Help With A Bad Ebay Deal

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Posted By: Al Simeone

I was wondering if this has happened to any of you. I won an item on ebay the auction went the full length, at the end I paid for it by paypal. The next day the seller refunds the money back and opens a dispute saying that we both decided to mutually end the transaction. And the payment was being refunded. This is not true I being the buyer never agreed to this and still want the item. I assume that the seller didnt get the money that he thought the item would bring and has now decided not to honor the auction. I called ebay and they now have sent it to the trust and safety department but I must wait 10 days to file anything else on the matter. I was wondering if anyone has had this kind of problem and what they did about it to possibly get the seller to honor his auction.

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Posted By: Matt

Ebay can't force the seller to send you the card, so you may be out of luck. At the same time, if the seller does this a few times, and ebay gets notified of it, they will cancel his account. Also, you definitely should leave him a negative. Perhaps all of this though, get his contact info anfd give him a call and see what's up.

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Posted By: Bobby Binder

I was wondering do you get a full refund or does Paypal take away there fees from you as well? You know the guy got offered more for the card and that is why he backed out. So you should make him pay for his actions...

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Posted By: Matt

If a "mutual agreement not to complete transaction" is attained then the fees are refunded as well, although I don't know how ebay could say such an agreement was reached without the buyer's say so.

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Posted By: Al Simeone

What I cant figure out is why ebay would allow this? I paid for the item and still want the item. I did send for the contact info I E phone its a business . It is a pin not a card. He lied and said we both decided not to complete the transaction. I stated in the complaint that it wasnot true. Even called the nice special ebay phone # they sent all of us SPECIAL people!

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Posted By: Matt

"What I cant figure out is why ebay would allow this?"

Allow what? I don't think ebay would conclude that you didn't want the deal to take place without you saying so, but even if they did that would only get him his selling fees back. Ebay can't force him to mail your item.

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Posted By: Bob Pomilla

Recently won three cards in the same day from an ebay dealer. A couple of weeks later, I receive two of them and a refund for the third, with the explanation that the dealer couldn't find the third card and that it may have been shipped to someone else. As, I believe, the card was won for a quite good price, the thought occured that the dealer may have sold the card to someone with a better offer. I, obviously, have no way of knowing if this so, but , at best, this is extremely sloppy business practice and I won't deal with this person again. As to what I can do about it? Nothing, but gripe.

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Posted By: Al Simeone

Thanks Matt I understand That.

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Posted By: Tim Newcomb

is name the dealer(s) who have done this on the forum. As long as you are scrupulously accurate and just describe what happened, there shouldn't be any reason not to disclose who they are. Several hundred potential bidders would see it--

I know I am not the only one who would very much like to avoid bidding on anything from people who are not honoring completed ebay auctions.

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Posted By: Steve Murray

If you pay for something with paypal and then receive a refund you are not charged paypal fees for the money returned to your account.

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Posted By: Chris Counts

A month or so ago, I thought I won a lot of old postcards. Then I get an email from the seller saying he screwed up the listing, and somehow 14 different buyers were notified they won. He opened a dispute thread and asked me to agree to end the transaction. He seemed very sincere about it and I agreed to end the transaction. He told me he was doing the same with all the buyers and one was resisting. That wasn't you, Al, was it?

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Posted By: Al Simeone

Chris,
No it was not me. Why would you think that?

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Posted By: David Smith

I am not an Attorney but it seems you had a VALID contract. Seller lists pin (with No Reserve, I am assuming) and you bid on the pin and were the highest bidder. Therefor, YOU were willing and able to purchase the pin at THAT given price yet the Seller was NOT able (or willing) to deliver the pin.

Reverse the situation and guess what the Seller would do, i.e, Seller lists pin with No Reserve and YOU bid an amount much higher than the Seller was expecting and you win the pin. Then, you decide the amount you bid was too much (buyer's remorse) and renege on the deal. The Seller would be on the phone to eBay and also sending you E mails so quick it wouldn't be funny.

I would contact the Seller and tell him you had a valid contract and will be taking the issue up with the Small Claims Court.

Just my two cents of legal advice (no, I did not sleep in any special hotel or motel last night),

David

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Posted By: Al Simeone

Dave,
Thanks No there was no reserve on the pin. It was a straight auction and went to the end. I just noticed the seller has now made his feedback private (it wasnt before the auction started) I can tell you he has 919 feedbacks.
I wont give the name but I will let you figure it out with the auction # 330178945309. Maybe someone has dealt with him before. He does have 8 negs.

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Posted By: Mike

That is such a joke what is Ebay saying to people when they let them hide their feedback? That they don't have to be honest and decent business people and get away with it!

