Ebay response-no hope for sellers

gillianna

O.G.
Dec 27, 2005
8,288
2,182
I just sold some beautiful cabinet pulls on Ebay. I had all the descriptions of the measurements and stated the distance between the bolt holes on my auction. A person sends me an email before my auction ends stating she needs them to fit holes 1/2 inch smaller (which they would not). So she wins my auction. I email her twice about how these are larger than what she wanted and I could cancel the auction versus sending out things that will not fit. No reply from her. I called Ebay to tell them I was having doubts with this transaction and that I posted all the correct information and feel it should not be my problem to accept a return if the buyer opens a case in the future since the person bought it with my correct size information and emails. I asked them what would happen if the person opened a case and their reply was "we would tell the person to return them to you and you would need to refund them". I asked the guy why They are allowing people to treat sellers like a department store and return for no reason or mistake on the sellers side. He then said sellers need to work things out with buyers. UGH.
In the end the buyer did reply and said the bigger bolt holes were not a problem since the furniture can be drilled to use them.
 
You were fortunate that the buyer was able to circumvent this but that is far from the norm.

Ebay IMO needs to re-evalute some of their policies... and with a response that OP
received from an agent which is wrong this is just an example of why the policies
need to change..
 
+1 They've basically come out and said that they don't care about small, independent sellers on their site. If that's true why do they always have these free listings and "come sell your junk on eBay" campaigns? I don't get it.



Probably to impress the stockholders. Never mind that most of the listings will never see the light of day and that the STR is in the crapper
 
I'm confused. This is specific to where I live but under the law you are not obligated to refund something in an auction sale (obviously SNAD etc etc would be allowed) but for someone to not read your listing, I don't understand how ebay could force you to accept a return.
 
I'm confused. This is specific to where I live but under the law you are not obligated to refund something in an auction sale (obviously SNAD etc etc would be allowed) but for someone to not read your listing, I don't understand how ebay could force you to accept a return.



They don't always force a return. Sometimes they let the buyer keep the widget and either refund them themselves or pull the money from the sellers account.
 
I'm confused. This is specific to where I live but under the law you are not obligated to refund something in an auction sale (obviously SNAD etc etc would be allowed) but for someone to not read your listing, I don't understand how ebay could force you to accept a return.
Under the law?
 
Originally Posted by Designed_One I'm confused. This is specific to where I live but under the law you are not obligated to refund something in an auction sale (obviously SNAD etc etc would be allowed) but for someone to not read your listing, I don't understand how eBay could force you to accept a return.


Under the law?

Yes. Contract Law.
There are lawyers here on TPF and I'd be interested in reading their take on this. I'm not understanding where "contract law" releases a seller from an "obligation" to issue a refund.

I don't know whether you're talking live auctions or ebay auctions, but on ebay:

  • if a seller has a return policy, the seller is obligated to take a return for any reason and issue a refund.
  • if an item isn't as described, the seller is obligated to take a return and issue a refund
  • if a buyer files a dispute (justifed or not), if ebay and/or paypal find in the buyer's favor, the seller is obligated to issue a refund.
And in fact, sellers who refuse to take a return (claiming a no-return policy) have learned the hard way that there are times when ebay/PP give the buyer the refund without the return of the item. Those sellers lose both item and money.
 
Originally Posted by Designed_One I'm confused. This is specific to where I live but under the law you are not obligated to refund something in an auction sale (obviously SNAD etc etc would be allowed) but for someone to not read your listing, I don't understand how eBay could force you to accept a return.





There are lawyers here on TPF and I'd be interested in reading their take on this. I'm not understanding where "contract law" releases a seller from an "obligation" to issue a refund.

I don't know whether you're talking live auctions or ebay auctions, but on ebay:

  • if a seller has a return policy, the seller is obligated to take a return for any reason and issue a refund.
  • if an item isn't as described, the seller is obligated to take a return and issue a refund
  • if a buyer files a dispute (justifed or not), if ebay and/or paypal find in the buyer's favor, the seller is obligated to issue a refund.
And in fact, sellers who refuse to take a return (claiming a no-return policy) have learned the hard way that there are times when ebay/PP give the buyer the refund without the return of the item. Those sellers lose both item and money.

How do you know I'm not a lawyer?

LOL Consult your lawyers. I said the law was specific to my country, I'm not saying it applies to everyone.

When you enter into an auction you are entering into a contract of sale hence contract law.

Here is a nice simple to understand definition of the term auction: "An auction is where property of some sort is put up for sale and people then make successive bids, and the highest bidder usually becomes the purchaser".
 
Also in my country, an auction is a legally binding sale and the buyer is obligated to make payment on the item they won or the seller has the right to sue. Ebay doesn't do **** about enforcing that either.
 
Also in my country, an auction is a legally binding sale and the buyer is obligated to make payment on the item they won or the seller has the right to sue. Ebay doesn't do **** about enforcing that either.


Alright, so how the law in your country applies to anything or anyone in this thread? What's the point of your post?