How to sue a buyer?!?!?!

[ripp_it_upp_sports_collectors]

Here is what happened....

I sold an upper end sports card back in May of 2021. The buyer made claims that the card had damage...no it did not. But because I am the person I am I decided I would work with them. I have never had a return in all my time on ebay. I naively returned the buyers money first and he messaged me asking how to send the item back. I told him I would PayPal him the cost of returning the card and he said he would have it out to me the next day...That was at the end of May 2021. Since this time I have not received the card, or a message. He has also received a poor review for selling an item and not shipping the item to the buyer. ebay has been less then helpful and told me to give him the benefit of the doubt. I know this person lives in California and I am also sure that they arent using their real name. HOW DO I GO ABOUT TAKING LEGAL ACTION TO GET MY $600 BACK? PLEASE HELP ME!

[gjs_16]

Well...

You're the one who gave the buyer his money back before receiving your item from them...

It was your click of the mouse, nobody forced you to do that.

I doubt any court will uphold this, but you're welcome to try, keep in mind you'll have to pay court costs upfront, you may also have to travel out of state to attend the proceedings and there will most likely be 3-4 of these:  One for the filing, two is the pretrial, third one is the actual trial but if the defendant won't show then you'll go to 4, the postponed trial.

Each time you go will require a good 1-2 hours of your time (sometimes more, sometimes it can take all day), all of that will be on the government's time  slots so if you have a job you may have to take time off from work to attend these court proceedings.

Last but not least it's merely a civil case, even if you get a judgment good luck collecting.

So you have to decide, I personally wouldn't sue someone out of state for anything less than 10 thousand...

It's just not worth it, merely typing out all of the above cost me 10 minutes I'll never get back.

[house*of*paws]

Hi @ripp_it_upp_sports_collectors 

I'm so sorry this happened ... but you really needed to READ how to accept a return before winging it.

I'm not attorney ... but I know of no way to get your card or money back, since you voluntarily refunded the buyer before receiving the item back.  You were supposed to send buyer a prepaid shipping label ... AND THEN refund after receiving your card back.

I think you'd have to go to small claims court at the buyer's location in order to sue.  Good luck!

[ripp_it_upp_sports_collectors]

So if I went into a grocery store and the cashier handed me my groceries before I paid I could walk out because I haven't paid yet? That's the logic....Its not right. If I have emails of someone confirming that they will send the goods back to me and they never do, that's a breach of contract. Its immoral and there is a binding document between the two of us that he broke. 

[ripp_it_upp_sports_collectors]

You have been a member on ebay for about 10 minutes based on your profile I just looked at. You are passive aggressive and honestly your reply was a waste of my time as well. You literally have no sales or buyer ratings on ebay.....You bring no value to this conversation. 

[femmefan1946]

That does actually happen sometimes.  Somebody decides to "pay it forward" and leaves payment for the next guy's coffee.

Or the cashier makes a mistake, you leave thinking you have paid (or even knowing you didn't) and the difference comes out of the cashier's last paycheck.

I agree what happened was immoral.

But you made the first mistake-- and I suspect you may have been trying to catch flies with vinegar in your communications.

Gamers gonna game.

[chapeau-noir]

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@ripp_it_upp_sports_collectors wrote:

So if I went into a grocery store and the cashier handed me my groceries before I paid I could walk out because I haven't paid yet? That's the logic....Its not right. If I have emails of someone confirming that they will send the goods back to me and they never do, that's a breach of contract. Its immoral and there is a binding document between the two of us that he broke. 

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While I think this individual is a miserable excuse for a human, the analogy doesn't hold.  He already paid, and you refunded without getting the item back.  For your analogy to work, you would have also needed to pay for the groceries, and then for some unfathomable reason, once you get the groceries in your car, the checker runs out and hands you your money BACK. 

This is essentially what happened.  I'm sorry people can be such thieves and I don't know how they live with themselves, but this is why the returns process on any online marketplace is so strict and dependent upon verifiable evidence (chat messages are not really verifiable - they can say anything, but a delivery scan will say only one thing).

[ripp_it_upp_sports_collectors]

I mean...I could just drive to their house. A part of me has legit wondered if something happened to this person. They ghosted another person over $1 and it made zero sense why they would do that for next to nothing. 

[mtgraves7984 · Accepted solution]

Yes, you were naive. The instructions for Returns are shown in the Help & Contact pages... read up on them.

And I'm with the others that feel it's time to cut your losses. The legal action will far outweigh $600, and I'm not sure that an email (from someone you think isn't even using their real name) will be binding, anyway.

At this point, you're at the mercy of the person with your item. I'm sorry you had to go through this. Good luck...

[ripp_it_upp_sports_collectors]

Yeah. I think this is basically where I am at. 

[coffeebean832]

Sorry this is such an expensive lesson to learn. If you truly want to pursue legal action- find an attorney to consult with to see if you have any legs to stand on. Make sure they're well-versed with eBay's user agreement and policies because that's what the buyer would use to fight back.

Did you look up their shipping address to verify it's not a freight forwarder situation and an overseas buyer?

[kensgiftshop]

@ripp_it_upp_sports_collectors 

Sorry, once you refunded the buyer, it closed the case and there's nothing Ebay will do.

Depending on how you sent the money through Pay Pal, you might be able to open a case and get that money back, since they didn't use it to ship the item back.

[orangehound]

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@ripp_it_upp_sports_collectors wrote:

HOW DO I GO ABOUT TAKING LEGAL ACTION TO GET MY $600 BACK? PLEASE HELP ME!

---

Sorry about the loss ... I understand the anger and unfairness, but there are many situations on eBay where you don't have the power to make it right.   I fear this is your situation.

In all my years on eBay, I've seen sellers huff and puff about suing buyers, but I've never seen a seller actually be successful ... actually, I see them investigate the process and then give up.  So, this means that you probably won't get any real guidance on here as to how to successfully sue someone.   A better approach would be to scan some on-line articles.

Again, sorry for the loss.  It happens to all of us from time to time, and it leaves a real bad taste.

[fab_finds4u]

Opportunists exist.

You just paid $600 tuition in the school of hard knocks

 If he is not merely an opportunist but a good scammer as well he already sent an empty box or maybe some religious pamphlets to your neighbor and has a screenshot showing delivered to your city and zip.

It's not worthwhile to take him to court unless you live in his jurisdiction. And I think you'd lose anyway because you gave him the refund before you got the item back. 

[bonjourami]

' That's the logic....Its not right. If I have emails of someone confirming that they will send the goods back to me and they never do, that's a breach of contract'

An email is hardly a contract..they can be doctored.