Ebay question...

[wiicrackpot]

..to Bay vets.

Whats the longest you've waited for contact from a seller after auction end?, bought something but the seller has dropped off the radar altogether, :(
i am not giving up hope yet but just looking for comfort words to steady my ship.

[Martinh]

Hi Andy,

Have you paid for the item yet? If so, did you pay by Paypal?

[wiicrackpot]

Martin,

No i haven't paid for it yet, i expressed my wish for pictures and to pick up and pay at auction end...no reply, have sent 2 emails since auction end last week...no reply, all in more than 2 weeks and no reply, seller has 0 feedback. :scratch:

[Martinh]

Hmmm... Doesn't look good.

Might be worth checking to see if they have re-listed it. Some people refuse to complete the deal if they didn't get the price they wanted.

Im afraid there's not much you can do if they don't want to sell :(

[wiicrackpot]

Yep, doing exactly that and checking daily both on the Bay and Gumtree, fear maybe a dealer has nipped in and nabbed them,
happened before when i bought a apir of Ditton 66's,on a right downer as i was all for hiring a van to pick up at the weekend as well.

[Martinh]

Just found this http://myclaimspages.com/classified/altec-604-8g-sound-studio-monitor-speaker--1900.html


Looks like the same photo advertising them for sale in Florida!

I smell a rat...

[wiicrackpot]

Thanks Martin,

I can put this to bed then. :steam: bar steward just ruined my birthday. :(

[Martinh]

It's looking that way. If its any consolation, it may be that you had a lucky escape.

When's your 50th, Andy?

[wiicrackpot]

It's looking that way. If its any consolation, it may be that you had a lucky escape.

When's your 50th, Andy?
Tomorrow Martin, thought my boat had come in when i locked onto them, a blessing that i am on here for more savvy PC literate peeps to help me.

Cheers!.

[Martinh]

Happy Birthday for tomorrow Andy.

Have a beer on us :cool:

[wiicrackpot]

Happy Birthday for tomorrow Andy.

Have a beer on us :cool:
Thanks mate, having a 'Whisky In a Jar' moment though. Sob...sob.:violin:

[goraman]

Andy, you have the right to open a complaint with the seller through ebay.
If you would have paid with pay pal it would give you even more leverage and paypal can put a hold on his bank account. Till the dispute is solved.

[Martinh]

Andy, you have the right to open a complaint with the seller through ebay.
If you would have paid with pay pal it would give you even more leverage and paypal can put a hold on his bank account. Till the dispute is solved.

Yes, that's true but he only has to say that the product is no longer available for sale and refund any money paid. Thats why I asked Andy If he'd paid for the item. Any complaint to eBay probably won't result in the product being sold to Andy.

[Martinh]

You can request the contact details for the seller here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/ebayadvsearch/?_sofindtype=9&_kw=ebayadvsearch&_ipg=50

And call them directly to see whats going on.

I think I'd give it a go to see what they say.

[wiicrackpot]

Jeff ~ I am just glad i didn't pay for it, think i'll move on, it's only kit at the end of the day.

Martin ~ Didn't know there was such a feature, will go and find his details and see what he's playing at.

Update:

Just got the details from Martin's link, the address is not complete and guess what ( no house number and street, just said Bathgate in the required sections)?,
the phone line has been terminated, dead tone.

[The Black Adder]

Bad luck matey... I once bought a cd player from a guy on ebay who I think still sells on there. I asked if he would accept a lower price to which he asked me to call him. I called him and he agreed to the deal but he asked me to put it through as a gift on Paypal.

Anyway, a few days later the cdp arrived, the packaging was done by a 3 year old and the thing (not surprisingly) didn't work.

I called him and he told me to f*uck off and that I can't do anything about it because it was done via a gift.

I have the sellers ebay name if anyone is interested... let me know.

But on my part it was a lesson learnt.

[wiicrackpot]

Thanks for that Joe, know not to buy on the Bay with *gift* payments, much appreciate it.

[Spur07]

I now this thread is a little old now, but if you won the auction and the seller refuses to complete the transaction you can open a dispute with ebay - he'll wind up with a warning and a black mark against his name and if he continues to screw other customers ebay will eventually trash his account. At least let ebay what's happened.

Good luck.

P

[wiicrackpot]

Paul,

I've not lost anything over this trans so will let it lie.

