ebay advice.

[Fixr1984]

I've recently sold something on Ebay and feel I'm getting screwed. Alright, I sold a pedal in December, guy paid right away and I shipped it the following day. USPS said he would recieve it in 3 days (saturday). 8 days later I get a message telling me that it wont work with a battery. I got it from a bandmate and it was always used with a battery and was working fine. I told him I used it with an AC adapter on my board and it was working. He then tells me that it dosn't sound right and wants his money back. He then files a case against me the following day with the message that he will drop the case once he sends the pedal back and gets a refund. Fast forward a week and a half to today, I get the pedal in the mail. Knowing that the pedal was working when I sold it I wanted to make sure that it wasn't just his broken one he was trying to pass off on me. Comparing the pedal to the pictures I took before the sale I can tell that it has for sure been opened up, the screws are all turned to different spots. The battery snap is damaged now, one on the prongs is bent over, not sure if I can bend it back. Now the pedal will not power up thru the AC jack. My buddy used this pedal for a few years and I tested everything out before it shipped, I can guarantee 100% this pedal worked when it left my house.

 

Now for the advice part, I have a few options in the case, I can issue a refund, contact him again or I can escalate the case to ebay support. I dont feel a refund is in order but what should I do? Contact him about the issues or take it to Ebay and let them deal with this? I now have a broken pedal and dont want to be out the money also.

[ZuWa]

I've recently sold something on Ebay and feel I'm getting screwed. Alright, I sold a pedal in December, guy paid right away and I shipped it the following day. USPS said he would recieve it in 3 days (saturday). 8 days later I get a message telling me that it wont work with a battery. I got it from a bandmate and it was always used with a battery and was working fine. I told him I used it with an AC adapter on my board and it was working. He then tells me that it dosn't sound right and wants his money back. He then files a case against me the following day with the message that he will drop the case once he sends the pedal back and gets a refund. Fast forward a week and a half to today, I get the pedal in the mail. Knowing that the pedal was working when I sold it I wanted to make sure that it wasn't just his broken one he was trying to pass off on me. Comparing the pedal to the pictures I took before the sale I can tell that it has for sure been opened up, the screws are all turned to different spots. The battery snap is damaged now, one on the prongs is bent over, not sure if I can bend it back. Now the pedal will not power up thru the AC jack. My buddy used this pedal for a few years and I tested everything out before it shipped, I can guarantee 100% this pedal worked when it left my house.

 

Now for the advice part, I have a few options in the case, I can issue a refund, contact him again or I can escalate the case to ebay support. I dont feel a refund is in order but what should I do? Contact him about the issues or take it to Ebay and let them deal with this? I now have a broken pedal and dont want to be out the money also.

 

What was the condition of you sale? Did you go the safe "no exchanges or refunds" route? If so you own him nothing unless you changed the terms since the sale. If you offered him a return option you need to live up to it unless you can prove that he didn't return the pedal in the same condition it was sent to him. If you can prove the item isn't in the same condition as when you sent it you again owe him nothing.

 

What you do depends on how much you stand to lose in the deal and how much you want to deal with this.

 

 

 

 

 

[canon_mutant]

Well, my first advice is to stay away from eBay.

 

That aside, what were the conditions of sale? If it was "as is" then it was "as is".

 

If you offered a "7 day" or whatever return policy then you would have to honor that.

 

Lastly, it just has to be escalated but beware that eBay now is a "buyers" website. I recently sold my GT-10 on there and couldn't get my money for 21 days because of some new policy regarding having to have 25 or more transactions in the last 90 days which I didn't meet despite my 100% positive rating. So, my pedal was long gone and had no idea if I had "good" money for it for 3 weeks.

 

Combined with their rising fees and other nonsense, I'm done with 'em . . .

[Fixr1984]

In the auction I wrote that "please ask all questions before biding as all sales are final" And I didnt offer a return policy but of course under the return policy section Ebay added "No returns or exchanges, but item is covered by eBay Buyer Protection" When you read the terms of the buyer protection it basically says that if you as the buyer dont like the item we will get your money back. (paypal has already put a hold on my money till the case is resolved.) I guess the best course for me is to take it to ebay support, I have a broken pedal and my money is on hold. As it stands I have nothing else to loose. You're exactly right Cannon_Mutant Ebay has become a buyers place and as a seller it really sucks. After this I'm done selling.

[saturn]

I would escalate the case. I had a similar situation and Ebay ended up settling it by refunding the money to the buyer but I kept the money paid to me.

[cabba2203]

Yeah, unless you had stated "as is - all sales final" "no returns" or something like that - you are screwed.

Good Luck! I hope it works out.

