Problem with Facebook purchase

mrsbun2002

I purchase a drone with camera for our son for Christmas via Facebook. We live in Scotland, and the drone was in England. We asked lots of questions, and felt it was the the right one, albeit second hand, and I paid on 25th November. It was a gamble as I had to pay using PayPal. It was very stressful as the seller took almost a month to send it, and it finally arrived the day before Christmas Eve. Opening it on Christmas morning, son found the drone to have a broken part which wasn’t mentioned, and no camera. I have messaged the seller about the camera, asking if he’d forgotten to put it in the case. He’s replied “The camera I took off the drone as the quality isn’t good

If it’s not in the box I don’t no where it is I’m sorry”. I’ve replied asking if he’s open to a discussion for a part refund as son will now have to buy a new camera. No reply as yet. Reading Facebook I now realise (yes, should have done so before) that it was sold off Market Place because of the distance, and it looks as though I don’t have any or many rights. Is that correct please?

DiddyDavies

How exactly did you pay?
Did the seller send you a PayPal invoice, did you send the payment specifying that it was for the drone or did they ask you to make a friends and family payment to them?
Depending on how the payment went, you might be able to open a goods not as described dispute.

mrsbun2002

I didn’t get a PayPal invoice, I wasn’t aware there was such a thing! I paid PayPal direct to his wife, clicking family/friends. I’m guessing that’s been a huge mistake on my part. 

Aylesbury_Duck

I'm afraid you're almost certainly going to have to chalk it up to experience.  You might consider small claims action if you have the seller's address and all the correspondence, but it might provide a fruitless exercise so consider it carefully.

mrsbun2002

Thank you. Definitely lesson learned there, and I agree it would be a wasted exercise. Seller has finally messaged that he would not part refund, as I got a £1000 drone for 80% less, even though he previously sent a link for it as new showing purchase pre sake price of £500. I’m not sure if going via the reporting process via Facebook is worth the effort either? Not that I’m expecting anything other than to make others aware, but the exercise might just make me even more angry with myself than I am already. Thanks for your replies, merry Christmas 

soolin

mrsbun2002 said:

I didn’t get a PayPal invoice, I wasn’t aware there was such a thing! I paid PayPal direct to his wife, clicking family/friends. I’m guessing that’s been a huge mistake on my part. 

As you have discovered using friends and family was a bad idea.

On the basis that I try to see why these scams and poor sales ever get to go ahead as if we can understand why they work it might be easier to stop them , what made you pay friends and family? It is clear you have no cover, so at what point did you trust a complete stranger enough to basically send them cash without even knowing their address? Did they ask for that payment method, was there a certain phrase or suggestion that persuaded you it was safe or was it a gamble on your behalf? 

gettingtheresometime

A little tip for the future is if a seller insists you chose the friends & family option, pay by  the goods & services method but add on the fees that they'd be charged.

I use https://www.clothnappytree.com/ppcalculator/ to work out how much to add on - it may cost a little extra but it gives the peace of mind of you being able to reclaim if things go wrong 

mrsbun2002

Thanks for the comments, duly noted for the future. I had only used PayPal previously for my sons gaming purchases, eBay and to people I know. It was my idea to use PayPal, thinking (but obviously not enough) it would be safer. I clearly didn’t research enough, and now realise my mistake. I won’t make the same mistake again. 

[Deleted User]

Even though you paid through PayPal, was this linked to a debit or credit card on your account? You may be able to do a chargeback ? Could ring and let them know what’s happened? 

DiddyDavies

MarkN88 said:

Even though you paid through PayPal, was this linked to a debit or credit card on your account? You may be able to do a chargeback ? Could ring and let them know what’s happened? 

A chargeback on what grounds?
Paypay did exactly what they were asked to do which was to send a gift payment from the OP to another person and as there was nothing stated on the transaction to show that it was for the purchase of any goods, a chargeback for the drone not matching its description will fail.

Barny1979

Paying friends and family, you were lucky he even bothered to send anything, put it down as a lesson learnt unfortunately.