Purchase of caravan

[jaksensmummy]

I bid on a caravan and won. I rung the seller immediately to organise that I would be there to pick up item in a fortnight. There were no terms of the sale on eBay. The seller demanded a deposit to secure my purchase and I paid $500. In the description the caravan is REGISTERED UNTIL MARCH. I took my husband and father to view the caravan as we live just over an hour away. My husband and father took a look under the van and there is significant structural damage that is not mentioned in the description. The chassis is completely bent. In fact, from an engineer's point of view the whole structure would need to be rebuilt.

If I were to drive the van out of the driveway the police would put it off the road simply because it is unroadworthy. Therefore the caravan is not technically registered.

I had to ring the seller and tell him that I cannot purchase the van simply because of the unlisted damaged and the costs associated with restoring the van which was far more significant than described. The seller was incredibly rude and refuses to refund my deposit simply saying that he wrote "bidding is buying" on the bottom of his description. It's strange that he didn't respect that notion when I rang him to organise the logistics of picking up the van. Bidding obviously wasnt buying because he required money (and a substantial deposit I would say) to secure my purchase.

Now I am forced to take civil action in order to get my "deposit back" because he requested bank deposit. 😞

As a mother with a young family and a hearing impaired daughter on the Autism spectrum, we didn't have a lot of money to spend and the description was deceitful. I feel very flat!

[putney32]

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@jaksensmummy wrote:

Now I am forced to take civil action in order to get my "deposit back" because he requested bank deposit. 😞

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even if you paid the 'deposit' with PayPal you would have absolutely no protection as paypal specifically rule out any disputes on Pick Up Only items.   if it is pick up, it is NOT covered by Buyer or Seller protection.

[jaksensmummy]

I am not disputing that he said it needed work, but he should have wrote in the description about the chassis being completely bent and also the amount of leaks of the van. He said it was able to be towed and you couldn't tow that van. You wouldn't drive it out of the driveway.
In fact the whole entire caravan is on a lean because of the structural damage.

He had no terms in regards to picking up the van. If he wanted it picked up straight away he should have stipulated that in the listing.

He hasn't even acknowledged the payment of $500 on the eBay listing.

As for saying that we all have "tales of woe". Wow. Cheap shot. My daughter is not a "tale of woe". The fact remains that I cannot work because I care for her. I told him that I am really pushing to actually purchase the van (though doable) and he was content to sell me something that couldn't be towed despite saying it was registered. Registration is irrelevant.

That is the whole point. The actual damage to the van is not described adequately nor is it listed. The damage goes beyond his description. That is why so many of the replies have said that he was honest. He wasn't honest at all.

I am venting my disappointment at the lack of integrity and empathy of others.

[jaksensmummy]

Just so you know. We DO have medical bills.

We thought we were purchasing a van that we could at least tow home (which is what we were told) when in actual fact the caravan may as well be built from scratch.

[belindabargainhunter]

It's not that people don't have empathy for you but someone's finances don't really come into it. You made the choice to buy something worth a lot of money sight unseen.
Because he said that it needed work and had an accident that's enough to say it has things wrong with it.
I do wonder why you said you had to call him to cancel the sale when you went out to see it. Why didn't you talk to him about it while you were there.
Also why go have a look and not plan to pick it up at the same time. Or were you picking it up that day.
I think your best bet is to try and re sell.

[belindabargainhunter]

Again I'm sorry you have medical bills but for all you know the seller was selling the van because he had bills to

[jaksensmummy]

I had to look at it to make sure I could tow it back as we weren't sure if our car had the right attachments.

[jaksensmummy]

Anyway, thank you for the replies.

Ill cut my losses and move on.

[i-once-was-bump]

As for saying that we all have "tales of woe". Wow. Cheap shot. My daughter is not a "tale of woe". The fact remains that I cannot work because I care for her. I told him that I am really pushing to actually purchase the van (though doable) and he was content to sell me something that couldn't be towed despite saying it was registered

No nothing cheap about it, it has absolutely nothing to do with the transaction and why did you tell the seller that you were really pushing to actually purcahse the van? As a seller I would take that as someone trying to get me to drop the price out of pity.

You don't seem to realise that you are not the only one out there with problems so just stick to the transaction.

[springyzone]

I feel sorry for you in this situation but what is hitting me here is that you are only an hour away from this caravan, yet you didn't take that time to go and have a look before the auction finished.

If you're buying something expensive, and especially something that is listed as having some damage, I think it is always worth going to have a look in person. Some things you just don't buy over the internet alone.

That was mistake 1.

Mistake 2 was not making time to go pick up the caravan soon after the auction ended. If you had done that, you would not have had to pay a holding deposit and you could have had a look and said no, it isn't as I expected, and walked away.

From the sounds of it, the buyer wasn't deceptive about the state of the caravan but you thought it would be better than it is. From the seller's point of view, he may have had 12 other bidders and could have sold the caravan. You can bet those buyers won't necessarily be interested now, they will have moved on. So he will need to relist and may lose money if the bids don't do as well.

All the same, keeping the whole $500 is a bit over the top. An understanding seller could afford to split the difference, i would have thought.

[*crikey*mate*]

springy, as it stands, the seller may well take legal action against the buyer if they fail to pay for the van.

Until such time as a court order or a mutaual agreement ends the contract, the buyer is obligated to pay at the agreed time, to avoid being in breach of contract.

A seperate action then needs to be raised to determine if the seller is in breach of contract.

The seller has every right to request a deposit, but unless it was a term of sale when the contract was formed, the buyer was not obligated to accept. This in itself weakens their case further as now they have provided additional proof of intention to be legally bound.(unless there is an agreement that the deposit was refundable)

The buyer bid for 7 days, so they were aware of the auction for at least 7 days, they lived only 1 hour away so could have gone to inspect (which is what the guidelines in eBay advise, even if common sense does not prevail) and there were 15 other bidders on this auction, so really, the buyer is unlikely to have any leg to stand on, but they are the proud owners of a caravan which does not suit their needs. Now they just need to pay for it and take possession of it.