Over the weekend I bid for a van on Ebay. I won the auction and yesterday I drove 80 miles to see it. After a test drive I decided against having it but the seller assured me that as I was the winning bidder I had contractually agreed to pay for the van. As one of his terms of sale was if he hasnt received funds withing seven days he has the right to relist it then surely hes given me a excuse to not pay? I certainly wont bid for a vehicle on there again unless I can see it during the bidding. Has anyone else had experience of this or similar?
I bought my current car on e-bay. Went to see it beforehand and went straight in with the "buy it now" price as bids were starting to go up rather quickly. One or two problems with it in the first couple of months but nothing to lose sleep over and the seller was really helpful afterwards.
He is right you have agreed to pay. if you are given the opportunity to view then you should do so, or its your risk and your fault. the only other get out is if upon inspection the vehicle is not as described.
yep , mate of mine buys them and re sells for a small profit , by bidding you are effectivley signing a contract to buy if you win, providing the item is as described etc etc... you can just flatly refuse to pay , whats the worst that can happen , he leaves negative feedback ..whoopee do ! he gets his fees back from ebay ,
He's right mate, you're wrong</p> You are agreeing to a contract -- You will enter into a legally binding contract to purchase the item from the seller if you're the winning bidder. You are responsible for reading the full item listing, including the seller's instructions and accepted payment methods. Seller assumes all responsibility for listing this item.</p>
My son 'bought' one, sight unseen, took a day off work and 3 trains to travel to Worcester.</p> As soon as he saw it he knew it was crap - but he refused to complete the transaction on the grounds that it wasn't as described.</p> Don't think he's had any comeback.</p>
Yes I did refuse to buy it. For a 3 yr old vehicle it just didnt drive well. No power, clutch was at the end of its tether and steering wasnt right.
Consider it a lesson then If you bid on an item on ebay, you are commiting to buy it and entering a contract to that effect. Contact the seller and inspect the vehicle before bidding next time. Meanwhile, you will get (deserved) negative feedback for this and a warning from ebay (3 strikes and you're out). The seller, if so inclined, probably has legal recourse against you but is unlikely to follow this through. Most likely he'll just relist the item and claim back his fees from ebay for the auction you cocked up. They do not pay in full though so it will leave him out of pocket.
I bought a Renault Laguna in April this year, it was local so I went to see it before I bid - excellent car at a bargain price. I understand that if you bid on something, and win, then you HAVE bought it unless you can justifiably claim that the item was incorrectly described - and the seller agrees. Otherwise you end up in a dispute and the seller usually reclaims his selling costs, and you get negative feedback etc. I sold a Discovery in may and the winner never contacted me in any way so I was well peed off. In the end the 2nd highest bidder came and had a look and bought it (not through eBay) so I reclaimed my selling costs. I would only buy if I could see the vehicle before bidding or it was at a very low price which I would be prepared to risk on the understanding that I might be getting a dog.
Mate from work bought one Turned out to be an utter death trap. He actually reported the seller to the Police given the condition of the vehcile. Didn't get his money back though as the seller hung himself (he hopes for other reasons) before my mate started Court Proceedings. Moral of the story ... never buy a car from e-bay!
RE: A case of "Let the seller beware"! before you bid or win i would go and see if the seller allows the car/van/bike to be looked at.If not why?
It will be valid But unless the vehicle was falsely advertised, stolen, clocked or unsafe, I don't see how there'd be a case. And in any event, I'm not sure how easy it is to make the case stick in a secondhand "sold as seen" private sale. As I understand this one, he saw a car advertised, contracted to buy before test-driving, then drove it, whereupon he decided to pull out. If the advert was a reasonable description of the vehicle it is not the seller's fault he committed to buy it before seeing it.
Whilst it's hard to be categoric, I doubt that "seller suicide" is a typical pitfall of Ebay vehicle trading. I think I would have heard more about it if it were. Take your point though, Ebay is a ******* minefield, and the bigger the purchase, the more cash you are risking.
Sorry headmaster Didnt have chance to view the vehicle as the auction was almost over by the time i had placed my bid. The negative feedback can sit alongside all the positive feedback from my previous transactions.
