Small claims court - seller won't tell me her address

[Masketti]

I bought something off a Facebook seller. It's terrible quality and I want to return it. He refuses to tell me his address for me to send it back and won't refund.

I contacted Trading Standards who said to issue him a template letter, but I can't because he won't tell me his address!

I want to go through the small claims court but how can I do that without his address? It's worth under £300 but more than £100.

Thanks for any advice.

Open a dispute on eBay.

Tigger Ebay is not Facebook.

You can get leave to serve the court papers on them via facebook messenger provided they haven't blocked you by then.

Google "tracing service" and you can choose from one of them to track down the seller.

You can send it by email if you have an email address

Is he registered with companies house at all, or just a private seller?

It's direct to seller via PayPal. PayPal have washed their hands due to their t&cs which this is excluded from.

He's blocked me from his selling page but not on Messenger it seems.

How might I get leave to serve that way please?

Private seller small company.

I do have an email address. Can I send that way as it's not clear from the Money Online website? Many thanks.

Looks like a tracing service would cost £23. Can I add that to the debt I'm claiming for please?

You need to send a letter before claim setting out what you claim you are owed & detailing what evidence you are going to use. This can be emailed as an attachment.

You need to do this before you fill in the money claim online forms & give them 14 days to respond.

You absolutely can add reasonable costs to the claim.

Have you checked to see if he's on the electoral roll? done a quick google of his name/town?

Oh bugger. Sorry, I read it as Ebay. Sorry.

Open a new fbook profile and post on his page? Do it repeatedly.

Can you check via 192.com or similar? It may be cheaper than instructing a tracing agent.

Not on electoral roll. No definitive answer from 192.com. He's a really tricky bastard and it's all so very clear when there's an issue he hides behind the Internet. The FB page has no reviews, any negative comments get deleted straight away. It's all so slick. I will definitely do my homework before I buy from a FB seller again.

I didn't realise I could send a letter before action via email. I will compose and send as soon as I can. Trading Standards advised used their template letters so I'll take a look there.

He's had all the evidence before in video and photos of how not working the product is. Can always send through again to prove it's the same evidence I've been banging on about for months. He didn't respond for a while and when I recontacted saying I still want a refund he said the issue must be down to wear and tear as I'd had it a few months! Despite the fact the photos and video are dated 3 days after I took delivery!

I may have done that Tigger but then again maybe I didn't

IANAL but you can serve Facebook with an order

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwich_Pharmacal_Order

Although anecdotal reports suggest that Facebook are very good at pretending they are above UK law ...

That's a big bit time for me although CAB did explain how to make a request to paypal of that ilk. I'll email the letter with evidence in the first instance.