Ebay sucks when it comes to weeding out scammers, when i first registered, i bought a couple of C.D's and thought it great, on the 3rd buying spree, i bought a wee Silk Transformers 'Minuet' amp on a £200.00 + £7.00 PP 'buy it now' just to try a valve amp, turned he was a scumbag and never sent it, i didn't know the ways of ebay at the time,little while later i told a friend about it who looked into his ebay history, it turned he had used 5 different user names, seems everytime he scammed somebody, he'd terminate his account and registered using a different name and trade on, surely ebay must know what he's upto and did nothing. :steam:

[Tim]

Perhaps to bring some balance to another eBay slagging session, might I proffer this;

I have been a member since March 2004 and have successfully completed over 700 transactions as both a buyer and seller and only once had a problem, when a seller sent me a CD that was not as advertised and then called me a liar. eBay were extremely helpful (and prompt) at resolving the issue to my satisfaction. On an average day eBay handle 5 million transactions and without doubt a percentage of these are going to be deliberate misrepresentations, thefts, frauds or dubious in nature. There are IMO a multitude of ways to suss out a 'wrong un' before hand and if you don't do this, then is it really eBay's fault? They cannot keep track of all the scammers due to the open nature of how eBay functions. eBay fraudsters take advantage of peoples greed and lackadaisical manner and will continue to do so no matter what eBay does to try and stop them - think about it, 5 million transactions a day?

Do your homework first, check their history thoroughly, see what they buy and sell, read the listing carefully and avoid sales with crap pictures, stock pictures, NO PICTURES, poor descriptions, spelling mistakes or poor grammar and always strike up a relationship before purchase by questioning and if anything and I mean anything makes you hesitant, then walk away. High value items should IMO always be a face to face sale if at all possible and sending thousands of pounds to anyone operating privately via the internet, is just asking for trouble and utterly reckless.

I think you should chalk this one up as a near miss Andy and like Joe, a lesson learned. Think of it positively, you will now approach eBay more cautiously without actually suffering any real loss this time - I call that a result ;)

[wiicrackpot]

Good points, hence i do most of what you suggested after my amp scam, the reason i pushed my boat out for them Altec's is it was local and i insist trans in person, where scammers succeed is items like what i was after are supply and demand, some people will take risk simply their insatiable need to have whatever item they lust, but i've never gone ahead with it even the odd time these come up down south where i can't hire a van and pick up, be it too far south or price has gone beyond what i feel is fair.

[seoirse2002]

Worse thing that happened to me was I sold a guitar for £500 and duly packed it and sent it by next day courier.I didnt hear anything and no feedback,but some people forget to leave it so I wasnt too worried....About 2 months later I get an email from the guy saying....when are you going to send the guitar? when I said I sent it months ago he denied he got it and started a non receipt claim...Long story short,I got the proof of delivery from DHL for paypal which they accepted and he then came back and said he wasnt at home that day and showed his work clock in card and train ticket and said the sig wasnt his either...so he never received it(he said)...it was too long ago for the dhl driver to remember and and in the end paypal refunded his money...so I lost the guitar. He had only 2 feedbacks and I never saw any activity from him again on Ebay.....lesson.....remember the buyer has 90 days to raise a complaint:scratch:

[seoirse2002]

Worse thing that happened to me was I sold a guitar for £500 and duly packed it and sent it by next day courier.I didnt hear anything and no feedback,but some people forget to leave it so I wasnt too worried....About 2 months later I get an email from the guy saying....when are you going to send the guitar? when I said I sent it months ago he denied he got it and started a non receipt claim...Long story short,I got the proof of delivery from DHL for paypal which they accepted and he then came back and said he wasnt at home that day and showed his work clock in card and train ticket and said the sig wasnt his either...so he never received it(he said)...it was too long ago for the dhl driver to remember and and in the end paypal refunded his money...so I lost the guitar. He had only 2 feedbacks and I never saw any activity from him again on Ebay.....lesson.....remember the buyer has 90 days to raise a complaint:scratch:

But on the other hand...last week I bought an Akai open reel with built in 8 track player pretty cheap not too far from me...drove and picked it up and got it home...playback ok but not recording on one channel....contacted the seller who refunded me immediately and told me to keep it!! lots of tapes with it too,but now have no idea how to get it working and no user manual...but hey ho maybe someone on here will be able to help me.:)

[wiicrackpot]

But on the other hand...last week I bought an Akai open reel with built in 8 track player pretty cheap not too far from me...drove and picked it up and got it home...playback ok but not recording on one channel....contacted the seller who refunded me immediately and told me to keep it!! lots of tapes with it too,but now have no idea how to get it working and no user manual...but hey ho maybe someone on here will be able to help me.:)
The other side of the coin George, you win some and lose some. :)

[seoirse2002]

Too true....better to be winning some though!:cool:

[walpurgis]

Once a purchase is agreed on eBay, i.e., a winning bid has been accepted for an item. Then, a legal contract exists between you and the vendor to that effect.

