Hi all,

So my girlfriend bought a piece of furniture off ebay, paid by paypal and collected the item. Once the item was in the house we noticed two cracks in one of the doors, it looked like the door had been open onto something and the corner had snapped off. It had been repaired but was still visilble when inspected closely. None of this was mentioned on the item description so we contacted the seller and offered to return the item in exhcange for a refund. This was refused and various abusive emails from the seller to us then followed. My girlfriend left negative feedback stating ‘Item not as described, seller dishonest’. The seller now tells us to expect a court summons for libel as we have damaged her business. WTF?

I guess we should have spent more time looking at the item when we collected it, lesson learnt.

Anyway, the girlfriend is fairly worried about this, but I’m guessing the seller is just talking big and trying to scare her into remove the negative feedback? What do you reckon, anything to worry about?

Someone telling you to expect a court summons for libel, and actually receiving a court summons for libel are two very very different things.

Have you seen the costs involved? 😯

Tell him to eff off

Ignore it and then hit the seller with a small claims action for refund and time / expenses?

Hot air from a seller, nothing to worry about

A reply of fine, see you there should do it.

However using words like dishonest is not a good start… Offer to remove dishonest and replace with would not refund item not as described if you need to.

Tell him to eff off

Personally, I’d just stop all communication.

Had some bloke making threats over an old Land Rover he bought from me via ebay ending with ‘you’ll be hearing from my lawyers’. I just emailed back saying I’d pass anything further he or his solicitors sent onto my solicitors and they’d deal with it. Never heard another thing.

double edged sword this one.

collection in person and then leaving negative feedback is bad crack. you had a chance to turn it down there and then

whos to say you didnt drop it moving it from the house

as for the court action …. tell her to spin.

worst case – new ebay account for you.

is the seller registered as a business with the tax man?

If they have sold something that is not as described tell them you’ll get trading standards involved. That should shut them up and make them more willing to give you a refund. Ebay isn’t excempt from the normal trading laws.

I think its time to name and shame them now, then send them a link to the post 😉

sue for libel for leaving negative feedback on ebay? hahahahahahahahaha.

collection in person and then leaving negative feedback is bad crack. you had a chance to turn it down there and then

And does it count as distance selling if picked up in person? Surely it’s sold as seen?

Email back with “Thanks for your last correspondence I’ve passed it on to my solicitor he is looking forward to hearing from you.”

Personally, I’d be letting ebay know that he’s using threats to attempt to manipulate their feedback system.
And looking at small claims courts for the refund.

Edit: and as nobody’s mentioned them yet – bombers and shoes.

would be very low down my list of things to GAS about and doubt anythin will happen ever about it

If it’s a threat, just totally ignore it.

If you get a £50 solicitor’s letter requesting you to remove the negative feedback, and threatening to recover the costs… also just totally ignore it.

If you get more than that, then I’d leave negative feedback indicating that they threaten legal action, and report to ebay.

IANAL, but I know many people that have received such letters from solicitors, and most framed them as a souvenir.

edit: I lie – one acquaintance did do the “see you in court” thing (since his reputation had been harmed by the seller’s abusive legal threats), and won a undisclosed damages in excess of £19,999.

Surely the feedback system is there for issues like this? Dont really understand how the OP could get in trouble for using the system as intended.

paid by paypal

Can’t you claim your money back from the toerag then?

Ignore the libel threat, tell your missus a bloke on the internet said they would get laughed out of court.

Drac – Moderator
Email back with “Thanks for your last correspondence I’ve passed it on to my solicitor[i]Big Frank who works doors in the local club[/i] he is looking forward to hearing from you.”

FIFY

Just a thought though, some furniture is repaired at the factory if small defects are present so it IS possible the seller did not know of the small (repaired) defect.

I have a couple of pieces of furniture (rustic style) with minor repair work from ‘new’ – I just take it as part of the character.

she’s stated in correspondence which i hope you’ve kept a copy of that i’ts harmed her business, is she trading on ebay as a registered business? can a business threaten customers like that? i’ve never known any real business threaten customers for not being happy customers!

