Pfff... any legal buffs out there that can give me some advice?!
Someone's just threatend to take my girlfriend to Small Claims Court over a petty E-Bay issue!
In all honesty, here's what happened. She purchased an item on E-bay for about £5.00, The Seller listed the item as new but when she received it there were obvious signs of damage and general wear 'n' tear. Heck, it wasn't even in it's original box! She bought the issue up with the Seller, who then claimed it was damaged in the post and refused to refund or allow a return of the item. He just claimed it was the postal service's fault. I was nosing about my girlf's E-Bay account as she asked me for my advice when I noticed that the damage on the item can actually be seen in the photo of it's listing. It's not hugely obvious but you can see if it you look closely or zoom in. She raised this with Seller, he never admitted to it being damaged prior to sending (he always avoided the topic) but after a few abusive emails finally agreed to allow a refund and return. Eventually recieved the cheque refund for the item she bought, but didn't have the Seller's address to send the item back to so she e-mailed the him to get it. He replied with the address but on the same day left her some rathing scathing and unfair feedback claiming that she was con-man (or con-woman in this case) and that she refused to return the item! A complete lie as the item was all boxed up and ready to go, just waiting for his address. At this point my girlf e-mailed him and bascially said that he's not getting the item back until he requests that E-Bay removes the feedback. He then replied in a few VERY angry e-mails stating he was going to start small claims proceedings.
Personally, I reckon his case will just get laughed out of Court as it's all based on him fraudently advertising and selling an item as brand new when it obviously wasn't - we've got the info to prove it!
Is that right? Or is my girlf in the proverbial and looking to get whacked with a court case and a fine?!
Do you reckon she should make her own claim or a counter-claim against him?!
To be honest, there's not a huge amount of evidence either way and the whole issue is rather petty - squabbling over £5.00. I'd just like to know if she's got any rights in this kind of matter?!
Originally posted by Daemon SinSounds like a whacko.. that guy.
Pfff... any legal buffs out there that can give me some advice?!
Someone's just threatend to take my girlfriend to Small Claims Court over a petty E-Bay issue!
In all honesty, here's what happened. She purchased an item on E-bay for about £5.00, The Seller listed the item as new but when she received it there were obvious signs of damage and general ...[text shortened]... £5.00. I'd just like to know if she's got any rights in this kind of matter?!
Originally posted by Daemon SinI'm no great expert but I don't know what you could counter-claim for.
Pfff... any legal buffs out there that can give me some advice?!
Someone's just threatend to take my girlfriend to Small Claims Court over a petty E-Bay issue!
In all honesty, here's what happened. She purchased an item on E-bay for about £5.00, The Seller listed the item as new but when she received it there were obvious signs of damage and general £5.00. I'd just like to know if she's got any rights in this kind of matter?!
If she turns up I'm sure his case will be thrown out, and that will be the end of it.
EDIT: Who has the money now? And who has the item?
EDIT2: I see you have the money back. Return the item immediately, or the court will order you to do so.
Ebay have process in place for dealing with this type of dispute. Provided you stick within the ebay guidelines then there is likely to be nothing that a small claim court could find to award a case in favour of the seller.
Useful links:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/problems-dispute-resolution.html
http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/questions/dispute-resolution.html
edit - this one very useful for you: http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/inr-snad-process.html
Originally posted by Daemon SinTo be honest it sounds like you are in the wrong.
Pfff... any legal buffs out there that can give me some advice?!
Someone's just threatend to take my girlfriend to Small Claims Court over a petty E-Bay issue!
In all honesty, here's what happened. She purchased an item on E-bay for about £5.00, The Seller listed the item as new but when she received it there were obvious signs of damage and general ...[text shortened]... £5.00. I'd just like to know if she's got any rights in this kind of matter?!
You got a refund and are refusing to return the item? Sorry but I think that sounds out of order. Send the item back and politely ask for the feedback to be removed as it was all misunderstanding.
Just my view but I have only got 7 things on eBay and no legal knowledge at all. I think if you get a refund you have to send the item back, or give back the refund.
Originally posted by rhb"At this point my girlf e-mailed him and bascially said that he's not getting the item back until he requests that E-Bay removes the feedback."
Unless I misread the story it is difficult to return an item without a return address.
That said, the sellers details should perhaps show on the payment details for the item?
"that she refused to return the item! A complete lie"
Well I think the best thing would of been to send it back as now the feedback is true. The seller has no reason to change this, as of current it is true. Once you send it back I would hope and expect that the feedback will be changed.
