E-Bay problem, where do I stand?

Yestaerday I was the winning bidder on a bike, for sale on ebay. The start bid was £1200, and a buy it now for £2300. I put a bid on for the starting price of £1200 and won.
I then paid for the bike and postage of it on paypal.
Today the seller has sent me an e-mail stating he would like to cancel the transaction as he forgot to put a reserve on the bike, and can not sell it for such a low price.
Where do I stand, does he have to sell it to me, is he contractually obliged to do so, or is EBay not that stringent.
your help is appreciated
( the seller is a business)

In law you can enforce the contract – persuade him to sell it to you or sue him for the price difference to an equivalent bike.

In practice he can make up a reason for cancelling it and do so.

I’d say it’s a hard lesson for them to learn but they won’t do it again. Go collect.

surely once the price is paid, cancellation is impossible ? you can cancel just before the sale ends, but not after if you don’t like the preoce. agree with zeds, a hard lesson learnt but you have to be in the right. contact eBay if the seller is difficult.

I’d assume such a high starting price was as good as a reserve.

Contact eBay, but in reality if they don’t want to sell at that price, they won’t. All Fleabay can do is give them a ‘strike’

You might be in the right legally and morally but in reality unless you want to pursue the matter in court, the most you can do is leave negative feedback assuming he’s refunded you.

I seem to recall that when you bid on a item, theres a little reminder that you are entering a legally binding contract. So if you are in it then so are they.

Follow it through with ebay

Contact ebay ASAP and leave a neg on his auction. He’ll be telling them both of you have agreed to null the auction/sale thus disemblaying you to leave bad feedback.

I have contacted Ebay and they suggested ‘waiting to see what happens’. I cant see the shop selling it for what I bought it for, and presume they just wont send it. I have suggested that the legal route might be worth looking at but I think that I may have lost out. The seller has also now refunded my Paypal paymnet, without asking.

He has it and you don’t. For all the reasons mentioned above, he isn’t going to let you have it for the price you paid.

If you really want it, ask him how much extra he wants and see if there is some middle ground?

Or do as Hora does, make him an offer ‘he can’t refuse’ outside of Ebay….

Name and shame would be a better bet. They are trying to avoid the reserve fees by ducking out if it goes wrong. Ebay should be taking more action.

Had something similar happen earlier in the week. I just cancelled the (uncleared) payment and moved on. It’s not really worth the hassle is it?

Don’t you have history of pulling a similar stunt Hora?

Oh aye yes- back in 2003. Got a fat neg for it. That and two other auctions.

Funnily, ebay whipped everyones negs off before a certain date not so long ago.

The thing was I had bought it for someone as a Christmas present, I showed them when I bought it and they were over the moon, their disapointment is what is bothering me, I would normally just let it go.
Dont think its fair to name them.

Oh aye yes- back in 2003

Christ – my memory is better than I thought it was

psychle to the forum please. 😆

name them, looks like there not going to go through with the sale, as a business you rely on good customer relations if there not willing to play fair i’d like to know so i can avoid them

Similar thing happened to me in my early days of using eBay.
I won an auction for the starting price of £1 on a pair of brake levers.
I paid with Paypal immediately.
I received an email a couple of days later from the seller saying he wanted £6 and could I send the extra via Paypal. I said no, eBay auction etc.
He refused to send the levers or refund my £1+ whatever he’d asked for poatage, then left negative feedback (the only negative I’ve ever had).
I judged from the way his rather abusive emails were written he was probably 12yrs old.
I reported him to eBay but they were useless.
Basically they have the item.
I know it was only £1 but its the principle.

We had something similar with a bike my mum bought, she bought a ‘new’ bike on ebay using ‘buy it now’. Then the shop emailed her and claimed it was broken when they boxed it up and could offer her a different bike at the same price, no mention of a better bike, upgrade etc. Anyway after some time had passed and we got nowhere with a replacement my mum took out a complaint against them, they refunded her and the case was closed. Said shop then ‘relisted’ the exact same bike. You can easily get out of the transaction as a seller by claiming it ‘broke’ and then resell it easy enough. Ebay don’t really care as long as money is refunded and they get their fees along the line….

the seller is a business

😯

Very slack for a business, you could go down the enforce the contract route, but it might be long winded.

If you are set on having the bike, it might be worth trying to speak to the business owner over the phone & see if you can come up with a price?

But I fear you might just have to walk away & get on with your life.

This Commencal Meta 5.5?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260703010077&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fshop.ebay.co.uk%3A80%2F%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm570%26_nkw%3D260703010077%26_fvi%3D1&_rdc=1#ht_646wt_691

Might be worth asking over on the MoneySavingExpert forums. Ebay/Small claims stuff comes up reasonably regularly.

if it is that bike it’s worth the 50 for a small claim I reckon.

