Buying a machine on eBay sight unseen with pallet delivery

[Jonm]

It didn't and he threatened to to take me to court.

That made me smile.
A friend, many years ago had a Vauxhall which was forever going wrong, parts were cheap and being a 70’s car was easy to work on but he was always complaining about the time he spent repairing it. In the end it was reliable due to all the new bits, perhaps the purchaser of your disco thought the same.

 

[Shane1978]

No. When you sign up to e bay you undertake to buy something if you are the winning bidder, those are the rules.

This is utter nonsense. I don’t know why people on here are saying this stuff. It’s 100% normal to pull out of a sale. Refund the sellers fees if that makes things easier, but there is 0 obligation - it’s eBay, not a court of law. And if an item costs £1000 then even more so. Seller must understand they can’t sell something for £1k without people wanting to see it before paying and without the possibility that delivery/palleting etc falls apart.
Sellers routinely pull out of an auction cos they got a great offer. Buyers routinely make offers. Sales fall apart after the auction. Ignore anyone who says otherwise - they don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s even an option on the eBay drop-down list of ‘problems with the sale’. If eBay offers it as an option it’s most certainly not against their ‘terms of service’ or the ‘rules’ or any other legal-sounding phrase that people are using to scare you.
Personally I’d only buy something that expensive if I could go and look at it. But if you’ve won the auction the balls in your court. You can pull out at anytime if you’re not happy. It’s the sellers job to ensure this all goes through by helping and communicating. If they don’t they’ll lose the sale. Simples.

 

[ScottandSargeant]

Hi all,

Ive won a bid on a Wadkin machine (Sunday eve) Ive not paid yet, I sent the seller an email this morning, just requesting some details, but so far no response.

As its over £1k, I thought it was reasonable to ask some more details - the description is “good working order” and “good condition no faults” so just wanted to check that’s correct.

So far Ive had no reply, should I be concerned?

TIA

You’ve got to ask before you bid…if you have outbid someone and then back out, the buyer has lost a sale where probably the under bidder who has done some due diligence.
take the feed back into consideration but Also consider what is NOT said in the description.
i have had some great bargains, I have also wondered why I was so stupid on occasion. If you want a guarantee buy from a dealer who can offer you some form of backup or support

 

[RobinBHM]

One thing Ive noticed from the images is one half of the cutter has been heavily used but the other side is totally clean and the cutters look like their unused.

I suppose some people use one side till it’s blunt, then swap to the other - on a 12” machine that gives 6” which prob covers 90% of work for many people

if it’s because one side doesn’t feed, I wouldve thought that could be sorted out.

All old machines have problems, its expected - unless they’ve been fully refurbished by a main dealer.

 

[shed9]

This is utter nonsense. I don’t know why people on here are saying this stuff. It’s 100% normal to pull out of a sale. Refund the sellers fees if that makes things easier, but there is 0 obligation - it’s eBay, not a court of law. And if an item costs £1000 then even more so. Seller must understand they can’t sell something for £1k without people wanting to see it before paying and without the possibility that delivery/palleting etc falls apart.
Sellers routinely pull out of an auction cos they got a great offer. Buyers routinely make offers. Sales fall apart after the auction. Ignore anyone who says otherwise - they don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s even an option on the eBay drop-down list of ‘problems with the sale’. If eBay offers it as an option it’s most certainly not against their ‘terms of service’ or the ‘rules’ or any other legal-sounding phrase that people are using to scare you.
Personally I’d only buy something that expensive if I could go and look at it. But if you’ve won the auction the balls in your court. You can pull out at anytime if you’re not happy. It’s the sellers job to ensure this all goes through by helping and communicating. If they don’t they’ll lose the sale. Simples.

A seller can list and sell whatever they want so long as they comply with the conditions of selling. They have no obligation to 'understand they can’t sell something for £1k without people wanting to see it before paying'. Value is subjective anyhow. Yes, technically a buyer can pull out anytime they want but if the seller is upfront and there are no extenuating circumstances or an issue with the item being sold then that's just a crappy move.

Contracts are based on an offer, due consideration, an acceptance of that offer and the implied subsequent intention to create an effective legal relation concerning that offer. It could be argued that ebay delivers that process and that this is sufficiently understood by participants on the website, you agree to the T&C's of the auction process and accept you understand those when you join. Enforcing ebay contracts however is clearly not easy else the web would be full of legal battles being fought and played out on social media. It ultimately requires a need to evidence loss which is fairly moot in most ebay auctions. Also distance selling introduces geographical jurisdiction issues in itself.

In short, it is possible to legally enforce a winning bid on ebay (albeit not with in the ebay system), just little point in doing it. Ebay works because of trust between seller and buyer. Once you start talking legal threats, there is little pragmatic recourse but to just both walk away from the sale and possibly ebay for that matter.

 

[robgul]

If there's any sort of issue on a sale/purchase then ebay (IME) sides with the buyer pretty much 99.9% of the time.

Even if the item is listed for sale as "no returns" the buyer doesn't have to say much in the way of a flimsy excuse for ebay's process to override the "no returns" stipulation and force a return and refund from the seller (and that's made even easier for ebay now they control the accounting rather than Paypal)

 

[Jonm]

Why can you not have a conversation with the seller before the auction ends? I do this all the time buying watches. It's easy to circumvent e bay's messaging block in sharing numbers or e mail addresses.

My comment was responding to someone who was being very specific about eBay rules and what you are signing up to. In that scenario, following the rules to the letter, you cannot have a conversation with the seller. Of course you can get around the rules.

