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Court over eBay Auction??????

Hi all! Been AGES since I was last on here (apologies for those who PM'd me & I didn't get back to you). As most of you must know, I recently graduated from uni, and being passionate about business, I decided to buy a van.

To begin with, the first place I went to was ebay (don't really know why). Anyhow, the van I wanted was on Auction & I bid & won the auction. Now, having only graduated and being inexperienced in the business sector, I didn't take into consideration the FULL costs involved & thought my father would cover it.

I've won the auction, and he's not willing to pay 6.5k for the van I won (plus my insurance is sky-high- which I was hoping to pay myself). I've tried explaining the situation to the seller, however he has replied saying I have to pay for the item or he will issue a court summons via "Money Claim Online" as my bid is a legal binding contract as I have won.

I know I've made a stupid mistake & should have known better, but has anyone been in this situation in the past?

what do i do?

Can he really take me to court over this????????? :|

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Reply 1
Original post by Mint_1
Hi all! Been AGES since I was last on here (apologies for those who PM'd me & I didn't get back to you). As most of you must know, I recently graduated from uni, and being passionate about business, I decided to buy a van.

To begin with, the first place I went to was ebay (don't really know why). Anyhow, the van I wanted was on Auction & I bid & won the auction. Now, having only graduated and being inexperienced in the business sector, I didn't take into consideration the FULL costs involved & thought my father would cover it.

I've won the auction, and he's not willing to pay 6.5k for the van I won (plus my insurance is sky-high- which I was hoping to pay myself). I've tried explaining the situation to the seller, however he has replied saying I have to pay for the item or he will issue a court summons via "Money Claim Online" as my bid is a legal binding contract as I have won.

I know I've made a stupid mistake & should have known better, but has anyone been in this situation in the past?

what do i do?

Can he really take me to court over this????????? :|


Firstly, silly you.

I'd just ignore it, it'll be a lot of hassle for him to try to take this to court and if you haven't got the money then there's nothing to pay him with - try and explain this to him? He can just relist the auction anyway and sell it to someone else.

Have you read up on Money Claim Online?
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/ManagingDebt/Makingacourtclaimformoney/DG_195688
https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome
Original post by Mint_1
I didn't take into consideration the FULL costs involved & thought my father would cover it.

I've won the auction, and he's not willing to pay 6.5k for the van I won



You're either an idiot or a spoilt brat. Or both.


If the van went for £6,500, I'm not surprised the seller is miffed!!
Reply 3
Hi all! Been AGES since I was last on here (apologies for those who PM'd me & I didn't get back to you). As most of you must know, I recently graduated from uni, and being passionate about business, I decided to buy a van.

To begin with, the first place I went to was ebay (don't really know why). Anyhow, the van I wanted was on Auction & I bid & won the auction. Now, having only graduated and being inexperienced in the business sector, I didn't take into consideration the FULL costs involved & thought my father would cover it.

I've won the auction, and he's not willing to pay 6.5k for the van I won (plus my insurance is sky-high- which I was hoping to pay myself). I've tried explaining the situation to the seller, however he has replied saying I have to pay for the item or he will issue a court summons via "Money Claim Online" as my bid is a legal binding contract as I have won.

I know I've made a stupid mistake & should have known better, but has anyone been in this situation in the past?

what do i do?

Can he really take me to court over this????????? :|
Reply 4
Just explain your situation, and that you are willing to pay his advertising fees, as he will now have to re-list it so will be pretty annoyed about that.

I don't know if he can take you to court, sounds a bit extreme tbf
Reply 5
omg are you 'mint2sxc4u'
done it before but with 35£ not 6,5k lol so yes, in fact he actually can take you to court if he wants. I recommend you to be as friendly as possible and tell him that you will pay him the advertising fees + some money (less than 100£). If he does not agree and continues to threaten you of taking you to court you can a) threaten him using another account on public wi fi to make him accept the previous deal b) ignore and wait, most people do not really want to be involved in court cases so he will end up doing nothing (also it is not free to take someone to court as it costs time and money) c) convince your father. I am experienced ebayer (both seller & buyer) and had many issues, though not with items such as a van, most of them were solved by deferred payment/item swaps/friendly agreement.
Reply 7
Why did you expect your father to pay??? And if he offered to help, why not tell him it was £6500 before hand? You've dug yourself this hole tbh. The seller is being unreasonable and I doubt it would go to court. But I can't believe you've just got a business degree but didn't have the intelligence to work out the costs and talk it out with your dad first:dontknow:
Original post by Mint_1


Can he really take me to court over this????????? :|


So, what did you study for three years at university? Obviously nothing to do with handling your own finances :rolleyes:
Original post by Mint_1
Hi all! Been AGES since I was last on here (apologies for those who PM'd me & I didn't get back to you). As most of you must know, I recently graduated from uni, and being passionate about business, I decided to buy a van.

