Ebay

[pompei]

Just out of interest, are there any sanctions that can be taken against non-paying bidders under the new regime?

[Guest]

Feedbacks out the window but you can still report non payment and take it from there-I am led to believe.

[Twiggy]

Through the courts, I`m told. Once you`ve bid successfully on an auction item, it`s a binding contract, and you`re legally obliged to cough up the moolly, unless you can show good reason why not, such as it`s been wilfully misdescribed. Whether it`s worth the bother or not, is another question !

[Ross_K]

Just out of interest, are there any sanctions that can be taken against non-paying bidders under the new regime?

Not really.File unpaid item dispute, claim your listing and final value fees back, and the buyer gets an unpaid item strike (woooo!).Fucking hopeless system in my humble opinion. At least when you could neg a deadbeat in the good old days, you could get some small level of satisfaction...

[Mr Lobster]

^ What he says. Ebay will dish out unpaid item strikes but unless someone wins and then doesn't pay for at least three items a month then there is effectively bugger ebay will do.However, if the winning bidder who refuses to pay also happens to sell things on ebay, you could perhaps set up a second (third?) ebay account, bid on their stuff and give them a dose of their own medicine.Not that I have ever done this. Never. Oh no. Not me at all.

[Richard]

Is an eBay auction really legally binding? I read somewhere that it isn't.

[Volksy]

Is an eBay auction really legally binding? I read somewhere that it isn't.

I would say it probably isn't, as in court the seller would have to be able to prove that the none paying bidder was actually the person who placed the bid. I'm sure the whole 'my 3 year old/dog/wife/hamster/gimp/goldfish placed the bid without my knowledge' would get it thrown out of court.

[Cavcraft]

I've known people who have sowrn they have taken non-payers to the small claims court.One in particular says no-one has ever actually attended and therefore the case is always found in his favour.I think he said the best way of doing it is to re-list the item and if fetches less next time round you basically claim for the difference plus listing and FVF fees.Trouble is what if it doesn't go 2nd time round or the original non-payer gets his mates to bid it up?Probably best to put in Auto Trader next time round then scre the n/p for the difference.Don't forget you can still leave a negative comment with a positive 'green dot' even though it doesn't efffect their percentage rating.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Even if you do take em to the small claims court, and you win, if they still dont pay up nowt happens anyway. The court decision is pointless.Two people I know have launched small claims court proceedings, which have been delayed and appealed against and what have you for years, eventually the court case comes round, the decision goes in their favour, the defendant is told to pay. He simply fails to do so and nowt becomes of it, making you wonder why you fuggin bothered. In one of these 2 cases, the story has dragged on for about 3 years and he's never got a bean back. Its bollocks.As for ebay, if someone ruins your auction by bidding then not paying, beyond reclaiming the FVF fee there is absolutely jack you can do, you have to quite literally accept it as routine part of the ebay experience now. It too is bollocks.Incidentally i see that if you sell something on eBay and the buyer pays with paypal, then Paypal reserves the right to hang onto your money for 3 weeks 'just in case' anything goes wrong with the transaction! What on earth! I wonder how much they will make in interest on that, for doing absolutley NOWT.

[nigel bickle]

I've had 3 'non payers' on 'major 'iems. Eay were no good whatsoever.So I took all 3 to County Court. 2 I won, third settled on the day -in full (subsequently discovered his Dads a Magistrate there!)First 2 cases both then elected to ignore me; so I paid for a Sheriffs Bbailiff (not Magistrates Bailiff -they are useless) to collect. He succeeded admirably with one, failed with the second.I then commenced Bankrutcy proceedings, since with costs added it now exceeded the minimum needed.He chose to ignore the Stat Dec, but sat up at the Petition and settled in full -with costs. Interesting thing is he still failed to collect the car- so after I had accrued further storage charges I resold it.I've 2 more I must file against individuals I strongly consider to have wronged me, when time permits.Frankly - this sort of thing pisses me right off, and ,if poss, I'll hound them to the end of the process.If I DO start this -I've not lost yet -but i accept that there will sometime -be a 'first' time.

