Problem with stolen eBay purchase and refund refusal

MS1982

I ordered something from eBay and it was "delivered" by Yodel, who left it outside on the doorstep. I live on a busy street in London so it inevitably got stolen. I made an "item not received" claim on eBay but the seller showed eBay the delivery confirmation, showing that it was left outside, and eBay said that was all OK and turned down my refund request. They did tell me that if I can get Yodel to write a letter admitting fault, then eBay would refund me. I opened a chat request with Yodel, and they said they can't do a letter, but did confirm it was left outside unprotected. The folk at eBay say this isn't enough. Not sure why I'm the one doing the chasing here, but eBay's "money back guarantee" doesn't seem worth much. Anyone have any idea what I can do?

RefluentBeans

Was the seller a private seller or a company trading through eBay? 

MS1982

Private seller. 

RefluentBeans

I see - unfortunately your rights via the CRA don’t cover private sales. The best thing to do is contact the seller and get them to initiate an investigation from their end. 

Did you pay on credit card or debit card? I’m not sure if S75 covers private sales or not, but if it was over £100 you may be able to pursue that. Otherwise if all else fails, you can potentially look at a chargeback but not sure how successful that would be. 

tightauldgit

RefluentBeans said:

I see - unfortunately your rights via the CRA don’t cover private sales. The best thing to do is contact the seller and get them to initiate an investigation from their end. 

Did you pay on credit card or debit card? I’m not sure if S75 covers private sales or not, but if it was over £100 you may be able to pursue that. Otherwise if all else fails, you can potentially look at a chargeback but not sure how successful that would be. 

Given how Ebay works i'm not sure S75 can work anyway as the payment is made to ebay who then pay the seller. 

In theory you haven't received the item so you could try a claim against the seller in a small claims court if you really wanted to, but beyond that I don't think there's much recourse where the courier says delivered on an Ebay purchase.