Ebuyer.... my rights or lack of.

zak1976

ASA and Trading Standards don't seem to give a monkees about what is going on. All they say is "buyer beware", well thanks a bunch!!!

MarkyMarkD

There is no general principle that order acceptance e-mails do not constitute a contract.

Basic contract law states that there is offer and acceptance. Normally an advertisement is an invitation to treat; your agreement to purchase is an offer, and their acceptance of that offer is (surprise, surprise) an acceptance.

If an online trader chooses to send out an order acknowledgement, that MAY be merely an order acknowledgement - i.e. a confirmation that they've received, but not processed or accepted the order.

Taking payment is NORMALLY acceptance of your offer - and most reputable online traders only charge your card when they despatch the goods, so there is no risk of failure to supply once a contract is legally in existence.

Some, more dubious, traders take the money before supplying the goods, and claim via their terms and conditions that no contract is formed until the goods are despatched. This is rubbish in most cases. They clearly intend a contract to exist once they've taken the money; they generally issue an order confirmation at this stage. If they wish to take the risk of accepting an order without having the goods in stock, that is their risk.

If they wouldn't let you cancel at that stage, but reserve the "right" to cancel unilaterally, that is an unfair contract term as pointed out earlier in this thread as the rights are not reciprocal.

It's very easy (and cheap) to take a supplier to court if they fail to supply after accepting an order. I've done it - successfully.

zak1976

The next part of the saga is, they advertised the item again, so I bought it. This time they delivered it, and I wished they hadn't bothered. Damaged, supplied in a jiffy bag, (a DVD player in a jiffy bag!!!) missing components etc. (All of which was not in the advert..... all it was labeled as was "used".)
They are now refusing a refund on the postage and on the item unless it doesn't work. Surely as the item is "not as described" they don't have a leg to stand on and HAVE to pay the return postage and refund costs? (I saved a copy of the ad just in case!)

They make my blood boil!!!

booogle

At least you can get through to them, They've been ignoring my enotes and the call centre has been non existent for the last month!

CIS

They used to put a disclaimer on the used items stating that parts may be missing and they couldn't guarantee what parts came with it. This doesn't seem to appear now, so I would say that they are in the wrong not to have informed you. Surely a breach of trade descriptions laws ??

I personnally wouldn't buy used from ebuyer as the prices are often ridiculous, only a £1 or so off some items. May as well pay an extra £1 or so and get brand new.

zak1976

That's why I did a screen shot. To prove it wasn't in the clearance section, or stated that things will be missing........ but they still argue that i can't have the refund!

And this was £15,(delivered,) for a 5.1 dvd player. So it was worth buying, especially as it didn't state that things may be missing.