To ask for your help, I have been so stupid....

[Whirlytwos]

I am so upset right now, I am trying not to get teary.

For background, I have 16 month old twins, and a brain tumour, so am under a certain degree of stress.

Basically we moved house 9 months ago into a total 70s timewarp. I so need a kitchen that my DDs can play in safely while I cook, but we have a limited budget. Kitchen needs building work that hopefully will be underway in May. As a kichen centrepiece I wanted a beautiful high end cooker, but planned to buy 2nd hand due to budget.

They don't come up often so I have been waiting for one on ebay. Saw one a couple of weeks ago, priced at £2500, in perfect condition. No-one bought it, so I called the seller on the number in the ebay listing and agreed a sale at £2,250. They had 100% feedback. Transferred funds to his account, booked shipping, and a cooker arrived here on Friday. Note, private sale, no Paypal..... i know, stupid stupid me.

But it's not the one I bought! It's damaged, and it is a dfferent cooker with a dfferent badge! The seller won't return my emails.

I've spoken with his wife a couple of times, and she's tried a few different excuses about the cooker.
Like, it is the one I ordered....But it is clearly different to the ebay pictures.

Then she said I wasn't clear which cooker I wanted, But I was, the ebay item number was the reference I used for bank payment., and there was only one the same colour on ebay anyway.

Now she says the damage happened in transit! I paid for transit. I did pay for insurance.

Huffily she said if I pay to ship it back (another £85), then she'll refund me.

But I don't trust these people now. Can I make them arrange the shipping? What if they claim not to receive it, or say it's damaged in transit and so refuse to refund? That would make things difficult because the shipping contract would be between me and the shipper.

It also turns out they are in business selling high end used catering equipment. But they are not listed as business sellers on ebay, and I paid a personal account, not a business account. As I understand it, posing as a private seller when you're really a business is a criminal offence.

I spoke with the consumer helpline and they said the seller doesn't have to pay for shipping. But if I arrange shipping it puts me at even more risk.

I've been so naive, I am kicking myself. I have felt sick all weekend, and really don't know what to do next. So here I am fretting and porng over the nternet worrying, when I should be spending happy time with my DDs.

Does anyone have advice or know what I should do?

So sorry for the essay.

Ooh OP - I actually like your kitchen yep I'm weird shame about the lead paint.

It's a harsh lesson to learn but always safest to have a seller relist an unsold item with a Buy it Now price so you can get ebay/paypal security

Hope you get this sorted out before easter, it does sound as if your seller is bricking it

Silently surely that doesn't take much working out. Put a name like "Aga" into ebay and have a look

Good luck OP - I LOVED your email

I think you will have to seek legal advice.
Not to get into a long story but had issues with fraudulent seller (cancelling sales, and relisting item at a higher price) on ebay and the response I got from ebay was "they have 4k positive feedback, we can't force them to respond or sell" which basically meant that they had made a lot of money from this person's fees and the customers who had also had the same issue with the deller were too few to care about.
Get some free legal advice to start, advise them that you are doing this, HMRC are always a good one to throw in as well.
I hope you get some joy with this

Call trading standards and check your home insurance for legal cover

Sorry to hear of your bad luck. If it's any consolation some of us there have been there at some point and learnt the hard way.
As others have suggested get legal advice, and pursue it as much as your strength allows. The little bastards shouldn't be allowed to get away with this. Keep records of all communication.

Have you spoken to your bank about what they can do to help? Credit card, Debit card and PayPal payments usually offer a certain level security, bank transfers generally don't but do ask regardless. You may have specific privileges with the type of account you hold.

If all fails, take it as a lesson learnt. Then let karma take over...because in the long run those bastards won't get away with such dishonesty. Someone will get them. Put it behind you, and focus on your overall objective.

Sorry just read your email to Cookerman - its great. Would love to hear the outcome. Do keep us posted.

You can bring a small claim against them for straightforward breach of contract: they promised to sell you an x brand oven in good condition and failed to deliver that. Instead they delivered a y brand oven in damaged condition. You will need evidence of the oven you thought you were buying - screen shots of the eBay page, your bank transfer, photos of the oven that arrived, etc.
Good luck.

I love your email OP, Well done!

