So, earlier this week I enquired about a car for sale on eBay. In the description, the seller (decent feedback) asked people to get in touch or come and view the car before trying to buy it.

A phone and text conversation ensued, in which the seller agreed to an offer of £1300 for the car. He said that if a £300 deposit was paid, he would end the auction and reserve the vehicle. This was 19:00 last Tuesday. At 20:00 I paid a £300 deposit via Paypal (not gift) and informed him. he said the money was received and that he would end the auction in the morning…

After a sleepless night, HPI checks and some Googleing on the seller, I decided that I maybe made a mistake. As the auction was still running I called the seller and explained, he agreed to refund the deposit, but said it would be Friday as his wife had spent it already…Friday comes and nothing happens, I called again and he said he would do it on Monday…the car is still up for auction at this point.

Monday comes, the auction is ended early (presumably sold) and for more than I originally offered.

I contacted the seller to ask again for my deposit and he replied stating that
deposits were non-refundable and that he took a loos on the car and it was my fault.

Had he told me that the £300 was non-refundable, I’d have continued with the purchase and simply sold it on, he didn’t, he agreed to refund.

So, back to the original point…what’re my chances of getting my £300 back?

Nil?

A phone and text conversation ensued

That’s where any claim may well fall over

Tea + biscuits… now finger drumming.

I’d say pretty good – paypal should side with you. Just keep all emails / records of calls etc and put a claim in
The key issue is that he didn’t end the auction early.

Can you open a PP dispute?

explain to paypal you paid 300 quid as part of a car – you have no car and no 300 quid.

odds on paypal will side with you.

I’ll add that if you can afford to be £300 out of pocket until PP goes through its motions just weather the storm until it resolves unless you know if the seller runs a business and/or has a public Facebook page.

Open a PP dispute if you can. This will probably have the effect of causing the seller’s PP account to go negative and while the dispute is open they won’t be able to close their account. You probably won’t get any joy from ebay as the deal was done ‘outside’ their marketplace but you should still have some cover from PP’s buyer protection.

Stay calm, avoid making personal comments and stick to the facts- just the facts.

I can file a paypal claim, but I don’t believe that Paypal cover motors transactions.

Or police

You didn’t buy a car, you paid a deposit for something that never materialised. Give it a go. Did the seller stipulate that the deposit was non-returnable before you paid it and/or did they send you an invoice? If you sent the payment yourself (without having been sent an invoice), what did you put in the subject heading, ie “You’ve got funds re: deposit for car”?

Paypal dispute all the way. It’ll rule in your favour as you haven’t got the goods. Whether the money is in account or not you’ll still get it back.
His account will (effectively) go overdrawn and he’ll be unable to close it, it will keep trying to reclaim the funds from his reserve funds (normally current account or credit card) until its cleared.
Just be honest with the PP investigation and I cant see them siding against you.
BJ

Why did you not just go and look at it?

Over the past year i have taken two deposits for an engine i have in my garage, first guy gave sent me £100 deposit didn’t collect, second bloke gave me £200, he didn’t collect either, nice little earner for me.
The lesson here is, get your s*** together before you put a deposit on something.

Did the seller stipulate that the deposit was non-returnable before you paid it and/or did they send you an invoice?

Nope, neither.

wrightyson – Member
Why did you not just go and look at it?

It was 300 miles away. Also, the history I dug up on the seller didn’t exactly make me want to meet them in person…

twinw4ll – Member
nice little earner for me.

Whilst I’m sure it is, did you tell them there was no refund possible, or did they simply not bother to ask?

I’m not having a go here but there’s no way I’d part with 300 notes on eBay for something I’ve never seen. Hope you get your money back. He sounds a wrong un from what you say but **** him it’s your money!

Also, the history I dug up on the seller didn’t exactly make me want to meet them in person…

Ooh! Go on…

Open a dispute with PP now. They will have taken their fee from that £300, and every other transaction made on their system. That money is partially used to protect and help buyers. They will help you, and more importantly, give him a load of hassle.

ooh this makes my blood boil, he has stolen your money.
In the event of legal dispute, compensation can only be to cover a loss, he has not made a loss so your £300 should come back.
Name and shame.

Not helpful I know but mate are you stupid ? Giving a deposit without seeing it first !

