Suing eBay

[keeniabowden510]

Buyer claims I sent empty box. Then decided in the buyers favor because he filed a police report. I try to appeal case but they simply won’t let me appeal. Now I had to shut down my business and I’ve been doing business on here since 2009. Has anybody sued eBay?

[gamersbaystore]

Each state has its own rules for how small claims court cases are allowed to work. I would agree its a lot easier to serve a legal summons and take someone to court when they're in your own state.

As for lawsuits against ebay, their own terms of service acknowledge your right to sue in small claims court.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/member-behaviour-policies/user-agreement?id=4259#18

What many don't realize is the arbitration agreement they agreed to with ebay does not override federal or state laws.

When dealing with an arbitrator, they're going to look at the user agreement; when dealing with a court of law, they're going to look at the laws.

The arbitrator is almost always going to side with ebay because the user agreement puts the liability on the seller, not ebay. But the law puts the liability on whoever violates the law. User agreements can still hold merit in a court of law though, at least to some degree.

[pburn]

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@hpenryessentials wrote:

eBay was just involved in a major lawsuit in April of 2020 when their own collection agency and a non-eBay user sued them for giving ICS completely inaccurate user metrics. The collections company ICS called a "seller" from lists that eBay provided them to try to collect on a past due selling account despite the person never having an eBay account or providing their phone number to eBay and not consenting to receiving phone calls to their personal cell phone (which eBay magically had the number to). 😂

He won. 

Michael Reid v. I.C. System, Inc., Court File No. 12-cv-02661-ROS

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@hpenryessentials 

You've either misinterpreted or misrepresented those documents and/or those two separate cases.

First of all, IC Systems is not eBay's "own collection agency." They are a totally private, independent collection agency hired by firms in dozens of industries to collect delinquent accounts receivable, including eBay and PayPal. They are not owned by eBay. To imply that IC Systems is owned by eBay is disingenuous at best.

Case #1

In 2012, Michael Reid sued IC System, Inc., for violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The parties reached a settlement out of court, and IC System was not required to admit any fault.

eBay was not named as  a party to that case.

Case #2

In April of 2020, in a completely separate case, IC Systems then sued eBay, claiming that eBay provided inaccurate customer data that caused IC Systems to be sued by Mr. Reid. That case was also settled with undisclosed terms in September of 2020.

So, no, eBay was not sued "by a non-eBay user" for anything.

[hpenryessentials]

You're wrong. I won't write a long diatribe about why (because I don't care enough about this to warrant that and this is semantics). The point is that anyone can sue eBay and they can win. It happens all the time.

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@hpenryessentials wrote:

You're wrong. I won't write a long diatribe about why (because I don't care enough about this to warrant that and this is semantics). The point is that anyone can sue eBay and they can win. It happens all the time.

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Anyone can sue anybody at any time for anything.  It all boils down to is it feasible financially and time wise, if the case is even accepted.

If someone is willing to spend years and  tens of thousands of dollars to prove a point, good for them. Most people can't.

[fab_finds4u]

That advice is not worth a plug nickel.  How can a buyer fight a not as described case?  They can't.  eBay will have them return the empty package for a refund. The OP WILL be FORCED to refund.  

[releasethekraken_1]

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@gamersbaystore wrote:

For the record, ebay gets sued constantly thru small claims court. If the item is less than $5K, I would recommend using small claims court.

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Feel free to provide links that prove your claim. It's extremely unlikely that people are constantly circumventing the arbitration clause to sue eBay the corporation in small claims court.

[pburn]

I'm not wrong, and I stand by every word of my post.

Michael Reid sued IC System. That's a fact. eBay was not sued by Michael Reid. That's a fact. eBay was sued by IC System. That, too, is a fact. None of those facts is related to a buyer or seller suing eBay.

It violates any sense of integrity when people misrepresent articles they read by twisting the facts to fit their narrative, which is what has been done in the inaccurate paraphrasing of the article regarding the lawsuit that was cited. Frankly, it makes anything else posted suspect. If a person will reshape those facts to fit an agenda, what else might that person be willing to misrepresent in future  posts?

[iart]

Average it out and add a disclaimer!

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@maxine*j wrote:

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@inhawaii wrote:

Sellers who came on these boards threatening to sue ebay:  22,912

Sellers who actually sued ebay: 0

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Well, rats!  Now I have to go count posts again, because I came up with 22,972.  

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[iart]

We've been on ebay even longer than you. I think I might be missing some pieces between the time your item sold and the time the buyer made the claim.

We've dealt with tens of thousands of buyers and I can't imaging any of them getting an empty box and immediately filing a police report. Their first actions would most probably have been to send you a very nasty message and then furiously phoning ebay about it.

So I'm either missing some parts in between or the person is a practiced scammer. Have they pulled this scam before in here?

[little*blackdog]

You should sue the buyer and file a police report against them for stealing your item!

[gopo-1]

I'm a seller and buyer. This happened to me for real  as a buyer. The item cost around $15 - $20 and happened last year. The seller just sent another one. In the last 20 year that was the first time and hope last.  Yes things happen but if they repeat  probably something is wrong. Post office weighed the package . If the item(package) was heavy  the buyer probably lie. In my case the item was very light. 

[americansignlanguageservicescommunity]

grandpas toy chest lied to ebay and eBay suspended our account over one seller's lies. The harm done to our new business over one seller lies is shocking as ebay never protected us as a seller, assumed the worse and killed all of our auctions without warning. Our buyers can't pay for what they have won, our hours and hours of labor lost over one seller lies?

Why were we not contacted by ebay to confirm or contest this fraud by one person? How can one man's lies, false accusations, and diarrhea mouth shut down our store?

Is this what buying and selling on ebay has come to? Not sure if they ebay support team for our store is what they say it is....

[inhawaii]

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@americansignlanguageservicescommunity wrote:

grandpas toy chest lied to ebay and eBay suspended our account over one seller's lies. The harm done to our new business over one seller lies is shocking as ebay never protected us as a seller, assumed the worse and killed all of our auctions without warning. Our buyers can't pay for what they have won, our hours and hours of labor lost over one seller lies?

Why were we not contacted by ebay to confirm or contest this fraud by one person? How can one man's lies, false accusations, and diarrhea mouth shut down our store?

Is this what buying and selling on ebay has come to? Not sure if they ebay support team for our store is what they say it is....

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What he said/she said infraction would cause ebay to suspend your account?

[hgfdg-1787]

I don’t think you can sue eBay (even if you had that kind of money), as you agreed to arbitration.

[hgfdg-1787]

it was a devastating blow