Hi

I sell items on Ebay and recenly made a mess of things. A buyer
purchased an item worth £30 from me. However, I messed up and sent him
another Ebayer's purchase worth around £400. The seller refuses to
return it even though I have promised to refund his original purchase
(which has gone completely missing) along with a generous good will
'reward'.

The purchaser of the higher priced item, who has already paid, is very
understanding but is starting to lose patience and I don't have the
money to refund him.

Any ideas what I can do? How do I stand legally? I've tried phoning
the seller but they have given a false number to Ebay.

Any help would be so gratefully received.

Kindest regards,

Mark

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Clarification of Question by yellowsub-ga on 04 Jan 2005 05:00 PST

Thanks guys. He lives about 200 miles away so it would be annoying, but worth it!!

Probono - I can probably borrow some money for the refund but any idea
if I could take the guy to the small claims court or something?

Thanks again!!

You have 2 separate problems:

1: You must refund the £400, some way or another or you are in trouble.

2: You should contact ebay for advice on recovering the goods. They
may well say that you created the problem and that there is nothing
that they can do. Nevertheless you should go down this route for
starters.

Good Luck!

You've got the recipients address - pay them a surprise visit and ask
for the item back in person. That obviously depends on just how much
time and money you're willing to spend recovering it(!)

This is a sad case indeed. I truly feel for you, yellowsub.

Note a similar tale told from the opposite perspective in this question:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=450155

leapinglizard

You must immediately refund the money to the buyer who paid but did
not receive anything.  Sending out the wrong item was your fault, as
was spending this person's money.  They could and should take legal
action against you if you don't.
Unfortunately, since this was your mistake, the person who received
the wrong item is under no obligation to send it back.  Morally they
should, but legally you don't really have a leg to stand on.

What were the goods, in each case?

Goods sent in error are loosely classed as unsolicited. The law
changed a few years back where it used to be that ownership of the
goods was transferred after 6 months (?) if the sender made no
reasonable attempt at recovery. Now however, unsolicited is I believe
?yours for the keeping?. Have a word with your local Trading Standards
though -- there may be provisions for cases such as this.

The other thing which might precipitate decent behaviour, is a threat
to black the person?s Member Profile, followed up by actuality if this
doesn?t ?persuade?. Best to speak with Ebay on the subject of course.

My sympathy for your disaccommodation, when clearly you are just trying to be fair.

Best