Ebay debt collection agency- please help

fluffyowl

I've been a buyer and seller on ebay for 20 years (ebay support told me that!) 

I sold two items, a broken phone and an expensive coat. The phone didn't arrive, I have all the tracking that explains it was lost. Tried to get a refund, but packlink/myhermes keep passing the buck as to who needs to pay out (as if my parcel was the only one not to arrive in December 2022!) I have all email correspondence.

In the meantime the buyer of the coat asked to return it after 16 days. I accepted because I didn't want negative feedback ,but then apparently the return was a fault return because there was a pull in the lining. Buyer sent me a photo that I had put in the listing (describing minor flaws) as proof. I have tried to argue this with ebay but I have received the coat back with a nice handwritten note thanking me for accepting the return.

Apparently I owe £155. I am sort of fine with repaying the £113 for the coat (although not really the postage). I've been at loggerheads with ebay who want the full amount.

I have now had a debt collection agency contact me for £190 and don't know what to do.

I really want to go to court and explain the whole thing. Can I do that? I'm so disgusted with ebay's standard 'check your terms and conditions' response. I don't believe this is legal practise for one minute. I'd like to say if the court says to pay I would pay... but I'm simply not prepared to pay the full amount. Will probably end up in prison!

So my questions are:
If it goes t ocurt, will they listen/take into account my proof?

Is my argument with ebay over (have they sold the debt to the debt collection agency?)

Can I phone the debt collection agency and tell them to send it back to ebay as I just want to go to court (or shout at CEO). 

Will debt collection agency/ebay send bailiffs for this amount?

Will debt collection agency send/ebay send bailiffs for the rest if I pay the £113?

Aggh I hate this. 

Thanks for all your help. 







  

RFW

fluffyowl said:
I really want to go to court and explain the whole thing. Can I do that? I'm so disgusted with ebay's standard 'check your terms and conditions' response. I don't believe this is legal practise for one minute. I'd like to say if the court says to pay I would pay... but I'm simply not prepared to pay the full amount. Will probably end up in prison!

So my questions are:
If it goes t ocurt, will they listen/take into account my proof?

Is my argument with ebay over (have they sold the debt to the debt collection agency?)

Can I phone the debt collection agency and tell them to send it back to ebay as I just want to go to court (or shout at CEO). 

Will debt collection agency/ebay send bailiffs for this amount?

Will debt collection agency send/ebay send bailiffs for the rest if I pay the £113?

Aggh I hate this. 

Thanks for all your help. 







  

I'll work backwards from if the debt collection agency will send bailiffs. They can't, so they won't. Only after they have successfully taken you to court can they possibly send bailiffs. Even then there's a few steps before bailiffs come round. So don't worry about that, it won't happen.

So if you want to go to court you would have to wait for them to take you to court. For the amount and circumstances it's extremely unlikely that this will ever end up in court. As you mention it, there's zero chance of you ending up in prison from this. If it does go to court you can show all that has happened and put your side. As I say though, it's really unlikely.

What's likely to happen is the debt collectors will try and contact you and threaten you with the possibility that court action may be considered. This will continue for a while. You can ask that they don't contact you by phone, which will restrict them to writing or emailing. You can ask the debt collection agency to refer back to Ebay, they don't have to.

If you don't pay you'll probably not be able to use your Ebay account any more. Beyond that nothing much will happen.

The best way to resolve is to try and get talking to Ebay, so I'd try Twitter to engage their social media team and see if you can get somewhere. Tell them what you're willing to pay.

I'll add I've only responded to where you are. I've not really looked at the details of the refunds and where you stand on that.

tightauldgit

What exactly is your complaint here?

1. You sold a phone and admit the buyer didn't receive it - you should refund them. Why don't you want to? 

2. Someone bought a coat and asked to return it and you accepted the return. You should refund them. Why don't you want to? 

You agreed to the terms and conditions of Ebay by conducting business on their site and now you want to renege on that when it suits you? 

fluffyowl

Thanks so much for your help. 

Just so you know, of course if I ever get the insurance refund from the phone from packlink/my Hermes/eBay (since eBay ARE packlink?) I will of course also pay that back too. But the whole reason this has come about is that I have spent hours trying to resolve this. 

Part of the condition that I pay the monies I believe are due is that I WILL not ever have anything to do with eBay or other subsidiaries ever again and I expect them to take all my details off their database. 

And I would urge other people who are thinking of using eBay (bearing in mind I have 100% positive rating with over 3000 things bought or sold over the last 20 years to not use eBay or Packlink. 

I now use world of books stand alone website, Vinted (who give full refund with lost tracking data), Facebook marketplace and Amazon. 

soolin

I’m sorry but you fundamentally misunderstand how online selling works. Are you saying that as a buyer you are happy that a seller doesn’t have to refund you if they are struggling to get their money back from a courier? 

If you sell on vinted then yes their rules are completely different and buyers have very few rights which is one reason I buy virtually nothing from there and am mainly a seller. On marketplace if you sell safely using PayPal and item doesn’t arrive then you’ll be refunding whether you like it or not. However if you are one of those sellers who expect a buyer to pay using unsafe methods then luckily many buyers are becoming aware now about safety so you will find your buying pool will deplete over time. Virtually all the selling sites I use on FB will not allow sellers to use anything other than PayPal g and s