E-bay rant

[H]

The story so far...
I sell some wheels with an accurate description (pics and text) of heavy wear, even going so far as listing them as ideal spares. Buyer receives and breaks them. He gets a full refund and sends them back to me broken! Ebay seem totally prepared to defend this p...k and support him in ripping me off. Their 'Resolution Centre' has left me out of pocket and in receipt of valueless broken wheels. Ebay suggest I bar the buyer and pursue him through Citizens Advice and the Small Claims Court. Be careful guys, it would appear that this kind of thing is on the rise. H

 

[FluffyChicken]

Re:

What about buyer protection. Which part of your description anywhere allowed him to do that.

It's not him you can tale to small claims court. It would be eBay as they are the ones allowing him under their policies. (I would have thought. I.e. it was their choice to refund and allow it to happen)

 

[raidan73]

When you say breaks do you mean he rode them and broke them, or broke them down to hubs/rims/spokes?

 

[jimo746]

Re:

surely if the buyer rode them and they then "broke" then that's down to the buyer, not the seller??

 

[H]

Re:

Nope, it would appear ebay always sides with the buyer no matter what.

 

[raidan73]

I've had a similar experience selling a brand new, still packaged after shave which the buyer claimed to be fake. I argued politely with the buyer and eBay, explaining to eBay that I was confident that it was genuine and that I was basically receiving something back that was exactly as described but was now worth just a small percentage of it's original value having been opened and used. I sent links to youtube videos showing the difference between genuine and fake items and did everything I could other than provide the receipt (didn't have it). It was essentially my opinion against the buyer's and eBay didn't give it a second thought - buyer won.

 

[jimo746]

Re: Re:

Nope, it would appear ebay always sides with the buyer no matter what.

Hmm... Actually I can quite believe that, from past experience as a seller.

 

[greencat]

Yes, I avoid selling on eBay for just this reason. eBay used to be really hard on the buyer - I can remember being stiffed a few times back before universal payment protection. I remember buying a laptop which was advertised as needing minor repairs and a new hard drive - which in reality had been completely stripped of RAM, LCD screen, etc and even all of the screws!

Selling on eBay, however, has gone from selling something on for a few quid to a minefield of chargebacks, needing trackable courier, avoiding overseas scammers etc. Amazon is far easier - even with the increasing restrictions - and seems to have a better quality of customer.

That said if there's only a few quid to be made I simply don't bother selling at all nowadays as it's not worth the hassle. I'm sure I can't be the only one who feels that way.

 

[Rob H]

Re: Re:

Nope, it would appear ebay always sides with the buyer no matter what.

Not sure if it's actually eBay, I might be mistaken but I think there's been some chances in the sale of goods act to cover on-line purchases and the law is biased towards the buyer.

 

[marc two tone]

Re:

It's not just bike stuff, i've been done as buyer and seller, just too many ignorant divs out there...

so, on that i just stopped selling through ebay. once, i had something on there more or less weekly, but now it's once a year. The small charges add up and jump on your back when you least want the bill. It's just part of it but you're best off at a jumble, for example.

You can see your buyer and chat things through. A good opportunity for them to inspect the goods before paying you.
on-line selling can be good but when it goes wrong....it's the kind of stress you least want, no neck to throttle and ebay are too lax.
For starters there is a 7-14 day wait on answers (replies) such as yes or no..
It can take the thick end of a month to solve the simplest of issues and it's not funny.

When all are happy then it's great but, when it goes wrong all you want to do is pull up trees. The resolution centre is too complicated as you never seem to find the right answer for you, in whatever case you have.

In your case i would cut my losses and take your fees elsewhere, you may hate me for saying that, but it worked for me and i wont post anything bigger than a chainset as you get courier/handling issues too.