Hello,
I sold a large item on ebay (sliding side door of a LWB Transit, very big, very heavy.) I live near Edinburgh and had stated on the advert, quite clearly, no postage – collection only.
Numpty in Slough bought it and paid via paypal, then contacted me and asked me to post.
I said no, but happy for you to arange your own courier. He did this, Hermes, who have been a no-show for over a week. I spent and hour or so packing it for him, and another hour and a half traipsing into town to print the postage label he sent me.
I suspect he hasn’t been chasing them very hard…
He now wants a refund.
I’ve told him (nicely) to go and whistle, the door as is described and it’s here whenever he or a courier of his choice comes to fetch it.
I need it gone, it’s taking up quite a bit of room in a very small garden and I’ve asked him to arange a different courier. Now he’s gone quiet.
Sold for a three-figure sum.
If he tries to claim a refund through ebay/paypal can I contest this? There is nothing wrong with the item apart from it is 400 miles from his house.
Not a massive amount of money but getting a bit pi$$ed off with ebay idiots so don’t want to back down.
Cheers.

I think that only way to get Seller Protection on eBay is to follow their rules to the letter – pretty sure this means you have to post it via some tracked/registered service. Suspect all he needs to do is report “item not delivered” and they will refund, I don’t think there’s anything you can do here sadly.

The postage option selected was ‘collection in person only’ (in addition to saying ‘Cash on collection is very much prefered I can deliver for free to Galashiels/Selkirk/Peebles/Kelso by arrangement but I guess if you are looking at this you have transport. No postage for very obvious reasons.’ in the main body)
Surely if I’ve ticked their ‘collection in person’ box they don’t want me to ship it by whatever method? Would he even have the ‘not delivered’ option for a collection only item?
Got the history of our conversations in text message form, following the intial message after purchase where we swapped numbers.

Cancel sale, receive a FvF credit, relist, move on. Trying to prove a point might backfire spectacularly if paid by PayPal and collected by buyer…

yes that does make sense, pretty sure that they don’t offer protection under those circumstances though, you’d have to wade through the T&Cs to confirm.

Even if EBay side with you, Paypal will come down on the side of the buyer. No matter how clear the case, they buyer need only return the item, their word is golden. Paypal will accept a claim on the part of the seller, if it is supported by the police, who will not and should not be bothered in such a civil case, or a signed affidavit from a notary which will set you back between £60 and £200.
all learned from bitter experience from a crap ebayer

If it was an auction cancel teh sale and punt it to the next highest bidder.

Unfortunately I think you need to suck it up and resell. Ebay/PayPal absolutely sucks if a buyer is being dodgy – it’s incredibly unlikely that ebay will ever take the seller’s side in a dispute.

It was a collection only item so if somebody buys who then asks you to post just cancel sale (putting in reason as clearly buyers fault for not reading) and relist.

When I sell local collection items i put in very large font “THIS IS COLLECTION ONLY IN PERSON BY THE BUYER, NO COURIERS”

I don’t accept couriers because I then still need to package up/prepare just as I would if sending so defeats the point.

I’d phone ebay about this one, as it’s quite unusual. If they say refund and re-list, that’s what I’d do, but they might say it’s up to the buyer to sort as you had collection only in your listing… they might…

If you play hard ball buyer will just say ‘item not as described’ when they get it and then you’re responsible for collecting it.

If you want collection only then stick with it

TLDR; Refund, move on, buyer collects means buyer collects.

Cancel sale, receive a FvF credit, relist, move on. Trying to prove a point might backfire spectacularly if paid by PayPal and collected by buyer…

This. I **** hate ebay but unfortunately it’s handy for selling stuff.

I’ve had PP side with me twice as a seller & twice as a buyer, I think the key is just go through the procedure as detailed as you can.
My theory is that PP don’t want to upset certain CC companies so if the buyer has funded the purchase with their CC then PP will always side with them.
I’ve had sellers change their mind & had to suck it up & relist.

If the idiot can’t understand the collection only part, I’d not want to deal with them.
Cancel the auction & relist – life’s to short to entertain morons.

I’ve called ebay a couple of times. Actually pretty impressed but keep the explanation simple, don’t confuse them with all the details, should be able to explain in a sentence or two. They were quite assertive when I called but in the end I managed to succeed in my case (ebay recommended listing category was a duplicate of an ebay motors category, so I was able to succeed in getting a rather large final value fee credit as it should have been ebay motors fixed price)

So…
It does let you open a claim for ‘not received’ on a collection-only item.
.

If you play hard ball buyer will just say ‘item not as described’ when they get it and then you’re responsible for collecting it.

Did wonder if he might do that, hence not trying to source a courier myself, at least if he’s shelled out for a courier he’ll be more inclined to keep it. Would I be responsible for collecting though?
.
Anyway, I called ebay (surprisingly straightforward, not the long queue and endless button pressing I was expecting) Spoke to someone with a UK accent, told her what had happened, she passed me to some escalation dept with an Indian accent. Explained again a couple more times until I thought she understood, she checked the listing, confirmed it as collection only and put the case on hold indefinitely but advised me to get in touch with the buyer again. I did so, still nothing back from him.
Sold it on gumtree a fortnight later to a bloke from Glasgow after the garage man who was fixing his van had emailed me about it. He sent me a bank transfer, showed up when he said he would, took it away and then I refunded the idiot from Slough and told him to read things properly before bidding in future.

It does let you open a claim for ‘not received’ on a collection-only item.

Are you sure? I had to chase a seller when they went very quiet and wouldn’t co-operate with the courier. From memory, it wouldn’t let me do anything other than essentially ‘try to work it out’ with them – I couldn’t raise a case for a refund due to it not being received…

Definitely sure, he did it to me when I said ‘no, come and collect it’ in response to his request for a refund.