Seller wants to refund my payment but I don't want to.

MeteredOut

Pine_martens said:

Thank you all for your replies. I do hope we have not been scammed. I will try an keep conversation going to see what would resolve this situation and will keep you posted. Thank you.QrizB said:

Pine_martens said:

I purchased a caravan via eBay but not through the usual eBay process.
In short, the newbie eBayer's posted a caravan for sale stating no bidding and left a mobile number, which we left a voice message of our interest in purchasing it.

In shorter, you didn't buy "via eBay" at all but instead made an off-platform deal in violation of eBay's T&C.
You're lucky if you haven't been scammed out of your money.

Let's hope that we have not been scammed.

I'd recommend taking the image from the ebay listing and doing an image search, to see if it is anywhere else on the web. If not, then all might be well, but if they've simply lifted the image from somewhere else, then...

Jenni_D

Pine_martens said:

After some phone calls we bank transferred the asking price, which was cheap tbh, but we wanted a caravan that had full service history. which this did have, and was cared for, which this clearly was.

Have you actually physically seen the caravan? Later posts suggest you haven't, so how could you even know that the bold part is true?

QrizB

MeteredOut said:

Pine_martens said:

Thank you all for your replies. I do hope we have not been scammed. I will try an keep conversation going to see what would resolve this situation and will keep you posted. Thank you.QrizB said:

Pine_martens said:

I purchased a caravan via eBay but not through the usual eBay process.
In short, the newbie eBayer's posted a caravan for sale stating no bidding and left a mobile number, which we left a voice message of our interest in purchasing it.

In shorter, you didn't buy "via eBay" at all but instead made an off-platform deal in violation of eBay's T&C.
You're lucky if you haven't been scammed out of your money.

Let's hope that we have not been scammed.

I'd recommend taking the image from the ebay listing and doing an image search, to see if it is anywhere else on the web. If not, then all might be well, but if they've simply lifted the image from somewhere else, then...

If the eBay listing is still up, take screenshots of the listing and save copies of all the listing photos before the seller or eBay decide to delete it.

Aylesbury_Duck

I wonder if there is even a caravan involved, or is it just pictures of someone's caravan?  

If this is a scam (and it sounds like one) then the seller is presumably hoping that OP relents and tops up their payment by another £2k or offers to meet them partway.

outtatune

Exactly what @Aylesbury_Duck said

TELLIT01

Even if the reason provided by the vendor is true, I don't see any way the OP can force them to sell them the caravan.  It has probably already gone.

The fact that contact was made away from the Ebay platform system certainly raises very loud alarm bells.

visidigi

Pine_martens said:

I purchased a caravan via eBay but not through the usual eBay process.

In short, the newbie eBayer's posted a caravan for sale stating no bidding and left a mobile number, which we left a voice message of our interest in purchasing it. As I had not heard back, I called them Tuesday morning and they said they had been away. The seller proceeded to inform me that they had a lot of caravan traders offering to buy it and a couple of them were travelling up to see the caravan on Wednesday. They made it clear during the call that they wanted to sell to someone privately, who would look after it, like they had and did not want to sell to traders. After some phone calls we bank transferred the asking price, which was cheap tbh, but we wanted a caravan that had full service history. which this did have, and was cared for, which this clearly was. Payment was received by the seller who provided a receipt via email, and arrangement were made to collect this Saturday. 

Here is the problem.... This morning I received a phone call from the seller saying they want to refund our payment as a caravan trader had offered them 2k more and said that they sold it too cheap. The sellers mentioned the account we transferred the money into was their pension account and their bank had been in contact with them to query this. We said that we have paid for the caravan, bought insurance and paid for a secure storage and arranged for family to see it once we collected it.

They insist we accept their refund of our payment, which we refused. So, what are my rights in collecting the caravan, and not accepting a return of my payment because they want to sell it to a higher bidder?

Anyone else's jaw hit the desk at the 'we paid in full via bank transfer and got an email receipt?'

If the seller has a caravan, and if the seller is genuinely offering you a refund take it. immediately.

pinkshoes

Pine_martens said:

I purchased a caravan via eBay but not through the usual eBay process.

In short, the newbie eBayer's posted a caravan for sale stating no bidding and left a mobile number, which we left a voice message of our interest in purchasing it. As I had not heard back, I called them Tuesday morning and they said they had been away. The seller proceeded to inform me that they had a lot of caravan traders offering to buy it and a couple of them were travelling up to see the caravan on Wednesday. They made it clear during the call that they wanted to sell to someone privately, who would look after it, like they had and did not want to sell to traders. After some phone calls we bank transferred the asking price, which was cheap tbh, but we wanted a caravan that had full service history. which this did have, and was cared for, which this clearly was. Payment was received by the seller who provided a receipt via email, and arrangement were made to collect this Saturday. 

Here is the problem.... This morning I received a phone call from the seller saying they want to refund our payment as a caravan trader had offered them 2k more and said that they sold it too cheap. The sellers mentioned the account we transferred the money into was their pension account and their bank had been in contact with them to query this. We said that we have paid for the caravan, bought insurance and paid for a secure storage and arranged for family to see it once we collected it.

They insist we accept their refund of our payment, which we refused. So, what are my rights in collecting the caravan, and not accepting a return of my payment because they want to sell it to a higher bidder?

@Pine_martens - have you actually SEEN the caravan and verified that the thing you paid for actually exists???

Have you actually MET the sellers in person?

If it wasn't for the fact they are now wanting to refund, this smells highly of a scam where people pay a cheaper price, so dependent on the answers of the above questions, is dependent on what you should do.

If you've not seen the caravan nor met the seller, accept the refund immediately and be grateful you didn't lose the full amount!

If it genuinely exists and you've seen it, then you can go down the loss of bargain route, and should be seeking expenses paid out, assuming the contract was finalised upon payment.

MeteredOut

MeteredOut said:

Pine_martens said:

Thank you all for your replies. I do hope we have not been scammed. I will try an keep conversation going to see what would resolve this situation and will keep you posted. Thank you.QrizB said:

Pine_martens said:

I purchased a caravan via eBay but not through the usual eBay process.
In short, the newbie eBayer's posted a caravan for sale stating no bidding and left a mobile number, which we left a voice message of our interest in purchasing it.

In shorter, you didn't buy "via eBay" at all but instead made an off-platform deal in violation of eBay's T&C.
You're lucky if you haven't been scammed out of your money.

Let's hope that we have not been scammed.

I'd recommend taking the image from the ebay listing and doing an image search, to see if it is anywhere else on the web. If not, then all might be well, but if they've simply lifted the image from somewhere else, then...

OP has been back online today. I hope they do come back to update us and hopefully they'll get a refund.

photome

Take the refund and count yourself lucky