To begin with, the first place I went to was ebay (don't really know why). Anyhow, the van I wanted was on Auction & I bid & won the auction. Now, having only graduated and being inexperienced in the business sector, I didn't take into consideration the FULL costs involved & thought my father would cover it.

I've won the auction, and he's not willing to pay 6.5k for the van I won (plus my insurance is sky-high- which I was hoping to pay myself). I've tried explaining the situation to the seller, however he has replied saying I have to pay for the item or he will issue a court summons via "Money Claim Online" as my bid is a legal binding contract as I have won.

I know I've made a stupid mistake & should have known better, but has anyone been in this situation in the past?

what do i do?

Can he really take me to court over this????????? :|


Are you saying that you won an item on eBay, but you didn't actually pay? If that's the case, no one can force you to pay for it, and of course at the same time that'd mean that you'd have no item.

If that is the case, then let the seller take you to court and if he requests to cancel his final value fees, I'd decline - purely on the basis that the seller is harassing you in to purchasing the item.

Not that you've been too great yourself however. Next time, check to see if you can afford it and you can also afford the insurance

The eBay "legal contract" have no real legal bindings. Imagine if you told Comet you wanted to buy a really expensive TV, and they brought it down etc...where your card was then declined. It would create a lot of nuisance for Comet, but ultimately they can't force you to pay when you have no money.

They aren't banks (and even then, banks are regulated some what)

EDIT: Fair enough, they are "legally binding" but have never been tried in courts:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=1153951

but seemingly they can only sue for the difference, so if it sold for more than 6.5K again, they can't do much

EDIT 2: eBay contracts seem a very dodgy grey area, and tbf the seller would probably not sue you for not paying because he's not actually lost any thing. He still has the item

http://forum.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=49482135
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 10
You're fine. Explain that you don't have the money and that he should just re-list it - he's only trying to scare you.

Obviously, try to avoid doing this in the future since it is a real p*** take for sellers!
Original post by Mint_1
Hi all! Been AGES since I was last on here (apologies for those who PM'd me & I didn't get back to you). As most of you must know, I recently graduated from uni, and being passionate about business, I decided to buy a van.

To begin with, the first place I went to was ebay (don't really know why). Anyhow, the van I wanted was on Auction & I bid & won the auction. Now, having only graduated and being inexperienced in the business sector, I didn't take into consideration the FULL costs involved & thought my father would cover it.

I've won the auction, and he's not willing to pay 6.5k for the van I won (plus my insurance is sky-high- which I was hoping to pay myself). I've tried explaining the situation to the seller, however he has replied saying I have to pay for the item or he will issue a court summons via "Money Claim Online" as my bid is a legal binding contract as I have won.

I know I've made a stupid mistake & should have known better, but has anyone been in this situation in the past?

what do i do?

Can he really take me to court over this????????? :|


Yes he can take you to court, chances are he won't though as it's a giant waste of time and money.

Best bet is to send a very sorrowful email explaining how deeply sorry you are and that it is impossible for you to buy the van. He probably wont pursue it and you will get a black mark against your eBay account.
Reply 12
You could at least offer him the listing & final value fees as a form of compensation if you were feeling generous? You have wasted lots of his time and money by not paying for a van which you agreed to buy!
You could ask him to raise an item cancellation which you must accept so that he gets his listing fees etc back so he can just re-list and nothing is lost on either side.
If he doesn't accept that, then he obviously feels that his item is not worth as much as what you were planning to pay him in any case.
Reply 14
Seriously?

You've graduated from university with an upper second in Business Management, and you didn't know that if you contract with someone to buy something, you have to go to go through with it?

This isn't boding well for your entrepreneurial career.
Reply 15
Just buy the van, you're going to have to deal with debt, a loan maybe? Bit of a mistake if you ask me but it was your decision.. People make mistakes and you've got to learn from it.

Buy the van, deal with the insurance and get on with the money making. If you were really fantastic at business, you'd make a profit and you'll pay if off in no time..

Good luck.
Reply 16
Hi guys,

Thank you all for your tremendous help :smile: I've tried speaking to the seller but he's suggested he's going to relist the item on ebay, then issue a court summons with the difference in price (if any), his time wasted etc and listing fees etc.

So lets see how it goes huh. Looks like I'll have to get a solicitor or something? :frown: But hey, if it saves 6.5k then i guess it should be worth it.

Will keep you updated on what happens next :smile:


Thank you all once again XX
Reply 17
OP becoming bankrupt: Over/Under 1 year?
Reply 18
Original post by The_Procrastinator
You're either an idiot or a spoilt brat. Or both.


If the van went for £6,500, I'm not surprised the seller is miffed!!


ahaha "miffed" that's quality. never heard that one before
Original post by IndyAM
You could at least offer him the listing & final value fees as a form of compensation if you were feeling generous? You have wasted lots of his time and money by not paying for a van which you agreed to buy!


He could also get the final value fees refunded, so just the listing fee would need to be paid

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