eBay failure

KatrinaWaves

robert32 wrote: »

It was an individual.

I have seen the product go for £200 and have been tracking watch alerts for a while. This time I was fortunate enough to win with a bid of just over £100. Seller has refunded me, but without my consent. I want the product, not my money back! eBay now gives me no option to complain or leave negative feedback!

I mean, if you'd exchanged contract on a house, the seller can't just cancel when someone makes a better offer.

It's ridiculous. I feel like I've been stolen from as my asset was worth more than the purchase price, so refunding the sale price doesn't cut it. Will I get all the time back I've spent tracking such items, waiting for something at the right price? No.

Loss of trust in eBay as a result. Especially, as I have no way to complain, short of writing a letter to corporate HQ.

Whilst I absolutely agree its vastly unfair, the seller probably feels similar. That his asset has been undersold. He doesnt care how long you have been waiting for this item.

At the end of the day eBay won't go round and take his item and give it to you. Neither will the court. You MAY win a loss of bargain claim if you can prove that it always goes for £200 and you had the genuine right to receive it at that, but it is far from easy and involves going to court.

bris

robert32 wrote: »

Can anyone point me to the correct section of consumer rights law that might help me out. I don't want to spend huge amounts on this, but quite happy to go through small claims/equivalent. It's the principle and deception that infuriates me.

It's not a consumer right, it a matter of contract law, there is nothing in the consumer rights that will help you.
It's a potential "Loss of Bargain".
Ebay may have T&C's which allow cancellations, they may not but that's for you to troll through and find out.


For now you have nothing to sue for, to claim loss of bargain you need to now find the same item and actually buy it for the best price you can find. You then take the receipt to court and sue for the difference between the price you paid and the price of the cancelled item.


You can't just sue without buying the item first so no point in raising a claim if you don't.

Geodark

KatrinaWaves wrote: »

Whilst I absolutely agree its vastly unfair, the seller probably feels similar. That his asset has been undersold. He doesnt care how long you have been waiting for this item.

At the end of the day eBay won't go round and take his item and give it to you. Neither will the court. You MAY win a loss of bargain claim if you can prove that it always goes for £200 and you had the genuine right to receive it at that, but it is far from easy and involves going to court.

Then he should have put a reserve on - he has chanced his arm and hoped he would get a higher value for it. There used to be a way to report a seller, has this option really gone now?

KatrinaWaves

Geodark wrote: »

Then he should have put a reserve on - he has chanced his arm and hoped he would get a higher value for it. There used to be a way to report a seller, has this option really gone now?

Like I said, I do agree that the OP has done nothing wrong, but its not easy to get anything done.

I have reported 'non selling sellers' before but I havent luckily had to do it for a while so not sure if its an option. Still, ebay is mostly robots now, they could click a box saying item broken/lost/stolen etc and ebay wont investigate. They rarely look at human communication. People get pinged if someones says 'will you sell this to me off ebay' even if they dont reply, or reply saying no! You cant control what someone messages you yet you can get in trouble for it. Ebays gone to the dogs overall.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

robert32 wrote: »

eBay now gives me no option to complain or leave negative feedback!

The purchase will still be in your purchase history towards the bottom under cancelled orders with the options to leave feedback or from the listing itself there should be a leave feedback link.

If the seller is Top Rated you have wait 7 days before you can leave anything other than positive (but I not sure if private sellers can be Top Rated anyway).

Bris is correct and if you went down that route you'd need the sellers name and address in order to file the claim.

hollydays

I once cancelled a sale after the buyer was so obnoxious I decided I wasn’t prepared to let him come to my house.