Technically it is yours and if there is any nonsense, you can get a court to order that the seller produce the item and give it to you. You will of course still be obliged to pay for the item.

Obviously, before taking legal action, you should give the seller every opportunity to produce the goods within a reasonable time.

A court is likely to take a dim view of any dubious previous actions or lack of response on the seller's part, leading to the court claim and would be likely to award the action costs against the seller.

Just the threat of legal action is likely to persuade most tricky vendors to toe the line though.

[Macca]

Once a purchase is agreed on eBay, i.e., a winning bid has been accepted for an item. Then, a legal contract exists between you and the vendor to that effect.

.


I have read somewhere that that is not the case and that the 'contract' is not enforceable (in English law, anyway) although eBay like to give the impression that it is, for obvious reasons.

Would be interesting to find out definitavley.

[walpurgis]

Pop into the local court or nearest small claims court and the Clerk of The Court's office would advise on what is actionable.

[nat8808]

Bad luck matey... I once bought a cd player from a guy on ebay who I think still sells on there. I asked if he would accept a lower price to which he asked me to call him. I called him and he agreed to the deal but he asked me to put it through as a gift on Paypal.

Anyway, a few days later the cdp arrived, the packaging was done by a 3 year old and the thing (not surprisingly) didn't work.

I called him and he told me to f*uck off and that I can't do anything about it because it was done via a gift.

I have the sellers ebay name if anyone is interested... let me know.

But on my part it was a lesson learnt.

You CAN do something about it but you'd have to have paid with a credit card. You call the cc card people and tell them your item was broken etc, want to do a chargeback on the payment.

If you live in the sticks, sometimes a helpful police officer will take the time to give them a call and give people the frighteners. (not in the sticks and they'll probably be too busy to care).

[nat8808]

Worse thing that happened to me was I sold a guitar for £500 and duly packed it and sent it by next day courier.I didnt hear anything and no feedback,but some people forget to leave it so I wasnt too worried....About 2 months later I get an email from the guy saying....when are you going to send the guitar? when I said I sent it months ago he denied he got it and started a non receipt claim...Long story short,I got the proof of delivery from DHL for paypal which they accepted and he then came back and said he wasnt at home that day and showed his work clock in card and train ticket and said the sig wasnt his either...so he never received it(he said)...it was too long ago for the dhl driver to remember and and in the end paypal refunded his money...so I lost the guitar. He had only 2 feedbacks and I never saw any activity from him again on Ebay.....lesson.....remember the buyer has 90 days to raise a complaint:scratch:

Always a bad idea to leave money in PayPal.. In order to refund the guy, you'd have had to have the money in your account (they can't take money from your bank account without permission as that's illegal). So you should have just ended up with a negative balance in PayPal.

Granted, that then becomes an issue and so you'll have to pursue PayPal to correct their mistake before you can ever use the service again but I'd say using it isn't worth the £500.

I no longer have a PayPal account due to their sculduggery but always used to use it only with an new, empty bank account and a associated VISA card.

Thankfully you can still make payments without an account and just pay by card every time so I can still buy stuff!

[nat8808]

I have read somewhere that that is not the case and that the 'contract' is not enforceable (in English law, anyway) although eBay like to give the impression that it is, for obvious reasons.

Would be interesting to find out definitavley.

If it was on here that you read it, it was probably from me..

The Sale of Goods Act 19somethingorother clearly defines when a sales contract is in place.

Briefly, it says the sales contract is in place when buyer and seller enter into agreement on the terms of the sale.

There's also a part that states that it is not a legal sales contract if the terms of the sale are set by a third party.

It does cover sales by Auction Houses (I think the act does that and not another act) which does cover online auctions like the BBC Worldservice one but eBay IS NOT an Auction House.

eBay public states - mostly when being sued - that it does nothing more than provide a forum where buyers and sellers can meet. It provides a kind of price discovery that people can then use for a sale.

