Spinal
MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2004
- Messages
- 4,806
- Location
- between Uxbridge and the Alps
- Car
- x254, G350, Duster, S320, Mach1, 900ss and a few more
Well - sort of.
On Saturday, I won some overly-expensive technical cold-weather gear (expensive - at least by my standards) that I wanted for a trek in the Artic circle I'm doing in December.
RRP of the item is £400-something, and I won it for less than a quarter that.
Oddly - the seller came up with an excuse not to sell it (dog ate it) after the auction ended at less than they were expecting - and promptly resold it to another eBayer. Here was the seller's mistake - they resold it by listing them as a Buy-It-Now on eBay for twice the price I won it for; meaning that I could see it and get even more p*ssed off...
I emailed the seller and asked for a picture of the damage as I was still interested in the item if the damage wasn't serious (really, a thinly veiled excuse to call the bluff).
The seller never responded.
So I sent over a fairly formal looking letter, with extracts from the Sales of Goods Act 1979 (Section 57 if anyone is interested - regarding sale at auction).
I ended the letter asking for either the item in exchange for payment, or compensation of the difference between the auction price and the going market rate for the same item on eBay - with currently the only other listing being the sellers other listing which sold it for twice the price.
Long story short, I have just received the difference via paypal.
I felt a bit sorry for the seller at first, then realised that the seller isn't out of pocket as they still get the price I won the shoes at; so I'm not feeling overly guilty anymore...
So, not really a victory as I still need to find the bloody things (which may be a while yet as they are quite specialist bits of kit designed for extreme weather) - but a moral victory in that I didn't get taken for a ride!
M.
On Saturday, I won some overly-expensive technical cold-weather gear (expensive - at least by my standards) that I wanted for a trek in the Artic circle I'm doing in December.
RRP of the item is £400-something, and I won it for less than a quarter that.
Oddly - the seller came up with an excuse not to sell it (dog ate it) after the auction ended at less than they were expecting - and promptly resold it to another eBayer. Here was the seller's mistake - they resold it by listing them as a Buy-It-Now on eBay for twice the price I won it for; meaning that I could see it and get even more p*ssed off...
I emailed the seller and asked for a picture of the damage as I was still interested in the item if the damage wasn't serious (really, a thinly veiled excuse to call the bluff).
The seller never responded.
So I sent over a fairly formal looking letter, with extracts from the Sales of Goods Act 1979 (Section 57 if anyone is interested - regarding sale at auction).
I ended the letter asking for either the item in exchange for payment, or compensation of the difference between the auction price and the going market rate for the same item on eBay - with currently the only other listing being the sellers other listing which sold it for twice the price.
Long story short, I have just received the difference via paypal.
I felt a bit sorry for the seller at first, then realised that the seller isn't out of pocket as they still get the price I won the shoes at; so I'm not feeling overly guilty anymore...
So, not really a victory as I still need to find the bloody things (which may be a while yet as they are quite specialist bits of kit designed for extreme weather) - but a moral victory in that I didn't get taken for a ride!
M.
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