Did you agree that it was a refundable deposit via email if you should change your mind ?

As others have said you’ll probably get your money back via paypal…

To be fair hes a tunt seller but you are also a silly buyer !

I told you I wasn’t gong to be helpful but when will people learn that not everyone on ebay is nice !

You paid before HPi check and checking the buyer out.?
The seller must have thought Christmas came early.
If you don’t get your money back (which I sincerely hope you do) you will have learnt an expensive lesson in life.

Hope you get your money back, too many eBay horror stories these days….

Why, that’s a helpful post. 🙄

Hope it works out Op.

Giving a deposit without seeing it first !

Plenty of people now do this on the proviso that the car meets the description. It’s pretty common. The mistake was not confirming the deposit was refundable but if you have a text confirming that you would receive it back on Fri and then again on Monday surely there’s enough evidence that the deposit was refundable and if PayPal don’t come good can’t you initiate a claim in the small claims court?

Unless he ended the auction as soon as he got the deposit, then you could argue he hasn’t behaved as he should. It just looks like you’ve paid money and he’s gone ahead and sold to someone else – and kept your deposit.

Get onto Paypal. You paid deposit, nothing to show for it. He sold the car to someone else.

text confirming that you would receive it back on Fri and then again on Monday surely there’s enough evidence that the deposit was refundable and if PayPal don’t come good can’t you initiate a claim in the small claims court?

This ^

On the flip side…

Surely the point of paying a deposit is that you’re saying I’ll definitely take the car? And to ensure that worst come to worst the seller wouldn’t miss out

Now in this case it doesn’t seem like the seller has, and the nice thing to do would be to return the cash, but i can’t see why he is obliged to

I recently bought a car 2nd hand from a fairly large dealership. I was needing to sort out some pennies before I handed over the cash and they said they’d take it off the forecourt for £100 deposit.If I subsequently backed out of the deal I wouldn’t have expected the cash back.

Surely thats the whole point of a deposit – ie to gain commitment from the buyer and to ensure they don’t change their mind once the agree to buy?

edit –

text confirming that you would receive it back on Fri and then again on Monday surely there’s enough evidence that the deposit was refundable and if PayPal don’t come good can’t you initiate a claim in the small claims court?

unless he has something stating it was refundable before paying than i can’t see how this stands up. That text could be seen as a goodwill gesture, and as such the seller is entitled to change their minds

Surely the point of paying a deposit is that you’re saying I’ll definitely take the car?

Yeah but he agreed to refund the deposit – shame it’s not in writing obviously.

Has a dispute been raised? I’ll be really surprised if PP don’t sort out a refund but depends on how they view deposits I suppose.

There’s plenty of law on deposits and part payments.

Things in your favour:

It wasn’t specified as non-refundable before you handed it over
It was paid on the basis on ending the auction early, which didn’t happen
He promised to return it to you and has since gone back on that promise

Things in his favour;

He has your money and is 300 miles away
There’s some argument on what exactly was agreed before you handed the cash over
He may well have lost money as a result of you changing your mind

paypal dispute then small claims if you have to

will they even dispute either?

In my experience paypal will side with the buyer and you will get your money back no problem.
The details tend to be irrelevant, if you are a buyer, have used paypal and are not happy with the deal your fine.
As a buyer this has been great in the past – as a seller it was a pain in the butt even when the byer was clearly in the wrong.

PP will get your money back. But don’t ever pay as much as that for an ebay deposit. Deposit should only be enough to cover cost of relisting, I.e. £30-50 or so.

UPDATE:

After 3 different stories from the seller, I uploaded the text conversation and recorded telephone messages to paypal, and they found in my favour.

The seller in question was aedautosandrew. His name is Andrew Stanton.

Please avoid!

Nice one.

If you buy something with paypal, as long as you communicate well, stay polite and reasonable, Paypal seem to be reasonable too.

Not saying the seller covered himself in glory by any stretch of the imagination, but the OP did dick him about a bit.

So a bit harsh to splash his details all over the place.

Yeah, the seller having not had to do a single thing is definitely carte blanche for taking £300. 🙄

By his name he is a trader, if he doesn’t like being dicked about then WTF is he doing selling cars?
If he thought the deal was going to end with him keeping £300 then he needs dicking about some more.