[andrew e]

I'm waiting for Yahoo to start its uk auctions like its JP ones.

[Cavcraft]

Yahoo did you used to have an on-line auction. I discovered it before eBay and I think they actually sold out to them in the end.

[CortinaDave]

Ebay are a bunch of c**ts these days they charge the earth and then do as much to make the sale process as difficult and weighed in their favour as possible... and they get away with it because they have the monopoly.on the plus side ebid - http://uk.ebid.net/ seems to be picking up momentum - just did a search for "cortina" and it came back with 98 items.. no listing fees so i'm going to try some stuff on it soon and see how i get on. I reckon ebay will quickly become a lot more helpful if they get some serious competition.Yahoo did have auctions but I'm pretty sure they packed them in because not enough people were using them, bit like QXL

[Mr_Bo11ox]

re. eBid, was it 98 cortina-related items, or 1 cortina and 97 chinese watches?

[Justin Case]

No actual cars, but a number of maps of the Italian ski resort named after the iconic Ford have been somehow included. On the other hand things tend to be put in the right categories and it is easy to see what is available from the list on the left hand side; none of this 'best match' nonsense

[mirafioriman]

Never been on ebid before, perhaps we should spread the word and start using it seriously then it might get some response from ebay. Just been on it and there are a few Fiat related items on there. I might try listing a few things.....

[CortinaDave]

Its one of those things thats either going to pick up fairly quickly or fall on its arse. I'm going to list some stuff at "buy it now" prices to do my bit tho.. we all need a bit of competition for ebay

[Cavcraft]

I'm happy to give it a bash. I've railed bitterly to myself about how the fact that 102 cars for sale turned out to be 99 keyrings, two plastic travel mugs and a Ford Transit minibus that was about two grand more than it was worth, but someone has got to be a rival to eBay.

[garycox]

ARGH!I had a few items to list on ebay today...Four went on successfully, no problem.Went to submit the listing for the 5th item, was greeted with a message saying I couldn't sell anything because my paypal account had not been verified.According to paypal this involves receiving 2 small amounts into my account (free money?) and then I have to tell them how much they were. It doesn't, however, say how long this will take or how long I won't be able to list things for...Has anybody else had this?

[Justin Case]

Yes I had this, the process was actually quite straightforward. Apparently it's something to do with money laundering; the fact that I had had nearly £700 through my account in the last year made them suspect that I was the mastermind behind some drug/diamond/gold smuggling ring and the only way that they could be sure that I wasn't was to stuff 18p into my account.

[Cavcraft]

Borrocks! No let me add debit card the tosspottting wankstains. Some shite about details not being correct but they bloody well are.

[AXrescuer]

Its one of those things that's either going to pick up fairly quickly or fall on its arse. I'm going to list some stuff at "buy it now" prices to do my bit tho.. we all need a bit of competition for ebay

Ebid's been going for 9 years now. I've had some success over there personally. It's nice knowing that when you make a sale, you get to keep most of yer cash unlike selling on FeeBay.

[mirafioriman]

Signed up for ebid just now. There is always a catch however, to list for free you have a seller account..... this enables you to list one item as an auction, not multiple auctions and not with buy it now prices. For this you need a seller+ account, for which you have to pay. So although it may be cheaper than ebay it is not free unless you sell one item at a time as an auction.Please excuse me and correct me if I have misunderstood, but thats the way I read it.

[Justin Case]

With the basic seller account on Ebid you can list as many individual auctions as you like, no fee to list and 3% final value fee.With the seller + account you have no listing or final value fees, you can have a gallery photo (appears on the list of items) for 2% of final price, and more to the point you can have 'buy now' for no fee and you can send invoices and get paid automatically, instead of having to send an email and arrange payment yourself. You can also open up to five 'shops' at no costThe snag is it costs you: £1,99 for 7 days, £6.99 for a month or special offer of £49.99 for life. If you plan to sell a lot then it is worthwhile, but selling rates are a lot lower than ebay so you have to take account of that too before deciding, because at present it is a bit of an act of faith