ebay étiquette

[Illustrationaddict]

I'm just wondering what you would do?

I bought a bugaboo cameleon 1st generation on ebay in preparation for DD. The advert suggested by the description it was second generation, but I suspect it was a lazy ebayer who copy and pasted the description from somebody else's advert. Anyway, it wasn't perfect, but did the job and was very pretty, so figured I would live with it. We spent £200 in total for stroller and delivery. DD has now moved onto a fold down pushchair, so decided I would see if I could sell the stroller back on ebay.

I was very honest in that I said it was first generation, 2007 model, that it had been used a lot & signs of wear & tare as you would expect for a stroller of this age. I also threw in a second generation rain cover which didn't come with the stroller that I spent an additional £30 on. I advertised as 'pick up only'. This led to quite a bit of interest, and sold for £114. The winning bidder was not local. They said they would arrange a courier, fine, not a problem. I said I would pack the pram. I ended up driving around 6 superstores in the hope I would find a box which I could fit it in, but could not, so spent around £10 on bubble wrap and parcel tape, and contacted the buyer to say that I had managed to wrap the pram, but could not find a box. Not only did they arrange a courier who would only collect items in a box (this was after I had told them the item was bubble wrapped) but they also selected a courier who gave the pick up time slot of 8am-6pm, meaning I would in theory not be able to go out until parcel was picked up which could have been 5:55pm.

They have not left feedback, but now, a fortnight later said they 'just received' the stroller but noticed the 'bassinet fillets' were missing. I had never heard of these until this email. I googled them to discover that they are a piece of plastic which apparently holds the bassinet rigid. I have to say I didn't know about them, but managed to work the bassinet fine.

I explained that no I didn't have them, and never had, but suspect they are angling at me purchasing said fillets. I have looked online, and the ones I've seen are around £18 with delivery.

Is it cheeky to expect seller to buy additional pieces? or am IBU? What would you do? I feel like they are waiting for my response to give me feedback, which could ruin my 100% record :( Don't want to be awkward but feel they have already asked a lot of me.

Hmmm, I don't know really, it's a tough one as yes, they've taken the p a bit so far regarding the courier but equally if you stated it was a first generation with all the bits there, they'd be within their rights to expect all the bits to be there. Did the first generation definitely come with that part initially? Of course you're experience buying the pram has nothing to do with it.

In your boots I'd be tempted to offer a partial refund of just £5 (since not an expensive pram anyway) or give them the option to return it for a full refund minus the postage, which would cost them a lot more in the end but would be fair as presumably you specified pick up only and they could have checked it over then had they read the description properly. And eBay policy is buyer pay return postage anyway.

Good luck. Hope it sorts itself out!

Sorry, your experience that should read.

I think you've gone over and above what could be reasonably expected. I wouldn't have posted the pram out. If you'd advertised that you'd be prepared to post then you would probably have got more money for it as there would have been more interest.

Having said said that if a part is missing and you didn't mention this then they could claim that it wasn't as advertised and they wanted to return it and they would probably win this dispute. Knowing now what the bassinet fillets are is it clear from your photos that they are not there or not?

Tell them that if they want them that it is their responsibility to purchase them, I'm guessing you did not mention them in listing therefore buyer should not expect to receive them.

I'm quite sure that it is "sold as seen", really isn't your fault that they didn't bother to come and see it first. I assume you had plenty of pictures that would have given them the chance to notice something was missing. In the past I have e-mailed sellers if something looks missing on the photos to check. As long as you haven't deliberately misled them then I wouldn't worry about it. Perhaps you could direct them to buy it themselves, if they are still unhappy, as a good will gesture you could accept the item back as suggested above, most won't bother at that point anyway.

Did they contact you about possibility of posting it before end of auction, as you had advertised it as collection only or did they just bid anyway? Personally I wouldnt have posted, as yellow says if you were prepared to do this more people may have been interested.

On reflection I think I'd contact them saying if they feel the bassinet fillets are essential they can buy them from X for £18 but that you have used this pram without them with no problems. If they are not happy with this they are welcome to return it at their expense for a full refund. I think it is highly unlikely they will want to return it as this will probably be more expensive than buying the missing bits.

If they leave neutral /negative feedback you can add a comment saying that when you realised the parts were missing you offered a return /refund. So any future buyers looking at your feedback can see that you are reasonable.

I too think you have bent over backwards re the selling. You were quite within your rights to refuse to sell to them if they could not collect locally as you specified. They have messed you about. They should just buy the extras themselves. You should charge them for your time at £10 per hour with all the messing about. 8-6.