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eBay

If you buy or sell items on eBay, you will find tips and advice on this forum.

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Original poster

Buyer says chair broke once he sat on it

67 replies

ebayquery · 09/03/2015 09:04

Sold a chair- antique- and the buyer now contacts me to say the chair has broken when he has sat on it. He says it must have been recently repaired. This is untrue- it's never been repaired in all the years we have owned it.
It was advertised as a chair for a hall or bedroom- it's not the type of chair you would sit on daily anyway.
He is asking for us to collect and give a full refund.
What does anyone advise? If he has broken it then it's not our fault but I have 100% feedback and don't want any bad feedback left.

OP posts:

Original poster

ebayquery · 09/03/2015 17:10

currentname I am not moving the goal posts but maybe consider your aggressive way of answering a question.

To my knowledge- which is clearly lacking- the correct form of payment for sales is Paypal. Cash- to my knowledge- is discouraged for obvious reasons.

If he raises a dispute then I have the opportunity to respond. I hear what you are saying about it being in the buyer's favour.

However, the fact is that if we accept the return he has now damaged the chair and has even told me that he has removed some wood to try to salvage the situation, so he has damaged it even further.

OP posts:

currentnameinuse · 09/03/2015 17:22

Not being aggressive at all - just stating the facts, which you clearly don't want to hear. How do you know he has damaged it? Again - no proof.

RedRugNoniMouldiesEtc · 09/03/2015 17:30

here is ebay itself saying never accept PayPal on a collection item. Perhaps you'll believe them?

RedRugNoniMouldiesEtc · 09/03/2015 17:32

From the link "All that Paypal are interested in is that you must be able to provide the tracking number from the receipt that you got from the Post office.
Without that, Paypal will 100% certainly refund the buyer the money that he paid"

Original poster

ebayquery · 09/03/2015 17:44

Red the link you left is not from Ebay or Paypal- it's written by some man in Lancashire.

OP posts:

currentnameinuse · 09/03/2015 17:47

Paypal and collected items is a huge problem with eBay - they won't admit to the flaw in their business model as they will lose out on fees, and the illusion that eBay/Paypal is bombproof. There was a Mumsnetter who lost £400 when a mobile phone was collected. Finally, after much support here and from the eBay community Paypal finally backed down and gave her back the money - but it was a complete and utter nightmare.

But anyway - I'm done. You clearly won't listen as you know best.

RedRugNoniMouldiesEtc · 09/03/2015 17:50

And published on the eBay forum! Just Google it yourself, it's not difficult.

monkeysaymoo · 09/03/2015 18:02

Gosh what an ungrateful article you are OP. Why people are still bothering to offer you advice I have no idea.

Original poster

ebayquery · 09/03/2015 18:30

I'm not ungrateful at all- I'm a bit concerned that the thread has shown the buyer how they could defraud me if they had a mind to try it.
I asked really about the rights and wrongs of selling something that - more than a week after collection- the buyer contacted me to say he'd broken it and wanted a refund. I didn't ask about how to avoid fraud and be made to feel stupid for accepting payment via Paypal. I am asking for this thread to be deleted because potentially the info meant to help me may play right into the buyer's hands. Thanks for the support from those of you who were helpful.

OP posts:

Viviennemary · 09/03/2015 18:33

I don't think he should be entitled to a refund. If it's an antique chair it's for show not for everyday use. He sounds like a chancer to me.

poocatcherchampion · 09/03/2015 18:34

How much ££ are we talking here?

RedRugNoniMouldiesEtc · 09/03/2015 18:46

Honestly, have the thread deleted op by all means but please please Google this. This situation is all over the Internet because it is so well known we haven't told him anything that hasn't been written about 100s even 1000s of times before. It is however very very funny that you are so stubborn you'd like to try and blame us for your error if it does go wrong years ago hq would have told you not to be so silly - these days you'll probably find they will remove the thread though so that's good.

currentnameinuse · 09/03/2015 18:47

I agree with Red.

nauticant · 09/03/2015 19:00

Mad thread. It starts with the OP asking for advice on what to do and ends with her telling off posters who'd tried to help. It seems their offence was to have offered their assistance rather than engaging in a debate about morality.

Dumbledoresgirl · 09/03/2015 21:18

Thanks for that link Red. I'm afraid I have to agree with OP that, although it is printed on the ebay site, it is not actually endorsed by ebay, it is one man's opinion.

Not that I disagree with it at all. I see the sense entirely. But I am sure I was told you have to theoretically accept payment by paypal and indeed, you can't list an item for sale without giving your paypal address (or I can't anyway).

But back to the OP and the issue she has: it is outrageous that the buyer comes back after a week complaining that the chair is broken. I know you value your 100% feedback OP, but as I said before, if I were you, I would risk it in this case. I was once given a neutral feedback without any warning. It hurt at the time, but after 12 months, it slips from your profile anyway.

glammanana · 09/03/2015 22:13

I always insist on cash on collection and then mark as received on my sellers board as instructed by ebay,but what I would think in this case was how do we not know if the buyer never damaged the chair whilst in transit,he could have dropped it or anything at least if he had paid in cash you would be 100% certain he had inspected the item and went away with 100% intact.

RedRugNoniMouldiesEtc · 10/03/2015 00:02

Dumbledores incorrect and unsafe advice is removed from the forums so it is "endorsed" in some fashion. You can't list without offering PayPal, it is a known flaw on ebay however it is accepted practice not to use it when buying/selling collection items. If you Google there's various articles including one by the guardian which may convince anyone who needit.

As for the Op, this point is relevant. If the op cannot produce evidence such as a tracking number to show it was delivered the rest of it is moot as PayPal can refund purely on that basis. If that happens he gets the money and the chair so the op loses twice. In which case it makes sense to agree to a refund up front which means the op at least has the chair! (Which is why so many people are trying to explain the situation to her as making a stand on the moral issue here simply means she is going to end up seriously out of pocket)

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