eBay Disputes

[Eggmundo]

Sold an Item on eBay and now the buyer is has put in a dispute under the "Item considerably different than as advertised." banner. Item was a Shock Absorber that I knew leaked-And stated so on the sale screen. Now the guy says it is unrepairable so he wants the money back? Can eBay 'take' the money out of my PayPal account?

 

[HampshireSeagulls]

They will probably find in your favour if your advert is totally clear, and will not take the money from your account. Did you try and resolve the dispute before it went to resolution?

 

[gullshark]

Paypal very often side with the buyer, and yes, they do just *take* the money back leaving you to owe paypal

 

[Eggmundo]

I have stated exactly what I put on the sale screen. "Item unfortunately leaks but Hagon can rebuild the shock for £100 + p&p" I then added the phone number of Hagon for the buyer to contact. The item went abroad and the buyer states the revelant international Hagon dealer has said it is unrepairable. I have 3 choices 1) Get him to send me the item back at his expense for a full refund. 2) Give him a full refund and apologise 3) Tell him "Sorry, sold as seen". Either way I know the cock will give me negative feedback so no matter what I do I can't win!

 

[Robot Chicken]

Did you actually confirm with Hagon that it could be rebuilt? Maybe his local Hagon dealer is wrong?

 

[HampshireSeagulls]

What was your refund policy on the advert? Tell him you want a letter from the dealer stating it's unrepairable before proceeding further.

 

[NMH]

What was your refund policy on the advert? Tell him you want a letter from the dealer stating it's unrepairable before proceeding further.

Is the right answer. Hampshire is on a par with the bloke who suggested cutting the baby in half.
Make sure it comes to you on the dealer's letterhead, then fulfill the promise to gracefully refund the poor victim with your profuse apologies for having wasted his time on a piece of unusable junk.

 

[Grendel]

Tell him you will break his head if he doesn't leave positive feedback. That should do the trick.

 

[NMH]

I don't know what's up with some people selling on eBay - you are supposed to make sure your buyer is happy and has been sold something worthwhile - not just offload your old rubbish and hang onto their money greedily just because it is in your hands and you like money.

 

[Eggmundo]

Ok, asked for proof.
More than happy to refund him if as he says it is totally unrepairable, but 4 months later and he throws this at me? His feedback is private so I can't see if he has tried it on before which gives me a twinge of doubt. I am led to believe that not everyone is as honest as the day is long, and he is a Johnny foreigner after all.

 

[Beach Hut]

Suggest proof as the last dispute I had the advert and picture was not what I got and paypal refunded me.

 

[Bluejuice]

As someone who works with eBay and PayPal on a daily basis believe me the chances of anyone at either company actually ever seeing this "dispute" are about as likely as Guy Butters reaching double figures next season.

It gets batted back and forth between seller and buyer for ages and if your angry customer refuses to listen to reason it will eventually make its way to the real people who'll take a quick look at the original listing, see you described the damage, and find in your favour, unless you have actually done them over.

 

[Bry Nylon]

This isn't a comment aimed at Eggmundo, 'cos you sound like a decent guy.

But in my opinion, someone who sells - and someone who buys - a bust shock absorber over an internet auction site kind of deserve each other...

 

[¡Cereal Killer!]

and yes, they do just *take* the money back leaving you to owe paypal

Not always, I paid for something a while back and never recieved the item and the seller would not respond to emails or would not reply to any dispute. Paypal tried to take money out of the sellers account but the seller had withdrawn all the money and was told that they cannot do anything about it apart from suspend the sellers account

 

[Robot Chicken]

Not always, I paid for something a while back and never recieved the item and the seller would not respond to emails or would not reply to any dispute. Paypal tried to take money out of the sellers account but the seller had withdrawn all the money and was told that they cannot do anything about it apart from suspend the sellers account

See, that's the correct way of conning someone! There is no come-uppance if you clear out the Paypal account!!

 

[NMH]

See, that's the correct way of conning someone! There is no come-uppance if you clear out the Paypal account!!

Er....apart from 'suspending the seller's account' - which I would think was a bit of a come-uppance really. It's not easy to build feedback and establish as a seller or buyer, just to have to start again under a new account name.

As eggmundo made this transaction some MONTHS ago, it is no longer possible for the buyer to retract any funds. There's also the possibility that a dishonest buyer could simply take his old shock to the garage and have them sign is at useless, so I'd say the buyer has actually waited too long to put his purchase to the test.

I had a buyer for a camera lens once, who told me the lens I sent had internal mould and was useless. I had already inspected the lens for exactly that, so when I got the lens back I realised the one he sent was NOT the one I furnished him with!
I did not respond or give feedback - and sure enough he did not ask for, or try to recover his money - which stood as more proof that he was indeed trying it on. So, it cost him an extra fiver to send me his old lens.

 

[NMH]

Ok, asked for proof.
More than happy to refund him if as he says it is totally unrepairable, but 4 months later and he throws this at me? His feedback is private so I can't see if he has tried it on before which gives me a twinge of doubt. I am led to believe that not everyone is as honest as the day is long, and he is a Johnny foreigner after all.

Though his feedback is private, you can view the number of them, and his percentage of positives BUT you still cannot trust private feedback, since he may wait to get a positive, then try it on - and no-one can add, or read additions to the original comments because it's hidden!

Okay Eggmundo, I am inclined to now think you should NOT refund this guy 4 months after the original sale, unless he can prove without any shadow of a doubt that this transaction has you in the wrong and him in the right (and, as stated above, he could always rig a garage report!). Having private feedback, imo, takes away culpable credibility from his eBay transaction history.

 

[¤DãŃn¥ §êãGüLL¤]

Paypal very often side with the buyer, and yes, they do just *take* the money back leaving you to owe paypal

Yes, they do.

I withdrew the money from a sale recently then the next day some conning bastard raised a dispute because in his opinion, it was worth £20 less then what he paid. Because my account with Paypal was zero they took the £100 out of my bank account, knocking me over my overdraft and getting me into serious shit with my bank, fines etc. Then the guy closed the dispute and I heard no more from him.

I rung PayPal saying can you put the money back in my bank please and they refused to help. So be careful.

 

[NMH]

Yes, they do.

I withdrew the money from a sale recently then the next day some conning bastard raised a dispute because in his opinion, it was worth £20 less then what he paid. Because my account with Paypal was zero they took the £100 out of my bank account, knocking me over my overdraft and getting me into serious shit with my bank, fines etc. Then the guy closed the dispute and I heard no more from him.

I rung PayPal saying can you put the money back in my bank please and they refused to help. So be careful.

Did they put the original 100 back to your paypal account, or where did it go?

 

[tedebear]

Ebay and Paypal (same company) are very very good at simply taking the money out of your account and giving it back to the moanee without so much as a buy your leave. Don't for a second think that there is any person at the paypal end of the computer doing this either - its all automated and it took Zef 3 months to find an actual human being to email him back about £200 of fees he was charged by an account hacker using his account to list his wares!!

When you set up a paypal account and give a bank account or credit card as backup, they've got you by the short and curlies! If all transactions are smooth sailing (which in my experience they have been) then you're ok. But when it goes wrong - getting any human intervention is nigh on impossible and paypal automatically sides with the person who complained!!