Claim your money back through Paypal.

Once it’s refunded, tell the seller to come and collect or send a courier to collect.

Job done.

(Although you collected in person, so Paypal could fairly easily tell you to Do one.)

Hot air from a seller,

I am that seller and I am suing you in the Supreme Court of the World for libel and defenestration for saying that things I say are hot air.

Claim your money back through Paypal.

Once it’s refunded, tell the seller to come and collect or send a courier to collect.

Job done.

this would be my primary course of action. Are you putting all communications though the ebay message system? They can read it all. You have offered to return for refund, they told you shove it. Pretty sure ebay will come down on your side…

At least you’ve got exhibit #1 to present to the court.

reply with ‘Lol’

Ask their their solicitor if they laminate or frame their certificate?

😉

ha! Even if someone did the paper work and paid the court fee, they’d never issue a summons, just throw the thing out.

In fact, why don’t you point them to the forms…
http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/forms
and offer a few words of advice to help them waste their money.

I once got threatened with legal action as someone had trademarked my username on a forum 🙂

Did they have to make do with “bellend” instead?

Claim your money back through Paypal.

Once it’s refunded, tell the seller to come and collect or send a courier to collect.

Job done.

(Although you collected in person, so Paypal could fairly easily tell you to Do one.)

I personally would go down this road but once you get your funds, deliver it back to the seller. I wouldn’t want someone who seems to be slightly unhinged knowing where I live.

The seller has almost no protection via Paypal having allowed collection. A dishonest buyer could claim ‘item not received’ and the seller would have no recourse and the funds would be returned to the buyer.

collection in person and then leaving negative feedback is bad crack. you had a chance to turn it down there and then whos to say you didnt drop it moving it

This would be key for me. You picked up the item, which was open to inspection and then left -ve feedback. Seller may well have had threats of -ve feedback from people ‘trying it on’ (as I have and I’m a tiny occasional seller) and is quite rightly protecting her business.

As said above, go via Paypal, they seem quite keen on taking the buyers side and Ebay may also take her abusive emails seriously.

Suing for libel re feedback is quite funny though 😀

Your girlfriend is right to be worried, she is very likely to end up in a dark prison cell for the rest of her days. Fortunatly for her, she is in luck as the seller is a close Nigerian friend of mine. I can contact him to resolve this but I will need US$10,000,000 to sort out some admin guff.

Let me know if you would like to take me up on this kind offer

Refer the seller to the reply given in Arkell v. Pressdram:
http://jackofkent.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/reply-given-in-arkell-v-pressdram.html

Good call 😀

sas – Member

Refer the seller to the reply given in Arkell v. Pressdram:
http://jackofkent.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/reply-given-in-arkell-v-pressdram.html
Proper lol at that!

Or a version of this lawyerly letter linked from the Private Eye story:

http://nylawblog.typepad.com/legalantics/2011/01/sometimes-lawyers-are-actually-funny.html

You could suggest politely that something similar has happened to her email account?

Personally, I’d be letting ebay know that he’s using threats to attempt to manipulate their feedback system.

OK, I just about managed to pick myself off the floor from laughing too hard.

I has a seller e-mail me to say he refused to give me positive feedback until I’d left him positive feedback for the item. I DON’T DO feedback trading, it ruins the whole system, so I left him neutral feedback and explained why nicely.

He complained to eBay and got it removed!

So, eBay don’t want honest feedback, they want everyone to have good feedback so eBay looks like a safe place to do business.

Depends if it’s US or UK law. – I’d be careful if it’s UK law as libel law is a very ancient one that hasn’t been changed for many years. If libel can be proved it could be very costly. Google libel law and you’ll see for yourself. Also, I’m sure I heard of a case whereby an ebay member sued for libel – you could google that too.

As for getting your money back, if it was described as new you’ve got a great chance. If not, you might struggle to get a refund. Distance selling rules only apply if you haven’t had sight of the item you bought. Good Luck!

Someone did that to me off here .. threatening and intimidating tactics are unacceptable. Do not make contact, ignore any contact. Guarantee they will go away!!