Not obliged to return items

rafhelp

if you buy something on ebay.



Then have to open a dispute for item not as described and it is resolved in your favour..


Does this mean you dont have to legally return the item?


That is what I was told but what if its like a £400 laptop, or £500 Tv or £200 Hi-Fi.


What if the seller doesnt give you a returns postage label?

d123

rafhelp wrote: »

if you buy something on ebay.

Then have to open a dispute for item not as described and it is resolved in your favour..

Does this mean you dont have to legally return the item?

That is what I was told but what if its like a £400 laptop, or £500 Tv or £200 Hi-Fi.

What if the seller doesnt give you a returns postage label?

Why would you think you can keep the item if you get a refund?

rafhelp

d123 wrote: »

Why would you think you can keep the item if you get a refund?

I just googled it it seems in some cases you really dont have to

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Archive-Buyer-Central/Refunded-for-item-I-haven-t-returned/td-p/5686078


its more a courtesy, or sometimes ebay pay you the refudn , so seller might not be out of pocket


and generally its only fair to return an item if the seller gives you money back.

Carrot007

Even if ebay say you don't have to send it back the seller can take you to court if they wish. Ebay is not the law of this land. You however are not explaining your situation, if there is one.

soolin

Carrot007 wrote: »

Even if ebay say you don't have to send it back the seller can take you to court if they wish. Ebay is not the law of this land. You however are not explaining your situation, if there is one.

That's not entirely accurate. UK law requires online retailers to refund where items are defective or not as described, the eBay system acts as a third party to facilitate that.

However if a seller does not engage with the return i.e. Tries to ignore or avoid the return then rather than a buyer having to take the seller to court to enforce their rights ebay force the refund. At that point if seller does not wish to engage, the refund is made and as no arrangement has been made by seller for the return the buyer is told that 'they' do not have to return it.

It is therefore up to the seller to then make timely arrangements to engage with a buyer to arrange to collect the return , if they choose not to do so their poisition would be very weak if they then try and sue the buyer.

There was a thread about this on the community boards two or three years ago, seller ignored the return and it wasn't until a month or two after that they realised that they hadn't got away with it and that they had lost the money from their account. Approached a family (possibly their business ) lawyer and asked about suing. They were advised that having ignored messages from both buyer and eBay that it was not likely to be easy to claim that buyer was withholding their item. From memory they contacted the buyer, apologised and luckily buyer had retained the item and was kind enough to wait in for a courier to collect it.

If a seller wishes to have their item back they need to arrange it , a buyer cannot refuse to allow collection or put unreasonable limitations on the return, but a seller is responsible for sorting out the return. If they choose not to arrange to get the item back then that's up to them and may actually be part of a business plan.

rafhelp

I bought a laptop thinking it was good cheap deal.



Then it didnt work as it should have and was setup incorrectly.


Seller refused return.


The dispute opened with ebay went in my favour as I had proofs and got a refund.



I was told not to contact seller they should contact me to give postage label.


But after a few days they never contacted me so i emailed them, no reply, emailed one last time (in case other email might not have got sent ) and then he started arguing again, so i contacted ebay.


I was told I was not obliged to return the item as won the dispute on grounds on item not as described. I have proof on this conversation logs.


But strange seller did not straight away contact me to arrange returns. So I was thinking maybe they didnt cover cost of refund.

Carrot007

soolin wrote: »

That's not entirely accurate.

Well said, but not what I was on about.


I was saying that sometimes ebay (because the seller has not communicated in the case of who know you know ebay randomness) tyell the buyer the case is in their favour and they do not have to return the item. So there is no return on ebay.


This is not lawful. The seller still has a right toa return (at their cost presumably) is they want it. Now yes this is useually for scam sales but you know ebay! It sometimes gets it wrong.


People have been taklen to small claims for this and lost the case. Ebay do not have to right to tell you to keep someone elses item.


Even if the seller (or indeed buyer) did not communicate in either my or your scenario, I guess the seller has six years to demand it back. Although the court would obviously not be as favourable to them if they left it longer (unless say the seller sent constant communinication and it was ignored).

Carrot007

rafhelp wrote: »

I bought a laptop thinking it was good cheap deal.



Then it didnt work as it should have and was setup incorrectly.


Seller refused return.


The dispute opened with ebay went in my favour as I had proofs and got a refund.



I was told not to contact seller they should contact me to give postage label.


But after a few days they never contacted me so i emailed them, no reply, emailed one last time (in case other email might not have got sent ) and then he started arguing again, so i contacted ebay.


I was told I was not obliged to return the item as won the dispute on grounds on item not as described. I have proof on this conversation logs.


But strange seller did not straight away contact me to arrange returns. So I was thinking maybe they didnt cover cost of refund.

So more what I said (I think). Yes the seller has six years to pursue you. Ebay do not have the right to tell you to not talk to them. They are only acting for ebay.


However if it is ebay that gave you the money back then as far as I know there has been no president set on the matter.


Ebay often acts as if it is the law. It is not. It is ebay and can ban people. It cannot tell other people to steal. (This does not occur often). And the fact they do not tell you where the refund came from muddys the facts.

bris

soolin wrote: »

That's not entirely accurate.

True, but it's also true that Ebay make their own laws up which are also not entirely legal.


Ebay do sometimes refund a buyer but don't get funds back from the seller, in this case they can keep the item.


If the seller does get the money charged back from them then the buyer becomes an "Involuntary Baillie" and has no right to keep the item. They then need to follow the set procedure to dispose of the item.


in a lot of cases, as everyone knows, Ebay refund buyers for no reason, certainly none that would stand up in court. This could leave Ebay open to be sued by the seller to recover the cost but although I have seen lots of threats to sue I'm yet to see a real case, probably because of jurisdiction.

rafhelp

You buy on ebay as opposed to the seller's low budget shoddy looking website, because you get the protection in case things go wrong. You have the customer support to help resolve any issues.


If you bought directly from the seller and the seller got funny with you and said go away im not giving refund etc... then theres litle you can do or its to tougher to take action to do so, trading standards etc..

soolin

rafhelp wrote: »

You buy on ebay as opposed to the seller's low budget shoddy looking website, because you get the protection in case things go wrong. You have the customer support to help resolve any issues.


If you bought directly from the seller and the seller got funny with you and said go away im not giving refund etc... then theres litle you can do or its to tougher to take action to do so, trading standards etc..

Just be aware that you can often use paypal on websites as well and can use the paypal guarantee to get a refund for missing or damaged item. However paypal expect buyer to return the item at their own cost to get a refund for SNAD- although currently there is a facility to request a return label - as long as you follow the instructions to do so and register before you start the SNAD claim.

There are also some rights associated with buying using a credit or some debit cards.