So, until you speak with the seller and actually agree via email or eBay message or telephone etc on the terms of the sale (including what payment method) then no sales contract is in place. Neither can enforce it until that point.

The enforced use of PayPal by eBay is against the Sales of Goods Act too - have seen posts on forums of people bringing this up with eBay after stating they wouldn't accept PayPal and having their listings pulled. Once the Sales of Goods Act was mentioned, eBay let the listing go ahead.

That's one reason I never pay straight away without trying to get some kind of communication, a sales contract, with the seller first.

If you could be bothered, after agreeing the sale via email and the seller then getting a better offer elsewhere, you could in theory take them to the small claims court to enforce the contract or receive damages for the contract being broken (cost of buying a more expensive one for example).

Have seen some walk through online of a case where a poor guy walked away from an eBay caravan sale because it was mis-described. The seller got all shirty about it and threatened to take him to court. And he did! Because the buyer didn't take the defence seriously enough and wrote a brief and shoddy one on the small claims form and then didn't turn up to court, the dodgy seller was awarded compensation for the breaking of the sales contract..

[nat8808]

Good points, hence i do most of what you suggested after my amp scam, the reason i pushed my boat out for them Altec's is it was local and i insist trans in person, where scammers succeed is items like what i was after are supply and demand, some people will take risk simply their insatiable need to have whatever item they lust, but i've never gone ahead with it even the odd time these come up down south where i can't hire a van and pick up, be it too far south or price has gone beyond what i feel is fair.

Unfortunately, a lot of scammers say they are based in Scotland somewhere...

Have replied to numerous ads on gumtree for interesting gear advertised as being in London, only for them to suddenly be located in Inverness.

Then I tell them I've an uncle in Inverness and I'm going up there this week so can I have a look - that's when they disappear, as in your case too.

Thing is, I'd happily drive all the way up to Caithness for the right bit of gear (would be a beautiful drive I'm sure) so their scam plan doesn't work on me...

[Macca]

Nat - Thanks for the comprehensive answer which pretty much goes along with what I thought and had read. I agree that getting the transaction confirmed via e-mail is the way to go if the item is expensive or the seller new or possibly suspect.

The whole thing works though, and works quite well, because 99.9% of the participents are genuine. I've only ever had casue for complaint in 2 transactions in almost eight years.

[synsei]

The only problem I've ever had with an ebay seller was on my very first transaction. I won a complete system, NAD CDP, NAD amp, Mission 773 speakers for 150 quid from a seller in Dartford. It was pickup only and as I was due in London the following day we agreed for me to pick it up then. The chap said he had to work but that his wife would be at home. When we arrived at the house the gear was all stacked and ready to go in the hallway. Wifey invited myself and my partner in for a cuppa and cakes and we sat and chatted with her for nearly an hour, it was all very pleasant. The time came to leave (she had to pick her little'un up from school) and so we packed the gear carefully into the car and off we went.

On returning home and getting the gear into the house I noticed something odd about the top of the amp. There was a huge dent in the casework which neither of us had noticed in our enthusiasm to get the gear into the car. I was a little miffed but the amp worked and some judicious panel beating (:D) brought it more or less back into shape. I hooked the system up and stuck on a CD and initially it sounded rather good. Then I cranked up the volume and there was a god-awful flapping sound coming from one of the Missions. Now these I did do a cursory check on before we left the sellers premises and they had seemed to be perfectly okay. What I failed to pick up was that there was a neat 3 inch split in the rubber surround on one of the bass/mids right on the border where the rubber attaches to the cone. It was so neat that I would have had to physically push the cone inwards slightly to find it. There were also some other minor issues too.

I sourced a new bass/mid to replace the damaged one which set me back nearly 50 quid and I then took the case to ebay, complete with photographic evidence. To cut a long story short, I received 50 quid back from the seller for the cost of the driver and an apology (he blamed his wife for the damage incidentally). Having solved many of the other issues myself I was left with a pretty good system for only £100. Ebay were brilliant throughout and gave us plenty of help and advice :)

The moral of this story is to check everything thoroughly. The seller had initially told me I could listen to the system before I took it away and that it would be set up for me to do so. Obviously it wasn't so I decided to take a calculated risk. Luckily it didn't backfire on me.