eBay

dogdoogoodgod · ‎09-02-2017

Hi all,

Looking for some advice here. I had someone win a week-long auction for a motherboard last week that was in perfect condition. At the end of the auction, he sends me a message saying he's not going to pay for it because "the funds were no longer in his paypal account". I told him that the auction is a binding contract and he needs to pay for it or I would be filing a non-paying bidder case. So after a couple messages back and forth, he pays for it.

Fast-forward to today, when low and behold, he wants to return it, claiming a bunch of pins are bent and it must have been because of how I packed it. I know this is 100% untrue, that he did the damage himself, and I really saw a problem coming with this.

He claims "The Motherboard socket has multiple bent pins and looks like at least one completely broken off, the Motherboard was shipped without a actual cpu cover and there was a bag that was taped down onto the bubble wrap that looks to have applied pressure to the cpu socket causing the bent pins" <-- there is no possible way the bag containing a couple small motherboard attachments caused this damage. None.

My question - is there anything I can do to have eBay side with me on this? All of the messages back and forth are in eBay, and I have photos of the motherboard out of packaging, as well as photos of it as I packed it. What can I do?? The email from eBay says "You can ask us to step in and help if there's a problem with the buyer's request.", but I don't see a way to do that.

The photos are at this link. The first bunch are mine, then the last three are his.

http://imgur.com/a/wEEDI

vintagecraze50 · ‎09-02-2017

Yes, it certainly is a binding contract to pay after yuo buy--BUT, I would have instructed the buyer to cancel this sale without hessitation since I would know TROUBLE would follow.

omgitlightsup · ‎09-02-2017

Those LGA pins are extremely sharp, and extremely fragile. The plastic cover that came with the motherboard says something like "do not ship without this cover in place." I always keep that piece and put it back in the box in case I ever have to ship the board.

If a pin so much as touches a piece of bubble wrap, it can pierce it, become lodged in there like a thorn, and pull away from the motherboard during unwrapping.

What the buyer claims is 100% plausible and reasonable. I know this because I've damaged motherboards the same way.

I also know that the motherboard probably still works, and that if you're careful, you can bend those pins back into position with a fine tweezer (well, not the broken-off one). I also know that eBay probably has no idea about any of this and would likely side with the buyer, especially since there was a plastic cover and it was not put in place before shipping.

Final answer: the board was improperly shipped, and there's not a lot you can do about that.

readabouthorses · ‎09-02-2017

If he didn't have the money I wonder how he plans to pay for the other stuff he was bidding on?

Sometimes I do wonder if these buyers who bid and win or BIN and then immediately ask to cancel are just trying to take a seller's item off the market because they are selling similar stuff?

Or have they bid on and won multiples of the same thing and now they are just deciding which one they want and then cancel the rest?

I always want to take them with me to a horse sale ... there you bid and win you better be ready to pay and load it up and take it home because if you don't you won't be buying anything at that sale ever again.

omgitlightsup · ‎09-02-2017

If you bid on a $100 item and then seconds later your dog got hit by a car and needed emergency vet care, and you only had barely enough money in your account, what would you do? Would you bother to ask your seller for an out? Or would you gather your kids around and compassionately explain to them that your collectible doll is a serious commitment and you need to be a responsible adult and make good on it, and that Fido will be in a better place?

I said this in another thread, but it's a piece of business knowledge that seems to be widely unknown in the consumer world, so I'll say it again. Binding contracts do not exist so that one party can force another to do something. They exist so that both parties know beforehand what will happen if either does not fulfill their obligation.

"Bids are binding" means that there are consequences to not paying (like account defects, restocking fees, etc). It doesn't mean that you're committing heart and soul to paying for that thing you bid on.

Every buyer might not have a good excuse, but if they have a good enough excuse to ask for help, you should at least consider it.

emerald40 · ‎09-02-2017

@readabouthorses wrote:
If he didn't have the money I wonder how he plans to pay for the other stuff he was bidding on?

Sometimes I do wonder if these buyers who bid and win or BIN and then immediately ask to cancel are just trying to take a seller's item off the market because they are selling similar stuff?

Or have they bid on and won multiples of the same thing and now they are just deciding which one they want and then cancel the rest?

I always want to take them with me to a horse sale ... there you bid and win you better be ready to pay and load it up and take it home because if you don't you won't be buying anything at that sale ever again.

Yes, which is why sellers should file non pay, and then block. Also, set your parameters to exclude those with 2 or more non pays.

So in a way it does restrict these people from buying and if more people did it, there would be little for them to purchase here.

readabouthorses · ‎09-02-2017

Yes, you can file unpaid and block but they will probably just get another ID. I once had a buyer use 7 different IDs trying to buy from me because I had blocked her for non-payment on multiple items. She didn't know many of us that sold the same thing had shared all the IDs she tried to use and I had already blocked 7 of them. She just couldn't take "no" for an answer.

ooak-tammy · ‎09-03-2017

You do understand that a buyer can pay in the 4 days between the opening and closing of the case? The buyer can also leave nasty feedback for you. You might want to just cancel the auction

coolections · ‎09-03-2017

@dogdoogoodgod wrote:
So in other words, I'm just screwed? Anyone can just go on eBay, buy something they don't want, break it, and return it at the seller's expense?

Unless you can prove the buyer damaged the item through an Ebay message that is pretty much true. It is the very reason why no one should force someone to buy something from them that they don't want to buy.

coolections · ‎09-03-2017

@vintagecraze50 wrote:
Yes, it certainly is a binding contract to pay after you buy.

Since the buyer did not pay, the seller will not ship the item, therefore he did not receive the item and is under no obligation to pay for the item. At least in Ebayland that is how it works. Even anywhere else you would have to take them to court.