They sold you the bike for 1200 and owe it to you. I’d be livid.

If you are set on having the bike, it might be worth trying to speak to the business owner over the phone & see if you can come up with a price?

I thought they’d already been through that process

Mmm, bad form by seller.

You can cancel an item after the fact. I’ve just done it after someone thought my alloy post was a carbon one, sigh (it was Christmas and I couldn’t be bothered to argue). If you both agree the cancellation the seller gets their fees back, if they just cancel because they didn’t like the price it sold for then fees still apply.

At worst don’t agree to his request to cancel the order. Might be a costly reminder to him circa £120 in selling fees.

Maybe email him and say if you see the bike up again without reserve you’ll report him to eBay.

Apart from that, as discussed above the seller will find a reason for not sending so probably not worth getting too worked up about it.

If it is that Meta then they were never going to get over £2k for a well used demo bike especially a Commencal given their recent poor record on reliability.

It was only a recently that a dealer was selling the 2010 small carbon frame for under a grand brand new.

#
AndySlats – Member

The thing was I had bought it for someone as a Christmas present, I showed them when I bought it and they were over the moon, their disapointment is what is bothering me, I would normally just let it go.
Dont think its fair to name them.
Posted 3 hours ago # Report-Post

how rich are you!!

Uplink it was my 01 rocky mountain vertex frame! I bought mazz forks with buy it now. Shop emailed me and said they had made a mistake but they would stand by it. The price was less than 50% what it should have been. I said no cancel and they could relist. We had a bizarre phone conversation where he insisted…..I took binners advice and if asked if I was bonkers so I agreed to take them at the ridiculous price. Ended up selling them to binners as I felt too ‘guilty’!

Uplink it was my 01 rocky mountain vertex frame! I bought mazz forks with buy it now. Shop emailed me and said they had made a mistake but they would stand by it. The price was less than 50% what it should have been. I said no cancel and they could relist. We had a bizarre phone conversation where he insisted…..I took binners advice and if asked if I was bonkers so I agreed to take them at the ridiculous price. Ended up selling them to binners as I felt too ‘guilty’!

it was the Commencal Meta, I think that the seller, although a business are knew to the ebay thing.
ill wait to see waht they say tomorrow

I had it with a car, and the seller relisted and resold, and ebay did absoultly nothing

I have had the same thing happen to me and I reported the item going up again. I was told that the seller had a number of the same items. Right!

Ebay are generally no help at all when it comes to this sort of thing. Neg feedback and the fees incurred are the only things that you can possibly bargain with…

They could be new to ebay due to previous bad feedback on a previous ebay account. If you are expecting them to say ‘oh go on then’ today you’ll be disapointed! Leave a neg and leave a comment that they aren’t a real shop but a scam 😉

I’ve been here before:
1, Caveat Emptor – (Buyer beware)
2, Don’t hold your breath for Ebay to do anything, they wont!
3, Don’t waste time and energey in the small claims court, you wont be satisfied with the outcome.
4, DON’T cancel the transaction. If you do, the buyer wont have to pay his seller fees. At the moment he’ll be facing fees in excess of £100 so it may not be worth his while relisting it.
5, If you still want the bike you could do as Hora has suggested.
6, If all else fails open a claim for your cashback with Paypal if the seller is disinclined to simply reimburse you.

Hence leave feedback ASAP before the auction disapears and you can no longer leave it.

Dont expect the seller to say ‘ok pal I’ll let you have it for 1.2k’.

Buy elsewhere. Somewhere that keeps its promises.

Here are the guys who honoured the price on the forks I mentioned earlier who sold me the forks at 50% of the price they should have been at SALE price: http://www.mtb-direct.co.uk/

It’s happened three times to me. Once was a fridge freezer which ‘apparently’ was damaged by a forklift truck in the warehouse which may have been genuine as it wasn’t relisted. Another was someone who ‘apparently’ listed as an auction instead of buy it now but still waited until the auction finished to correct the mistake – I would have got an expensive coffee machine half price. And another was an exhaust which again ‘apparently’ was damaged.

That and the people who use multiple accounts to increase the bidding, wait until you lose and offer you things by second chance offer after knowing your maximum etc really p*** me off.

Ebay do nothing other than a black mark. They say they cannot get involved. They didn’t even help me when I bought a ‘new’ items that clearly wasn’t and the guy seller tried to accuse me of fraud! It was quite a large transaction and it was a shop – mastercard sorted it very quickly. Ebay wouldn’t even remove his slanderous feedback without me getting a document signed by a solicitor etc.

Rant over but if the bike’s not very reliable, maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.

Agree. I’d go with a different brand. Imagine you had warranty issues with the bike (you would).

Remind the ‘shop’ they are in a legally binding contract, and you will be talking to your solicitor tomorrow.

Also, point them over to this thread!