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

rschissler · ‎09-02-2017

The biggest mistake you made was not offering to cancel the sale at the beginning. "Binding contract," come on.

dogdoogoodgod · ‎09-02-2017

Yeah, definitely lesson learned there.

dogdoogoodgod · ‎09-02-2017

And yes, binding contract.

You are responsible for reading the full item listing before making a bid or commitment to buy. You enter into a legally binding contract to purchase an item when you commit to buy an item, your offer for an item is accepted, or if you have the winning bid (or your bid is otherwise accepted).

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/user-agreement.html

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-02-2017

Forcing a sale when a buyer has asked for a cancel can create situations like this.

DO NOT ask Ebay to step in; Ebay wants sellers to resolve their issues themselves; they do not want to step in. You will receive a very serious defect, case closed without seller resolution, if you do, and that counts towards possibly losing your selling privleges.

You can ask them to return for refund, you will pay for the return. And refund the buyer for original shipping and item cost when item tracking shows delivered. This is automatic.

You do not want to give the buyer time to escalate this and ask ebay to step in; again, you would get a serious defect.

Good luck.

odditiesandantiquities1 · ‎09-02-2017

@rschissler wrote:
The biggest mistake you made was not offering to cancel the sale at the beginning. "Binding contract," come on.

Cancel an Order

A bid or commitment to buy on eBay is considered a contract and you're obligated to purchase the item....

Apparently eBay sees it as a contract too.

emerald40 · ‎09-02-2017

@dogdoogoodgod wrote:
And yes, binding contract.

You are responsible for reading the full item listing before making a bid or commitment to buy. You enter into a legally binding contract to purchase an item when you commit to buy an item, your offer for an item is accepted, or if you have the winning bid (or your bid is otherwise accepted).

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/user-agreement.html

It is only binding when someone enforces it. Ebay does not.

dogdoogoodgod · ‎09-02-2017

@castlemagicmemories wrote:
Forcing a sale when a buyer has asked for a cancel can create situations like this.

DO NOT ask Ebay to step in; Ebay wants sellers to resolve their issues themselves; they do not want to step in. You will receive a very serious defect, case closed without seller resolution, if you do, and that counts towards possibly losing your selling privleges.

You can ask them to return for refund, you will pay for the return. And refund the buyer for original shipping and item cost when item tracking shows delivered. This is automatic.

You do not want to give the buyer time to escalate this and ask ebay to step in; again, you would get a serious defect.

Good luck.

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?

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-02-2017

While ebay sees it as a contract, too, they also provide a means to cancel. T

this is what can happen when you deny a buyer's request to cancel, so for your own good, it can be best to just cancel per their request. You don't get a defect for that, as long as you have a message from the buyer stating this, and you can avoid a very messy situation such as you now have.

Possibly item sustained damage in transit. Or buyer still does not want this item, and is making claim to achieve that. Having sent you pictures suggests buyer is sincere. He doesn't HAVE to send pictures.

So you may or may not get your item back.

emerald40 · ‎09-02-2017

@dogdoogoodgod wrote:
@castlemagicmemories wrote:
Forcing a sale when a buyer has asked for a cancel can create situations like this.

DO NOT ask Ebay to step in; Ebay wants sellers to resolve their issues themselves; they do not want to step in. You will receive a very serious defect, case closed without seller resolution, if you do, and that counts towards possibly losing your selling privleges.

You can ask them to return for refund, you will pay for the return. And refund the buyer for original shipping and item cost when item tracking shows delivered. This is automatic.

You do not want to give the buyer time to escalate this and ask ebay to step in; again, you would get a serious defect.

Good luck.

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?

_____________________________________________________

To be perfectly honest, yes. And ebay will tell you it is the cost of doing business like the 5 finger discount is to B&M stores.

dogdoogoodgod · ‎09-02-2017

@castlemagicmemories wrote:
While ebay sees it as a contract, too, they also provide a means to cancel. T
this is what can happen when you deny a buyer's request to cancel, so for your own good, it can be best to just cancel per their request. You don't get a defect for that, as long as you have a message from the buyer stating this, and you can avoid a very messy situation such as you now have.

Possibly item sustained damage in transit. Or buyer still does not want this item, and is making claim to achieve that. Having sent you pictures suggests buyer is sincere. He doesn't HAVE to send pictures.

So you may or may not get your item back.

Well, he has to return it if he wants a refund (if I choose that route). But I also have to pay for return shipping. I may just cut my losses and issue the refund and let him keep the product he broke because it's now unsellable.

It was not damaged in transit. He's claming the damage was done by a plastic bag containing a few small motherboard attachments (weighing less than an ounce) that were sitting on top of a bubble-wrapped and anti-static bag-wrapped motherboard that was inside a box, inside another box. In order for it to have been damaged in transit, something would have to penetrate about 5-6 inches and two separate cardboard boxes. This is sabotage, 100%.

mg152 · ‎09-02-2017

You may get an old motherboard a brick or a dirty sock. Always cancel when the buyer asks.

Patricia
eBay member for 25 years

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-02-2017

So sorry.

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-02-2017

Well, no offense, OP, but in all fairness, they did try to cancel.

kattinsanity · ‎09-02-2017

You say that as soon as the auction ended he contacted you to let you know he wasn't going to pay for it because the funds weren't in his pay pal account? Buyers have the right to ask to cancel a transaction within an hour of winning the item. Your buyer was within ebays time frame of one hour.

What you should have done is cancel the sale and use "buyer requested to cancel" as the reason for cancelling and you would have gotten your FVF back. IF a sale was a totally binding contract ebay wouldn't give YOU (the seller) the option to cancel the transaction because a buyer requested for it to be cancelled. It isn't as "binding a contract" as sellers appear to believe it is.