such clauses are only enforceable if the agreed compensation is based on a genuine pre-estimate of the financial loss the innocent party is likely to suffer as a result of the breach - i.e. it is a genuine estimate of the amount of damages that would have been awarded had the innocent party gone to court.

If, it is simply a deterrent to discourage breaches of the contract, as most penalty clauses are, it is unenforceable.

Ebay/transcom debt collectors will try to ring you, and write to you for a few months, after which they will switch their attention to the next person, and you won`t hear from them again.

craynerd

Hi Sourcrates. I do appreciate your reply,

I would certainly appreciate your thoughts on if this debt is enforceable. I do very much believe it is a penalty. To try and reduce a long story to a few sentences...
I was trying to make a little money selling some quite high value items. I had no problem paying eBay fees and they must have made a good amount in fees off me. I had an item for sale. A Buyer emailed with his phone number and I took the item off sale. I fully appreciate it looked suspicious but what can I say - I genuinely didn’t sell the item to him! I was taking items off sale as I was also selling via different channels. They then billed me the final value fee for that item, £120! I even rang eBay and after about 1 hour on the phone they tried to get rid of me with the chap saying he would sort it out ....clearly they didn’t! It is winding me up more that eBay aren’t even out of pocket. This is purely a fine because they think I’ve sold it outside of the system.


So would you write to transcom ? Do you believe this is unenforceable? ...or would you pay up.

Thanks

beemarman

craynerd wrote: »

Hi Sourcrates. I do appreciate your reply,

I would certainly appreciate your thoughts on if this debt is enforceable. I do very much believe it is a penalty. To try and reduce a long story to a few sentences...
I was trying to make a little money selling some quite high value items. I had no problem paying eBay fees and they must have made a good amount in fees off me. I had an item for sale. A Buyer emailed with his phone number and I took the item off sale. I fully appreciate it looked suspicious but what can I say - I genuinely didn’t sell the item to him! I was taking items off sale as I was also selling via different channels. They then billed me the final value fee for that item, £120! I even rang eBay and after about 1 hour on the phone they tried to get rid of me with the chap saying he would sort it out ....clearly they didn’t! It is winding me up more that eBay aren’t even out of pocket. This is purely a fine because they think I’ve sold it outside of the system.


So would you write to transcom ? Do you believe this is unenforceable? ...or would you pay up.

Thanks

Same thing happened to me. If you read eBay policy you would see it states you would be charged fees if you try sharing any type of contact details for a listed item with a buyer. I had to send them pictures to prove I still had the item before they agreed to end the dispute. I still had to pay the fees for the item, but it was reduced by 30%.

Good Luck with trying to get the dispute closed.

sourcrates

From what i can gather, this new Ebay policy was rushed through sometime in 2017, so if you remove an item from sale, you are still charged a final value fee.


The consensus of opinion is that this amounts to a penalty charge, which would not be enforceable through the courts, as it was deemed to be unfair.


As far as i am aware, this specific ebay policy, has never been tested in court, so a definitive answer is not possible.


However, my response to such a letter would be met by a robust defense along the lines of whats been written in these posts.

craynerd

Thanks for your time.

So I’m right in thinking that eBay would take me to court or would the new debt collectors? I’d be happy to take it that way if needed.

I now have this letter hanging over me still stating what I owe.

My own thought based on what you have said and what I’ve read is that I send a simple prove it letter.

My thoughts are I send a letter stating the following points, formally and correctly written:

1, For whom is the letter addresses as it states only a first initial and two of us share this initial at the address. Who is the debtor?

2. Prove what the debt is for - state what it relates to specifically?

3. Despute any debt owd and want no further contact with them.

Is that approach correct and acceptable or are there any silly statements?

Thanks in advance.

sourcrates

In my experience collectors acting on behalf of eBay never proceed to court.
I don’t think eBay has the time or will to litigate every delinquent account that they have on there books.

craynerd

So is the advice to send a letter to the collectors as I outlined above or just ignore?
Thanks

sourcrates

craynerd wrote: »

So is the advice to send a letter to the collectors as I outlined above or just ignore?
Thanks

It really is up to you how you proceed with this.