Ebay member lased-65

[Peter Brydon]

My grandfather Richard Hodson Carter finished up WW1 in the 4th Suffolk Regiment so when I saw a 4th Suffolks badge on Ebay I bid £5 on it and was pleased when I won it.

After a week or so with no sign of the badge I contacted the seller , who says he/she is selling some badges for their father, they say they didnt know the badge had been relisted when it didnt sell the first time and that was the reason for the delay but they also said because I had NOT paid by Paypal family and friends ( as they says I should have paid ) they will be out of pocket and were thinking or giving me a refund.

After more time and still nothing from the seller, I decided to refer the matter to Ebay who opened a case and yesterday I was eventually refunded by someone called Laura Seddon.

Having never received the badge I have no idea if it was genuine or not but there is certainly one ebayer whose lots I wont be bidding on in the future.

P.B.

[leigh kitchen]

An eBay seller who demands "Friends and Family" PayPal payments, I've never come across that.
Presumably the seller was expecting a much better price as losing PayPal's cut from £5 shouldn't cause them too much financial hardship.

[High Wood]

There is no automatic right to be paid by paypal friends and family and ebay prefer that you don't when selling on their forum.

What stinks is that you won the badge fairly and squarely and the seller then decided that he didn't want to sell it at the price realised. A contract was entered into and the contract was broken by the seller and he has got off Scot free with no loss to himself.

Ebay seem to take the easy way out by refunding your money but make no sanctions on the seller.

[mike_vee]

Did the listing actually state "Friends and Family" ?

The reason I ask is that you would need the sellers e-mail address to make the payment and officially you are not allowed to include that in any messages sent through eBay.

Occasionally listings state that you should not pay until you receive an invoice but even then the message come through the eBay system and only includes their eBay address not their personal e-mail.

[Peter Brydon]

Thanks for the responses, some interesting messages attached if they are legible.

P.

[MH331]

I am not aware that you can pay using FandF under any circumstances on ebay otherwise the practice would be rife. It seems either a seller lacking knowledge or disingenuously they did not get the asking price so made up some lame excuse. If they had to make sure that their Dad? did not lose out then a fixed start price is the option.

It seems like a seller who lacks the integrity to honour a transaction that did not go their way.

[mike_vee]

Seller didn't know item was relisted - Either they did it themselves or allowed someone else access to their account . (Data protection ?)

Seller made a loss - They didn't set a reserve price.

"Sellers can choose to add a reserve price when listing an item in an eBay auction. A reserve price is the minimum amount the seller is willing to sell for, so if the reserve price isn't met, the item won't be sold."

Seller admits they made a mistake - Buyer should not be penalised.

Seller wanted paid via "Family and Friends" - Buyer is neither family or friend.

Seller violated eBay policy : "They didn't intend to complete the sale"

In my opnion eBay should close their account.

I don't think you can pay friends and family via ebay, especially if you don't have their email address. I think as ebay own paypal it's part of their 10% fee. Possibly worth reporting them for trying to get around it, if required. I think the only way to get round it is if you are able to take card payments, but even that might use paypal! Regards Mark

[altcar73]

Its academic, but I understand that eBay no long "own" PAYPAL.

Dave.

[akiko]

Originally Posted by mike_vee

Seller didn't know item was relisted - Either they did it themselves or allowed someone else access to their account . (Data protection ?)

Seller made a loss - They didn't set a reserve price.

"Sellers can choose to add a reserve price when listing an item in an eBay auction. A reserve price is the minimum amount the seller is willing to sell for, so if the reserve price isn't met, the item won't be sold."

Seller admits they made a mistake - Buyer should not be penalised.

Seller wanted paid via "Family and Friends" - Buyer is neither family or friend.

Seller violated eBay policy : "They didn't intend to complete the sale"

In my opnion eBay should close their account.

Ebay closing the account won't stop them from opening another one under a different email address. Ebay doesn't seem to worry about IP addresses and anyway a good VPN gets around that.

[akiko]

Originally Posted by altcar73

Its academic, but I understand that eBay no long "own" PAYPAL.

Dave.

Yep they sold it in 2015. Elon Musk was one of the founders of PayPal.

[tynesideirish]

Peter, you should have sued for breach of contract.

[Alex Rice]

Interesting that on the one hand the seller claims to be selling for her father, but then on the other hand claims to have 'lost money on it', which implies they bought it in the first place...
Cheers,
Alex

[mike_vee]

Originally Posted by akiko

Ebay closing the account won't stop them from opening another one under a different email address. Ebay doesn't seem to worry about IP addresses and anyway a good VPN gets around that.

What it would do is remove any feedback/reputation they had. As a "new" seller they would probably be under a bit more scrutiny from experienced buyers.

[Peter Brydon]

Thanks everyone for their input.

P.B.