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I bid and won an old Volvo a few weeks ago, described as above average condition. Paid the guy (private individual) £200deposit via PayPal 'normal' ie not gift.
Long story short - went to collect the car and it was an absolute nail. Wasn't willing to complete and guy said he'd return deposit. Of course he didn't so no problems think I it's normal Paypal - wrote a detailed letter including photos of dangerous unroadworthy tyres / damage and condition not as described etc and raised a claim.
PayPal have ruled today against me and the seller has my £200 "The decision was made because the purchase is ineligible for PayPal's Buyer Protection in accordance with our User Agreement."
So if you want easy money get a knackered classic car, photo it in a good light and fail to mention any of its issues and then keep the deposit when the buyer turns up and it's a shed.
Jeez that's grim. I am fighting various corporations for £100s just now
Aren't there ways of paying through eBay that protect you?
I thought that paying via normal PayPal would have protected me.
The car is 4hours away and we tied it in with visiting friends so not much chance of frozen sausages/bombers/wee-ing in his shoes/bumming his dog etc.
Dig your heals in a persist. The reality is some poor hapless PayPal employee has seconds of their attention to give to each case and they make mistakes so just bat it back to them.
I had to persevere with them after they refunded a buyer who’d made a spurious claim - once it was clear they’d made the wrong call I got my money back and to save face having originally found in his favour they buyer kept his money too so it was PayPal that was out of pocket.
Paypal don't cover any vehicle sale stuff. That's why you've lost out and why faults or otherwise don't matter in this case.
Why did you send a deposit? considering you'd won it and that was therefore legally binding that you were the buyer there was no real need for a deposit. Pretty rubbish of paypal but really not surprised as they've been useless idiots for ages.
I'd done a bit of digging on the seller and found him on a few Volvo sites so didn't really have reason to doubt the condition/seller plus Paypal protection and all that.
Both PayPal & eBay are very upfront that they don’t cover cars etc, in their buyer protection pages. Very unfortunate you lost out but you can’t claim either misled you, you just assumed rather than researched properly!
That’s a bit of bugger tried to do the right thing, I’d pursue the seller though.
#volvonotforsale
No chance with the seller - I think he had previous form for this. Easy money for him.
Ah yes I've been stung with this in the past.
As above vehicles are exempt from buyer protection.
As ever buyer beware and do not buy sight unseen.
Post him some dog turds.
Seems a grey area to me. If you agreed to the sale and paid a deposit, then backed out later, I don't think there is any legal requirement to pay back the deposit?
The description is another matter, but even that is open to interpretation. Assuming you're talking about a decades old car, it probably is in above average condition while most the others are sat in scrapyards.
The dangers of buying on ebay.
I run 2x 18 year old cars including a Volvo and the other I bought recently and was well above average condition, this Volvo was 22year old so I have a fairly good barometer of expected condition.
Just one of the issues was the tyres were absolutely knackered with major splits between the tread and sidewall down to carcass from being sat deflated. There was no way I was driving it. The car was a nail.
At least not buying it saved me more than £200 and it serves as a warning for STWers as I thought I was protected.
Its the seller you have an issue with. Has he just stop replying to messages?
"Just one of the issues was the tyres were absolutely knackered"
That's the major issue? Did you check the spare?
Its the seller you have an issue with. Has he just stop replying to messages?
He said he would refund the deposit a few days later when he was paid - I didn't strongarm him as I thought I had PayPal protection. We got to our friends destination a few hours further on and he'd messaged and backtracked. Didn't get anywhere with him so PayPal resolution centre.....or not as the case turns out
You know where he lives. You know who he is. Letter of intended action, followed by small claims court if no resolution.
considering you’d won it and that was therefore legally binding
This is a tangent from the OP, but no-one is going to legally enforce an eBay purchase. I've won several auctions on eBay for a good price, only to have the seller cancel the sale. What am I going to do, sue them?
(I appreciate that's unrelated to paying a deposit)
Lodge a claim through the small claims court which will cost you £35 (for a claim <£300). If you have any evidence that the seller agreed to refund you then even better. I have recovered money through the small claims court relating to ebay purchases so don't assume all is lost.
