Ebay buyer "cant afford it" - how cross should I be?

[ChrisLD364]

Should I just let this wash over me or am I justified suing the pants off him?

I sold our non runner to a man from Dudley for £1750. A fair price. He bid on eBay and won. He even rang me straight away and said he'd arrange transport for the following weekend (last weekend). Come Friday I'd heard no more and 'phoned back. The 'phone's his father in laws who went and collared him. "He hasn't got the money". Short discussion along the lines of "he shouldn't have bid" etc. He quite agreed but that's no help to me.

Fortunately one of the other bidders is well known to me. As I have a strange eBay name and he didn't know it was me and came to look. He didn't win but I gave him the opportunity to buy and it's now gone for £1500. He's coming to pay and collect on Friday.

So I'm not much out of pocket and £1500 was the minimum I would have accepted. However an eBay bid is just as legally binding as any at a "real" auction. I know I can sue him for the £250 loss I've incurred. But whether I'd ever get my money and the costs back are more questionable. Actually I probably would as I've used the Small Claims Court many times and I could get an attachment of earnings order because I know where he works. But is it worth the grief?

The £250 would have been nice and would have meant I wouldn't have lost much on the car - but in the scheme of Stag ownership isn't a lot. Part of me wants to make his life as difficult as possible and teach him a lesson. The other part says that's life and there are millions of plonkers out there who just don't realise that their actions on a computer have real life consequences. I'd always said that there was a greater than 50% chance that who won wouldn't complete. I've heard of stories of cars been listed 3 times before a "real" buyer was found.

I bet there are many on here with a similar experience. Did you let it go or did you kick up a fuss?

Chris.

[XFSTag]

Hi Chris
I had a similar experience when selling the fuel injection kit I had built for my Westfield. Once I sold the Westy I stuck the parts on eBay as a complete kit. I sold it for around £500 which was a fair reflection of the parts so was fairly happy. The buyer contacted me shortly afterwards to say he was having difficultly raising the money and would I like to re list it! I wrote him a short but firm response and told him I would be a. Reporting him to eBay b. leaving feedback to ensure no one else dealt with him
he then sent me half the payment and asked to give him a few days to get the rest. After a week or two I had received the full amount owed plus the postage .. I gave it a few days to ensure the payment was confirmed and despatched the items.
eBay does attract a lot of idiots on both sides of the process. I have also turned up to collect and pay for items that are definitely not as described so have seen it from both angles
my only advice to you is if you are satisfied with the sale deal wih him via eBay and limit it to that ... Life is too short to raise your blood pressure and knock a few years off your life expectancy over this sort of thing
hope this helps
glyn

[Andy Rundell]

I'd put it down to experience, bank the £1500 and move on, frankly life us too short to prolong the hassle. eBay is always be a bit of a lottery.

......... Andy

[Guest]

I agree with Andy. Shame there's idiots like that around and it's harder to give negative feedback, but you need to warn others.

[Ian Durrant]

IIRC a seller can't neg a buyer any more. Stupid state of affairs frankly I don't know why they changed it.

[Stocky]

It's a real PITA but at least you have some cash in the bank. A re-list may not have achieved even that much. As above, I think life is too short to get too worked up about it. Make sure you report it to eBay as a non-payer so you get some of the fees back. It's a pity you can't give negative feedback as a seller.

[ChrisLD364]

Guys

Thanks for the advice. I've swung one way and then the other over the weekend and come to the same conclusion. Just report him to eBay and move on.

At least this way I'll see the car done up - and probably get to run out with it once on the road.

Cheers

Chris.

[Seaking]

I brought a new gas boiler on ebay but the seller had already sold it. no i did not pay for it but seller got really up tight about it with e mails then asked me to cancel the sale i refused and he got billed by ebay for sellers fees lol.

Cheers Glenn

[ChrisLD364]

Just reported him to eBay but first put a feedback comment on so that'll go on his record. He can't now give me negative feedback as I've opened a case on him. It wasn't his first bad feedback either - he'd refused to sell a car previously. I should get my fee back.

It's a shame that the world is so full of people who have no sense of reality.

Still - I've got one good working Stag and come Spring I'm dam well going to enjoy it. I've worked too hard since I became self employed 5 years ago. I'll be 50 next year and I'm not going to work as hard in my last working decade.

Chris

[Ian Durrant]

I've worked too hard since I became self employed 5 years ago. I'll be 50 next year and I'm not going to work as hard in my last working decade.

Chris

Oh I completely empathise with that comment! (Though I am 50 the following year)

[Jeff]

Just reported him to eBay but first put a feedback comment on so that'll go on his record. He can't now give me negative feedback as I've opened a case on him. It wasn't his first bad feedback either - he'd refused to sell a car previously. I should get my fee back.

It's a shame that the world is so full of people who have no sense of reality.

Still - I've got one good working Stag and come Spring I'm dam well going to enjoy it. I've worked too hard since I became self employed 5 years ago. I'll be 50 next year and I'm not going to work as hard in my last working decade.

Chris

I sold a small boat beginning of Summer and the young lady winner asked me if I wanted payment by Paypal or cash when she picked it up, I went for the cash to save paypal fees.

Time to pick it up and she asked me if I could deliver it (locally) I said I couldn't as I didn't have a tow bar and it was advertised to be collected. She then e mailed me and said she didn't want it now as the mooring fees were more than she thought they would be.

Reported to e bay and all they did was to log it against her, so if she did it again they would suspend her account. All she would have to do is re join as a newby and start again...no justice.

Word of warning, take payment by Paypal, bird in the hand etc., etc..

[jleyton]

and the young lady winner ......... bird in the hand etc., etc..

Sounds like you took payment in kind Jeff

Just kidding.

Cheers

Julian

[paul.twyman]

Hi all and Seasons greetings to you all.

This is life unfortunately.

I had a similar issue when I actually bought my Stag on ebay. I went to look at the car and told the chap what I was happy to pay. I then bid £2750 and won. I called him and he said there was no way in hell I was having the car for what I bid and I could have it for £3500. I referred it to ebay and they spoke to him. I suspect they threatened to close his account ( he had over 1000 brownie points) because he was back on the phone to me with 2 hours and he agreed to sell it to me for the price I effectively won it for.

Ebay is always going to be risky when it comes to selling or even buying cars. The values are relatively high and there are some bad people out there. On the whole however there are hundreds if not thousands of honest people out there. We only hear about the bad deals.

I wouldn't have minded but he was a police officer.

me.

[wilf]

I dislike using eBay for all the reasons shown above. People are just a waste of space sometimes, and I hate having my time wasted.

[Stagdad]

Just sold a car this week on eBay ,I think it was one of the easiest transactions regarding car selling that I've ever had.i remember back in the day of waiting until Thursday morning for the traider to come into the newsagents ,quickly looking through it and arrange to look at cars only to be one of many when I had got there.at least you can look and reject the car nowadays without leaving the house.I made a pretty comprehensive video of my car for sale which I think stopped any confusion as to its condition.I do agree that sellers not being able to give bad feedback is wrong.
Cheers Steve