I like to collect watches as well. Not bought any for a long time.

 

[Jonm]

Lots of comments on here about what you are signing up to when you put a bid in on eBay.

If you are following eBay rules, to the letter, is it actually within the rules to inspect an auction item before bidding. I know that eBay used to delete phone numbers from messages but I have now been reading that they scan messages and ban people who try to make contact, outside of eBay, prior to sale.

 

[Vann]

No. When you sign up to e bay you undertake to buy something if you are the winning bidder, those are the rules. If you don't like them and the inherent risks involved...

Yeah right. So what other online auction site do you suggest he use instead? Agreeing to those rules is what you do to get on the site - just like when you tick the box to say you've read the terms and conditions on any of 100 sites. You just tick the box...

Cheers, Vann.

 

[shed9]

Lots of comments on here about what you are signing up to when you put a bid in on eBay.

If you are following eBay rules, to the letter, is it actually within the rules to inspect an auction item before bidding. I know that eBay used to delete phone numbers from messages but I have now been reading that they scan messages and ban people who try to make contact, outside of eBay, prior to sale.

They do now allow sharing of contact telephone details prior to and post sale however the two parties need to opt-in to this option on their account settings. They also need to accept that their comms could be monitored and any attempt to complete a sale out of ebay will be actioned on. They have threatened financial action in the past but I'm not aware of that happening as yet, doesn't mean it hasn't though obviously.

 

[rwillett]

Has anybody got experience of pallet deliveries arranged through ebay - my concern is how the seller will fit to pallet and how well it will be protected.

I brought a right rear Skoda Octavia door as it was cheaper to buy a second hand door than to replace the broken quarter glass. Came on a pallet and I was absolutely delighted with the condition and the delivery. Zero issues, but this was the sellers job so they did it properly.

 

[Rich C]

In short, it is possible to legally enforce a winning bid on ebay (albeit not with in the ebay system), just little point in doing it. Ebay works because of trust between seller and buyer. Once you start talking legal threats, there is little pragmatic recourse but to just both walk away from the sale and possibly ebay for that matter.

It depends what you mean by enforce. You can't legally force someone to go through with a sale, all you can do is sue for breach of contract which should put the damaged party back to the same position they were in before the contract was entered into. In the context of ebay that would mean claiming things like sellers fees and any other losses from not completing the sale (including change of value if the price has subsequently fallen).

 

[shed9]

It depends what you mean by enforce. You can't legally force someone to go through with a sale, all you can do is sue for breach of contract which should put the damaged party back to the same position they were in before the contract was entered into. In the context of ebay that would mean claiming things like sellers fees and any other losses from not completing the sale (including change of value if the price has subsequently fallen).

Agreed, you got me but pure semantics in terms of enforcing a situation. Clearly if you are in legal proceedings the chances of following through with the exchange of goods and finances are fairly moot. However you could also technically request commitment to that agreement if those damages were not deemed adequate comparative to following through with the sale. Again, highly exceptionally rare and very unlikely, so yeah, but no, but yeah.

 

[Rich C]

To be fair, once it gets to court all bets are off. Would really depend on the mood of the district judge. Just one reason it's a bad idea to let things get that far.

 

[deema]

I understand that buying at auction, once the hammer falls (so to speak) the transaction is complete. If your the highest bidder you own the product. It’s for the buyer to insure the item and the risk immediate passes to them, ie if someone is harmed by it, or it’s damaged your liable! The seller has the absolute right to seek payment and the county courts will uphold the sellers rights. With it being second hand only the Sale of goods Act 1979 applies you have no cover under the Consumer Rights act 2015. EBay cannot change the interpretation or enforcement of the acts by its own arbitrary bylaws you sign up to use the site. But what it does mean is that you have the right as a buyer to return any item that isn’t as described, meets the requirements of the product etc.

 

[Rich C]

In a normal auction run by an auctioneer yes, but I'm not sure if ebay qualifies as a proper auction in that respect.

 

[deema]

@Rich C I’m not a lawyer, so Im not qualified to give an opinion just express a view eBays rules do state that for this classification of item then it’s a binding agreement. It presents itself as facilitating auctions, so I believe the law would treat it as an auction. The old, what a reasonable person would understand / interpretation argument.

 

[TRITON]

This is utter nonsense.

How about rewording this to. 'I don't think you are correct in this'.

 

[shed9]

I understand that buying at auction, once the hammer falls (so to speak) the transaction is complete. If your the highest bidder you own the product. It’s for the buyer to insure the item and the risk immediate passes to them, ie if someone is harmed by it, or it’s damaged your liable! The seller has the absolute right to seek payment and the county courts will uphold the sellers rights. With it being second hand only the Sale of goods Act 1979 applies you have no cover under the Consumer Rights act 2015. EBay cannot change the interpretation or enforcement of the acts by its own arbitrary bylaws you sign up to use the site. But what it does mean is that you have the right as a buyer to return any item that isn’t as described, meets the requirements of the product etc.

Given its ebay, in addition to the Consumer Rights Act (2015) I suspect a lot the legislation will be based on distance selling and consumer contract law such as; The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 There is a chunk of legislation in there that makes it law for the seller, i.e. ebay to make you aware of this law in that process.

Ironically this also does away with ebay sellers claiming no refunds unless not as described or faulty as legally the buyer can return goods within 14 days purely on the basis that goods cannot be physically viewed prior to purchase.

Either way, however it pans out for the OP, we expect eventual pics or it didn't happen.

 

[Daniel2]

How about rewording this to. 'I don't think you are correct in this'.

Or: "With respect, I would beg to differ"....