Making formal legal complaint against eBay, any advice?

[clubcar]

We are a Golf Cart business that operates a showroom and our own industry leading website. We advertise vehicles on our website, eBay as well as Facebook and sometimes even Instagram.

I recently advertised a Petrol golf cart which are very rare. We listed this item on eBay and received a few messages. The vehicle was on display in our showroom. We received a few messages from customers in regional areas asking about delivery costs to various areas. One customer sent a phone number (I did not ask for it or respond to their message). In the meantime, as often happends, a customer came in and bought it. So I ended the item on eBay as it was no longer available.

Now we are suspended from eBay for selling the item outside of eBay - when I queried this with eBay, they say, we were suspended from eBay because sharing contact details is not allowed - At no point did we share any details, at no point did we request any details. At no time did we reply to the customer who sent their details. When I asked how we can be responsible for what other people say, their arrogant response is simply "we understand but the decision is final". So now we are suspended because of something a customer did and may do again. Obviously it is impossible for us to be res

What is the best way to make a formal complaint against eBay? Is it worth contracting a solicitor? Anyone had any success on making a complaint through the ombudsman?

[brerrabbit585]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

Just as a general aside...

It sounds like ending a listing after getting an enquiry might be what triggers the problem.

There are other ways to make an item unavailable on eBay without ending a listing - I wonder if that would make any difference...

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That's what I was thinking.

@ stawks, anyone can write a receipt, and unless you have the buyer's details on the receipt it proves nothing.  Do you give out your name (and address & phone number) every time you buy something from a shop, and do you sign something to say you bought it?  It could still be related to ebay even if it did have a different name on it.

[collect247]

It don't matter no more as OP has quit ebay.

[digital*ghost]

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@brerrabbit585 wrote:

@ stawks, anyone can write a receipt, and unless you have the buyer's details on the receipt it proves nothing.  Do you give out your name (and address & phone number) every time you buy something from a shop, and do you sign something to say you bought it?  It could still be related to ebay even if it did have a different name on it.

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In a court of law, though, isn't the onus on the accuser to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that what they allege is true, while the defendent just has to show it's possible the allegations aren't true in order to meet the requirement of reasonable doubt (or is that just a product of watching too many Law & Order episodes?)

There is no way eBay could ever do that in such a case - especially because if it was the other way around, the defendant would be asked to prove a negative, which is (for the most part) logically and categorically impossible. 

That is what puts their policy on very shaky ground, legally speaking (at least, in my personal opinion speaking as someone who has had no education whatsoever in the legal field, except for TV and google ). 

[collect247]

Like I've said all along ebay needs to be the ones that have to prove OP sold outside of ebay while listing on ebay which they never did as the buyer bought it off the showroom floor.

Well OP has decided to show ebay what they think of the whole stinking thing.

[brerrabbit585]

Maybe it was ebay that closed them down and removed their listings for getting too many messages. You're jumping to conclusions again when you say it was the OP's decision to shut up shop on ebay, but I guess being positive that's the case is all the proof needed.

As for the onus of proof, if the OP wants to take ebay to court then they (the OP) become the accuser, not ebay, and it's up to them to prove either that what ebay did was illegal or that they sold it to someone completely different.  

[collect247]

Sorry but OP was the victim ebay was the accuser so OP can then of course take ebay to court for wrongful allegations.

Ebay would need to prove OP was in the wrong, by the way OP was stating what had happened.

I'd personally be going after ebay but that's just me.

And when is what ebay ever do not illegal seriously ebay are the biggest law unto themselves if I ever saw one lol.

[digital*ghost]

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@brerrabbit585 wrote:

As for the onus of proof, if the OP wants to take ebay to court then they (the OP) become the accuser, not ebay, and it's up to them to prove either that what ebay did was illegal or that they sold it to someone completely different.  

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The issue with the legality of the policy itself is that eBay hand out the sentence as though their allegations are true, without allowing any evidence to be entered in to the contrary (i.e. I was transposing the policy and consequences themselves to a court scenario).

Proving unfair treatment on that basis alone (not allowing any input from the accused to defend themselves) should be a walk in the park. 

[collect247]

Well I'm connected in some way and I know what has happened but "mums the word" and for legal reasons I can say no more. 

[brerrabbit585]

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@collect247 wrote:

Sorry but OP was the victim ebay was the accuser so OP can then of course take ebay to court for wrongful allegations.

Ebay would need to prove OP was in the wrong, by the way OP was stating what had happened.

I'd personally be going after ebay but that's just me.

And when is what ebay ever do not illegal seriously ebay are the biggest law unto themselves if I ever saw one lol.

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If the OP challenges ebay in the courts they become the plaintiff and they still have to prove certain things.  You can't take someone to court and say, "You as the defendant have to prove what you did was right and I don't have to prove a thing."  They'd get laughed out of court if they did that.

[brerrabbit585]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@brerrabbit585 wrote:

As for the onus of proof, if the OP wants to take ebay to court then they (the OP) become the accuser, not ebay, and it's up to them to prove either that what ebay did was illegal or that they sold it to someone completely different.  

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The issue with the legality of the policy itself is that eBay hand out the sentence as though their allegations are true, without allowing any evidence to be entered in to the contrary (i.e. I was transposing the policy and consequences themselves to a court scenario).

Proving unfair treatment on that basis alone (not allowing any input from the accused to defend themselves) should be a walk in the park. 

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The plaintiff (OP) would have to prove ebay's terms of their user agreement are illegal in order to prove that they were treated unfairly by not being given a chance to defend themselves, as the terms clearly state that ebay may charge fees if it sells outside ebay.  Even if the OP sold the item through their shop, who's to say the person who bought it didn't originally see it on ebay and knowing who the seller was they decided to go and have a look at it?  Or someone else may have seen it on ebay and told a friend, who told another friend, and eventually this person got to hear about it - all because of the ebay listing - and then it sold.  It wouldn't be at all easy to prove that the sale didn't occur because of it being listed on ebay.