You've come so far since starting this thread already, and were all dying to know the outcome so do update, fingers crossed for you

(nearly put a kiss then, but i remembered we don't do that here do we )

I think the HMRC threat is the best one. They have the resources and motive to follow up on a business which is clearly hiding some (or even all?!) of it's profits from them. Good luck and let us know what happens?

Well, it's a ruddy good job CookerMan postponed till tomorrow, as dd1 had us in children's a&e from 4 onwards. She was out of sorts in the playpark after lunch, all clingy and subdued, so we came home, checked temp.... 38 degrees. A minute later, 39, then shortly after 39.5. Was going to call 111 then she went all drowsy and limp, so I called 999 to ask what they thought. They sent an ambulance, and she was 40.5 when they got here. They took us in with blue lights and were saying she may have a febrile convulsion but not to worry. Anyway, shedidn't and all is well since they got her temp and heartrate down after a few hours just with calpol and ibuprofen. By nine she was scarfing bananas and yowling with boredom / tiredness. They are confident its just an ear infection. I have to say, every single one of them was calm and professional and quite lovely.

Letter fans.... Why, thank you < bows > < preens > Actually, CAB gave me the bare bones, i.e the consumer rights act and not as description bit, so i googled it, read the legislation and fluffed it up a bit. I did have a killer of a line at the end, but DH made me delete it before I sent it Pah! he's so sensible boring!

Silently. I would love to tell you the type of cooker, but it would make CookerMan immediately identifiable to inveterate eBay rummagers like me

chocolateteabag My lurid retro kitchen is free to any a good home. Taking the toxic vintage kickboards is not mandatory.

CookerMan day tomorrow! Gah! < Picks at cuticles nervously >

We are all with you in spirit.

Best not impressed face and channel the mnet collective

Oh I can only sympathise - we did the same thing with a car, through ebay but paid £2500 cash. It drove 30 miles before terminal turbo explosion. The guy just changed his ebay profile, ignored our calls and threatened my husband when he texted him. he was also running a small business rather than selling personally. We might as well have thrown the money away and saved ourselves a LOT of hassle, trying to go through ebay, the police, small claims etc.
All I can say is that if there is no recourse, take a deep breath and call it a loss and a lesson. and be grateful you can still eat and that it didn't happen to someone too broke to carry the loss. And then enjoy happy time with your DDs.
Oh, and always always pay with PayPal from now on!
xx

The cooker has vacated my hallway into the care of CookerMan! I was relieved to see it go. He has given me a receipt for it and has promised to refund by Friday. I have to say, he seemed very personable. I know I should have asked for a transfer on the spot but I believe he will refund.

Thanks Mumsnetters for your support!

Crikey, by Friday?!

It's midday Wednesday... If he disappears with the cooker and he claims he refunded you in cash, you have no proof.

Your email said on collection or by Friday, whichever was soonest, so I'd follow up now and thank him for collecting, and give him your card details again so he can pay you by EOP today.

Is Friday not a bank holiday? So if it's not in your bank tomorrow, then it presumably won't be there till Tuesday...?

I'm glad you feel better, but I'd be struggling to feel completely easy just yet. Incidentally, do you have a geographical address for this bloke?

Forgive me if I'm wrong about UK online banking clearance times, but I've been abroad for a few years now and I'm hazy on some of the details.

The kitchen is fine, very retro. Can't you remediate the lead paint and just live with it?

Hope you get your money back!

Friday is Bank Holiday you wont get a bank transfer on a BH. I would email again and say you forgot it was a holiday and banks were shut so can he do the refund immediately.
Considering the aggro you have had i Seriously would never have let him take that cooker back without cash/transfer on the spot....

He could have done a bank transfer on the spot couldn't he? Why the delay? Crikey.

Our bank does "faster payments" - within 2 hours ...

Surely he could do an internet transfer there on the spot

Hmm you have got the money yet. Sound a bit sus that he didn't do it on the spot.

Oh goodness! You let him take the cooker without refunding you first? No no no . You have internet at home, why didnt you ask him to do the transfer on your computer?!

I really hope for your sake he refunds you, but you wont know till Tuesday now...
If that refund isn't there by Tuesday...you know what you have to do next...turn up at his house!

I don't believe you did that! 🙈

So now he has your money and the cooker? Good luck with that.