The clear lesson here, for those that didn't;t know, is don't pay a deposit that you don't need to pay.
No deposit is ever necessary on eBay as if you have won the item you have won the time. When, and even whether you pay after winning, is up to you.
If the seller insists on deposit and cancels sale if you don't give them a deposit then move on as seller is a ****er and you have escaped that one.
Phone bank / or even go to your online banking and find the fraud section, fill in a chargeback form for goods not received.
Done.
If you pay with PayPal you get your normal bank cover & PayPal buyer protection (if eligible). If you 'win' the chargeback, PayPal will put the sellers account into negative £200 and will be less likely to repeat, you get your money back.
Phone bank / or even go to your online banking and find the fraud section, fill in a chargeback form for goods not received.
It's a deposit though. Deposits are often non-refundable. The deposit just secures the transaction. In this case no goods have been paid for.
The circumstances sound crap and I'm not defending the seller at all, but by paying a deposit, you're paying the seller to hold an item while they could be doing business elsewhere.
How this fits in with Ebay or PayPal terms is another matter, and I do think sellers should be accountable for misleading buyers.
The car was really quite rare and finished at Wednesday 12:35 lunchtime - I got it for an amount I was happy with and the £200 deposit was I felt a way of stopping him relisting to have it finish at a better time.
I'll do the small claims online
Paypal, not sure I like that em really. Far too much buyer protection is a pain for sellers.
Another hitch:-
Couple of weeks ago a mate sent me £20 PayPal gift. He has successfully paid me before (few years ago) so just clicked on my name there in paypal and sent.
My email address was not shown.
BUT I never received the £ and it turned out to have been sent to a very similar email address to mine. Just one letter different @gmail.com
It was like they used singletracks@gmail.com when it should have been singletrack@gmail.com.
So he contacted PayPal:
“ gift = no protection
so computer says no”
Eventually the recipient who we had also contacted (and has the same name as me! But slightly different email address) sent back the £20.
But - I’d love to know -
How the hell Paypal could justifiably deny any responsibility for associating the wrong email address with my name in his PayPal app escapes me.
Kinda reminds me of when banks used to say cash machines never dispense incorrectly. Yeah, right.
The moral I guess:
When sending via PayPal, even to an existing recipient, always enter the email address yourself.
There seems to be no way to ascertain what addresses are associated with one’s historical payees.
It also seems like PayPal can screw that up. Strange bug in the works.
I find that very, very unlikely. What I find [i]very[/i] likely, is that your mate actually did type in the email address, and got it slightly wrong, and just didn’t want to admit he’d ****ed up. Or let’s give him the BOTD, and say he simply “forgot” he did that.It also seems like PayPal can screw that up. Strange bug in the works.
IME 99% of the time when people complain their computer/website has ****ed up what’s actually happened is, they’ve ****ed up 😀 The computer does generally just do exactly what you tell it to.
Eventually the recipient who we had also contacted (and has the same name as me! But slightly different email address) sent back the £20.
Bloody good outcome I think - well done that person 🙂
The computer does generally just do exactly what you tell it to.
I hate this, why can't they make computers that do what I want, not what I tell them?
Paypal, not sure I like that em really. Far too much buyer protection is a pain for sellers
This is very much like bias at the BBC sellers moan about buyer protection, buyers moan about seller protection. Suggests to me they have it about right in honesty.
The clear lesson here, for those that didn’t;t know, is don’t
pay a deposit that you don’t need to paybuy cars off Ebay a million miles from where you live
I was looking recently and everything on ebay looked dodgy and/or extremely high mileage. See also Facebook marketplace. Autotrader is far better.
I'm sure there's the rare few who've had good experience, but I can't see why you'd use ebay to sell a car unless you were trying to ship it on sight unseen.
Scratch that. Just don't buy a car without looking and test driving first. Much simpler rule.
What are the terms of this 'deposit' you sent? Sounds more like a part-payment to me, unless it was explicitly agreed prior to you sending it that the amount was non-refundable? He agreed to refund, then didn't. I think it would be in your favour for a small claims case.