Originally posted by Daemon Sinit costs approx £120 to take someone to the small claims court in the uk, I did know but unfortunately I have forgotten whether that cost can be awarded if successful. One of the things they look at is, why did it get this far, so in the unlikely event he did pursue this, make sure you can prove that you offered to settle all this outside the courtroom. It would not look good for him if he ignored this route and took you to court anyway, the court would consider that he was wasting their time. But it looks as if he has no real case, so let him take you and waste his money, best way of getting even.
Pfff... any legal buffs out there that can give me some advice?!
Someone's just threatend to take my girlfriend to Small Claims Court over a petty E-Bay issue!
In all honesty, here's what happened. She purchased an item on E-bay for about £5.00, The Seller listed the item as new but when she received it there were obvious signs of damage and general ...[text shortened]... £5.00. I'd just like to know if she's got any rights in this kind of matter?!
Originally posted by Will EverittHe was bluffing!
Anything been worked out yet?
He's 'suddenly' chosen not to go ahead with it 😛
Instead he's raised an 'Unpaid Item Dispute' on E-Bay, dispite the fact that my girlf paid for the item through Paypal and has the proof. I contacted him telling that and gave him 24 hours to retract the claim before I appealled and reported it to E-Bay. I sent the appeal and proof by e-mail this morning, so E-Bay should be getting back to me tonight and hopefully suspending his account for raising false claims.
I'm going on a business trip quite near to where he leaves so I might go knock on his door and have a little 'chat' with him about the abusive messages he's sent to my girlf 😠
EDIT: Oh and she has returned the item to him, but he's now claiming he hasn't received it. Never saw that coming! 😛
I'd have to say, it was the buyer's fault and it was pretty much "buyer beware." The buyer didn't closely inspect the photo and checked about the damage. There was no false advertising involved from what I'm hearing. So the seller didn't lie or trick the buyer in buying the product. All the info was there, it's just the buyer was stupid and didn't check all the facts. So really, the seller doesn't need to do anything for this buyer. However, if the seller did lie about the product and about it's condition, the the seller can get in to trouble for it. But in this case, the seller wasn't lying. What the seller did was used a nice little loophole that most buisness use only on a visual level. You know when those advertisers say "up to 50% off on select cell phones." Looking at that quickly, most people see the "50% off" and pretty much translate it to "Oh! That's 50% off of ALL cell phones!" What were the key words? "up to" and "select" meaning that you can only get 30% on a certain cell phone while you can get 15% off on another and oh yeah, it only applies to certain cell phones too. It's the buyer's responisbility to pay attention to that and take that in to consideration. But in the case when the buyer was looking at the product on Ebay, they didn't look at the picture and examine and think critcally on what they were buying. So the blame should rest on the buyer's side. The seller was only doing what most buisness people would do. Not to say it's right. But it's actually legal. Now I am going to put this as a warning, I'm using Canadian law. Now most of it may apply in this scenario, but there may be some small tidbits that might not. So if anyone sees anything quriky here, POINT IT OUT! Really, don't be afraid to do that. It only helps me study for my law midterm (And this was the perfect "case" to do it. 😉 )
(Edit: Although, I'm not saying your girlfriend is a bad business person or anything. It a commonly enough used tactic which doesn't make her bad at all. I just disagree with it's general practise in well.... general. ^^;; )
~The MCP
Seller Non-Performance rules of ebay.
2. Significantly misrepresent an item by not meeting the terms and item description outlined in the listing.
If he has said it was "new" he seems likely to have broken this rule if the item is worn or damaged, and hence ebay should help you in the dispute.
But ebay is notorious for being pretty useless in everything except taking money off you so ..... good luck.
Also, you could put a reply to his feedback lies.
Originally posted by Dr StrangeloveNow that would screw everything up. If it contains the word "new" in there, then disregard what I said before.
Seller Non-Performance rules of ebay.
2. Significantly misrepresent an item by not meeting the terms and item description outlined in the listing.
If he has said it was "new" he seems likely to have broken this rule if the item is worn or damaged, and hence ebay should help you in the dispute.
But ebay is notorious for being pretty useless in eve ...[text shortened]... pt taking money off you so ..... good luck.
Also, you could put a reply to his feedback lies.
As for Ebay being useless, I totally agree. When I bought something from there the one time I used it, the items I bought (Which were 3 graphic novels" were stolen while it was going through the post office! And you can tell they were stolen because the paclage they came in had visable signs of someone going through the trouble of oepning it, being very picky and choosy on what they wanted (Apparentally, they liked Shojo) and left behind what they didn't want. So instead, I only ended up with 1 graphic novel and we pay a lot for them too! So that's why ebay and most online buisnesses bug me so much. There's always that chance that I can be stolen from again (Further more, I really can't afford anything right now. I'm one of those poor college students that was completely ignored by student loans (Who are a mean bunch of idiots). So I really can't afford a lot right now if I want to pay for my final year. ^^; )
~ The MCP