[Buxom]

Whenever I sell stuff I put "No returns"

 

Also, I give as many details about the item and send as many pictures to people who message me for them. (I'm not paying for extra pics)

[TommyK]

I'd work with E-Bay. Take pictures of the evidence of mis-treatment and abuse. If I bought a new electric Wok at the local wallmutts, and had tampered with it they most definitely would not take it back.

 

 

Let E-Bay sort it out. What is this buyer's Ebay rep compared to yours? I'm sure this isn't the first time EBay has seen this sort of rip-off.

 

 

If EBay says you have a claim against the buyer, offer to send HIS mis-treated electronic back ... at HIS expense, or you could destroy it and provide pictures of such.

[martinh]

Sorry to hear that someone is trying to take advantage of you. It's hard to do much in these cases because the cost of any litigation would outweigh the cost of the pedal. However, as to some of the advice being floated, take it from someone who has tried a few contract cases that simply stating "no returns" won't help in this situation. That term only establishes that there is no right of return if the goods are as advertized and suitable for the purpose advertized. (i.e. "I tried it and I don't like it." is not grounds for return, but a seller cannot advertize a broken item as "in working order" and then shelter behind a no returns policy). If the buyer disputed that the actual item is what it was advertized as, the question is not whether returns are allowed, but whether a contract was ever formed, and therefore whether you were entitled to payment.

 

My only future advice is (1) insist that insurance against shipping damage be paid for by the buyer, or waived in writing with the understanding that seller will not be responsible for shipping damage. (2) seal at least one screw with an unusual shade of nail polish before shipping, (3) take photographs, and preferably a little bit of video, with sound, of the item you are selling right before you ship it. Start with a close-up of today's newspaper lying on the item (this establishes the earliest date on which the video was made). If there's a serial number, get a close-up of it, then pan back slowly to see the whole item. Show the item working in the video. Don't stop the camera, shoot in one continuous take, so there can be no accusation of editing. If you have a friend who can also be filmed standing in the room, this helps, as it provides a second person who can testify as to what went on in the video, and the circumstances under which it was made.

 

This only take five minutes, and can be sent to PayPal as prima facie evidence that the unit was working when it left you, or that it has been subsequently opened. it can also help with a claim that the unit was damaged in shipping.

 

I know this seems a pain in the A** and it's horrible to have to mistrust everyone you deal with, but many contract cases i've seen would have gone the other way with some sort of evidence like this.

[Fixr1984]

what ever came of this?

 

 

I escalated the case to ebay. I told them about the tampering and that it no longer works and that I have pictures to prove it and the word of a bandmate who had actually used my pedal. I got a response back with in 12 hours. The email back told me that I had to print out a form that they included stating that the item was returned in a different condition than when i sent it out. I had to sign it and fax it back. They had taken the money out of my paypal and put a hold on it and the message said it would be returned once they recieved the fax. Looking at the case details they stated January 23 as the day they would make a final decision. Not sure whats going on, they have 56 minutes left in the day.

[Fixr1984]

Well I got my reply back from them an hour ago. They actually went in favor of the buyer. Naturaly I was pretty ticked off

and said a few choice words. I contacetd Ebay by phone and asked for an appeal because I felt I was wronged in this case.

The guy took a look at all the details and asked me a few questions about it and decided to give me the appeal. So in the next

day or so (stupid processing) the hold will be taken off of the money and all will be well again. I win.

[krock]

This proved to be an interesting read because ive just started using ebay this year

[Riffster]

Good the see the issue was resolved in your favor.

 

I just sold a guitar locally and I am so ever glad, I had it on eBay as well as a last resource.

 

It has become so cumbersome to sell on eBay, because of them and because of buyers that do not know what they are buying or think they are buying from a store.

 

I was getting questions like:

- do you guarantee that the guitar has good action?

- does the bigsby stay in tune?

- what kind of strings does the guitar have?

 

There were more but these questions were making me anxious.

 

If it sold on eBay I was going to take a ton of detailed pictures with the most recent local newspaper in the background to protect myslef againt any of this BS <_<

[Fixr1984]

Once Ebay went in favor of the buyer they paid him his money back and were expecting me to reimburse them.

By winning the appeal the hold on my money will be lifted once they are done processing everything. In the end we

both won, even tho I dont believe he should have gotten anything. A word of advice to anyone on Ebay, if for any reason there will be a return to you specifically tell them that it must be returned in the same condition it was recieved. It is stated somewhere on Ebay but unless you actually tell them yourself it will most likely go in the buyers favor. I was told last night that had I specifically wrote that anywhere the case would have been dropped immediatly.