Ebay question...

[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 () 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.