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Posted By: Kenny Cole

I am an attorney. You do have a valid contract. You have offer, acceptance, consideration. The terms are clear. That's a contract. By failing to perform, the seller has breached the contract. And the question is, so what?

If you live close by the seller, I suppose you can try to sue him/her for specific performance, assuming you can show that the card/pin is rare, you won't get another realistic shot at one, blah, blah, blah. That's fine. Maybe you win. How do you recover the card/pin if it is no longer in the seller's possession? An order requiring the seller to hand over the goods is lovely, but in this sort of circumstance its about as effective as you telling the seller to give it to you. If the seller doesn't have it any more, you pretty well can't get it.

I suppose there's theoretically some sort of potential contempt of court threat hanging out there if the seller doesn't comply with the specific performance order, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Otherwise, your remedy is money damages -- the amount you are out by virtue of the breach. That will probably be the amount you paid for the card plus, perhaps, attorneys fees. If its a small claims court matter, I suspect that the attorneys fees will be pretty modest -- about 10% extra in Oklahoma the last time I had the misfortune to wander over there to help a friend out.

FWIW, I say go forward with the dispute process because he's a liar and you should. Then take the money, leave the neg, promise yourself never to deal with that pos seller again, let others know about your poor experience with the seller (always being scrupulously truthful about it in order to avoid any sort of tortious interference with contract claim), and go on. That's my two cents

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Posted By: sagard

None of this makes any sense unless that is like a $1000 pin that you won for $40.

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Posted By: Fred C

Do yourself a favor. Take the money back and don't look back. It's not going to be worth the frustration. The item is really neat but you're going to get worked up about something that you have little control over. Write it off as a bad experience where you didn't lose anything.

Just my opinion...

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Posted By: David Vargha

If you pay for something with paypal and then receive a refund you are not charged paypal fees for the money returned to your account.

People sending money aren't charged PayPal fees to begin with. Sellers are. Refunds are simply a reversal of the transaction that was never charged in the first place. The seller is a tool in this instance. Neg him, block him and move on.

DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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Posted By: Steve Murray

I don't think my post suggested that anyone sending (I don't know how to bold) money is charged paypal fees. When I receive money in my paypal account I am charged a fee. The exception I raised is that if it is a refund of money that I had paid someone from my paypal account I would then NOT be charged a fee.

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Posted By: Al Simeone

Ken,
Thanks for the input. The pin in question is a bit rare and is worth around 200-400 dollars. It is one of the harder PM10 newcombe pins.But the person wouldnt really know that unless you deal with them on a daily basis. My feeling here is someone emailed the guy and said Wow that was sold to cheap that pin is worth X and you should hold on to it. Sellers have told me this . And it does happen very often.

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Posted By: Tony Andrea

I'm in agreement with Fred C. The transaction, although frustrating for you isn't worth
anymore time or energy. Move on. You'll be much happier the quicker you do.

Tony

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Posted By: Matt

Make sure to leave a neg for the seller so other's know what happened and can avoid him in the future.

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Posted By: Al Simeone

Matt,
I will but the seller just made his feedback private so it wont show up only the neg.# will change.

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Posted By: Matt

he may eventually want to make it public again, so people will see it then. Even if if forces him to keep is FB private, that still works as most ppl won't buy from a seller with private feedback.

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Posted By: Paul

I would get his contact information and call him up. What he's pulling is total BS and illegal. He entered into a contract with you and now he's trying to get out of the deal. Another Ebayer probably contacted him after the auction and offered him $20.00 bucks more than you did. I would work with Ebay's trust and Safety department and let them know just how you feel.
People like this need to be kicked off immediately!

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Posted By: Matt

ebay won't kick them off for 1 offense. They will put a notation in the sellers file and if it happens a few more times, then they will act.

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Posted By: Al Simeone

Hi Paul,
I did call it was a business Carolina Specialties funny he goes by carospec but when I asked for the guy they said he didnt work there anymore. Funny your ebay name is carospec and the business is the same name but you dont work there anymore? BS I think who I talked to was the guy but he didnt want to say that. Im also hoping that he has 8 negs now that maybe someone else filed and this will help get the guy out.

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Posted By: Al Simeone

After the seller refused to sell me this item and doing a LONG follow-up with ebay trust and safety dept. For the seller violation code, Ebay has now suspended his account and he is no longer a registered user! The seller went by CAROSPEC but is now taking a little rest! It does pay to at least file the information. I wasnt able to leave a neg feedback because Ebay took him off to fast. But at least hes off!

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Posted By: Matt

Good work Al!!!
We need more ebayers like you who aren't afradi to point out the scum.