Seller does not send article, wait

[aegvidu]

In mid September I won an auction for a plastic welder from a seller in my city. I paid the winning price plus postage  via Paypal straight away. After a few days I contacted the seller who told me he was away for 3 weeks and would post when he got back. I waited. And waited. Nothing happens. I reported it to eBay 25 October and contacted the seller.

  There was no reply from the seller. Today I get an email from PayPal saying the refund would be put into my account and that the case was closed. No explanation was given. I looked at case history - it had been closed by eBay .

The reason given was : 

We didn't receive valid tracking information from the seller.

Final decision:

The case has been closed in your favour.

So - case closed  as far as eBay is concerned! 

But I assure you not as far as I or the NSW Fair Trading Department are.

No explanation was given to me about valid reasons for the local seller not honouring a simple transaction! He has a legal obligation to supply the article won at auction. EBay has a legal obligation to make sure Sellers are genuine and provide a safe platform for these commercial transactions.

And no way to contact eBay directly to get an explanation or lodge a complaint..The wesbite has been deliberately set up to thwart any direct action with ebay itself. Which begs the question - why?  Too many dissatisfied customers.

My consumer rights have been breached and obviously eBay is not concerned about that. That's why we have Fair Trading and solicitors well versed in Commercial Torts though , isn't it?

It's not as though eBay can't get hold of the seller. I can give them his email address, name, address and phone number and the business he runs.

I do not want a refund. I want the article I bought and paid for.

What to do next?

[padi*0409]

Unfortunately there's not much you can do to force the seller to send your item, apart from leaving appropriate feedback.

Was the seller a new or inexperienced one? If so they probably took eBay's flawed advice to start the auction at 99 cents, not realising that any BIN they put on the item would dissappear when a bid was made. If that was the case then in reality it's eBay's flawed advice that's the problem.

In that situation I wouldn't leave any feedback and just let it go.

[digital*ghost]

The only option from here is to take the seller to court.

Not a lawyer, so I will not speak to your chances of getting the contract enforced.

[tazzieterror]

So what advice did NSW Fair Trading give you?

[kopenhagen5]

eBay is an advertising medium.

Similarly if you bought something from a classified newspaper and seller renegs.

You cannot expect the newspaper to assist.

It is between you and the seller. To pursue this via legal avenues would not be cost effective.

(I am involved in plastic welding, we run Bransons)

If you have the refund, move on and find another seller.

[springyzone]

How much was the item?

The main thing is you got your money back. You should be doing a happy dance. I had a couple of purchases back in the day before paypal where I not only didn't get my item, but I lost my money too.

I also knew the name & address of the seller but it was not a huge amount so not cost effective to try to pursue it legally, the seller was interstate anyway.

You would be shocked if you knew how many legal situations where you'd say' But the other person has a legal obligation to pay this or that or provide that service.. " but if they don't or won't do the right thing, you're left in the lurch because it is too costly to make a court case out of it.

Basically, you can't get blood out of a stone. The plastic welder may be long gone-the seller may have sold it elsewhere, given it away, broken it, decided to keep it, who knows.

The best paypal can do for you is at least give you your money back.

Be grateful, be very grateful as now you can at least afford to go buy elsewhere.

[*tippy*toes*]

There is no "legal" obligation anywhere. Please quote which law you are referring to when you mention legal obligation. I'd like to know. You can't force a seller to send the item. You got your money back, be grateful. You could take them to court, but you are looking at 5 grand minimum in legal costs. If you think you win and the seller is told to pay your legal costs, think again. The courts might tell them that, but they aren't forced to do so. Therefore, YOU will be out of pocket that money. The item would want to be worth over 10 grand to be worth going to court about.

Unless the seller is a registered business, then fair trading and consumer law don't come into it. You're wasting your time bleating about that and threatening them with it. Go to court and mention consumer law for someone who isn't a registered business and you instantly lose.

[tazzieterror]

Tippy, I respectfully disagree. A legally binding contract is formed between buyer and seller when a purchase is made on eBay. This has been tested and upheld in Australian courts on numerous occasions, and buyers have been successful in forcing sellers to honour a sale where the seller has otherwise tried to renege.

Whether or not its worthwhile pursuing is another thing, but to state there is no legal obligation here is incorrect.

[lyndal1838]

Are you referring to the aeroplane sale?   That was a one off incident and cannot be taken to be the same for all ebay sales.

[gec2002]

*tippy*toes* wrote:

There is no "legal" obligation anywhere.

I also disagree the seller and buyer have met the 4 requirements of a contract ie

Offer and acceptance (The seller offered it on eBay the buyer accepted)
Terms be agreed upon; (The seller agreed to the price and conditions of an ebay auction and said he would post, thereby agreeing it was sold)
Parties must intend to be legally bound ; (Seller accepted the terms eBay state when selling by offering the goods for sale)
and
Consideration, (Payment was made and accepted via Paypal)

There was a legal obligation, however enforcing it is another matter, but that doesn't mean there wasn't a valid legal obligation.