Seller refunded my payment

[frontline666]

Seller refunded a couple of hours prior to us meeting  for me to collect item.

I travelled interstate to do this as it was an expensive item.

Can I sue for breach of contract?

Cheers,

Ray

[*crikey*mate*]

yes

[lyndal1838]

You could only sue for the amount that you are out of pocket as the seller has refunded.  It would probably cost a lot more than the return airfare to go to court. 

Why would you fly interstate to pick up a watch that could be posted/couriered to you with full insurance for a lot less than the fares?

And you should not have paid in advance if you were going to pick up....what would happen if it was not as described?  You would not have been covered by paypal for a pickup item and neither would the seller.  That is probably the reason he refunded.

[frontline666]

He was charging $100 postage.

I paid via Paypal that day. Refund a couple of hours later

I flew $49 each way so that we could, together, take item to verify as genuine by the authorised Dealer.

This is called "due diligence".

I also immediately reported him to eBay

Cheers,

Ray

[*crikey*mate*]

actually Lyn, the purtpose of contract law is to put both parties into the position they would have been in had the contract been honoured.

Thus the court can order performance of the terms of the contract - ie the watch

Maybe the watch was of sentimental value - remember the silver platter from the Vic bush Fires? maybe the seller wouldn't post?

Why the buyer wants an item and the costs and lengths they are prepared to go to are irrelevant, the relevance is in honouring the terms of the contract.

One party cannot just refuse to honour the contract. A contract can only be terminated by mutual agreement, a legal resolution process or through the courts

[jerryman12a]

But you the buyer changed the terms of the contract which were initially that the item had a postage cost which you didn't like etc . So if the Seller refunded all they would need to justify legally was their original listing ?

I guess , either way now your out of money but maybe there was another way this should have been handled .

ie , in writing a new term of sale .

[chezzy]

Perhaps we will never know but perhaps the seller got 'cold feet' about the paypal payment, I mean it is a chunk of coin and one does hear about chargebacks and so on *shrugs*

As for postage cost, I would guess there is insurance built into that and I believe Australia Post charges $1.50 per $100 of value so do the sums...

[*crikey*mate*]

only some contracts need to be in writing. Buying a watch isn't one of them.

However, if there were negotiated terms after the contract, these are ok as long as both parties agreed to them.Technically, both parties have mutually agreed to dissolve the original contracvt and form another one with different terms.

The buyer asked - may I pick up. If the seller said no. Well then that's it. In this case it seems the seller led the buyer to believe that pick up was acceptable - thus we have mutual agreement.

If the seller was in agreeance and knew that the buyer had taken steps such as booking plane tickets etc, this will work in the buyers faviour to convince a court, as the buyer had commenced performance.

The dioscussion of meeting and taking the item for authentification together seems to suggest the seller was in agreeance.

besides - it is possible that all of this was in writing unless the seller and buyer negotiated these terms by phone?

[phorum_junkie*]

I don't get it. Why would you take the time and pay $98 to fly plus presumably the cost of getting to and from the airports with no Paypal buyer protection to save $100 in postage with full Paypal buyer protection?

[*crikey*mate*]

what's there to get?

The buyer chose to do that.

They were apparently going to get the watch authenticated together...

*cue spooky music*

maybe, many years ago, the buyer had a similar watch which was stolen, and he has found this one, believes it is his and needs to see it to determine authenticity and hand the matter over to the police

Who knows? and why does it matter?

Maybe he didn't realize he would have no PayPal protection for a pick up item

Maybe he is counting on the chargeback factor?

Maybe he believes that people are genuinely good and if the item is NAD, the seller will willingly refund him

etc