Is an Ebay winning bid a legally binding contract?

FlyOver

A friend of mine bid and won an item on Ebay. They decided they were not happy to pay for the item once won, due to the post and packaging being too expensive, and informed the seller. A dispute was made to Ebay for an amount less than €165. The time to settle the dispute via Ebay has expired and now the seller has sent emails stating they are going to take legal action if costs related to this matter are not paid. The seller is based in Germany and the buyer is based here in Ireland.

Is an Ebay winning bid a legally binding contract and what legal proceedings could take place? This dispute has put me off using Ebay myself.

jor el

Did he not read the auction before bidding, and see the postage costs? Changing your mind about it afterwards or not reading it properly in the first place is no excuse for not going through.

A winning bid is a legally binding contract between buyer and seller, but I'm not sure how enforceable it is. The only legal proceedings the seller could take would be to take your friend to civil court for the costs, but if the seller hasn't actually sent anything (I assume is the case since your friend didn't pay) then there won't be any costs. There shouldn't be any eBay fees for the seller to pay either as I assume he started the eBay dispute to recover his fees.

It's probably an idle threat, either that or the seller doesn't quite know what he's talking about either and is hoping to scare your friend into paying. eBay will take no more action than giving a non-paying bidder strike, which may result in your friend not being able to buy again as other sellers will be wary of such a user.

Vikings

Well first off, your friend should have checked the postage costs before bidding.

Second, I don't think the seller would have a legal leg to stand on. It would be different if he sent the item and did not get paid but in this case then no, I hardly think he will pursue this any further.

Your friend would want to take a pretty detailed read through the eBay user agreement though to cover himself.

FlyOver

It doesn't make any sense to me. My friend said she has not recieved a strike from Ebay, which indicates to me that the seller mutually agreed to drop the dispute and get refunded any fees from Ebay relating to the matter. The listing can not even be viewed anymore on Ebay, so proving what terms and conditions were listed would seem difficult. The seller just seems to be chasing a sale.

For the amount involved I couldn't see it worth the sellers while bringing the case to a civil court and trying to make someone buy an item from them, especially as it's under €165. The original problem she was saying was that the cost of postage and packaging was €100 more than postage and packaging for the UK and therefore refused to pay. A similar situation could be going into a shop, picking something off the shelf, getting to the check out to be told it's actually double the price and therefore you refuse to pay.

311

If someone has a reading disability and they use ebay ,surely no law can justify making a criminal out of them ,for not reading terms.

Jack Bauer999

Its your friends responsibility to find out what the Post and Packaging charges are before bidding on an item,
If its not displayed then simply enquire from the seller. It their own fault if they blindly just bid on a item without
finding out the total costs first.

I imagine the seller is pissed off and probably rightly so as they have gone to the time/trouble of auctioning their item, have missed out on other bidders and are just getting messed around now.

If it me I would do the same thing unless the buyer apologised and explained it was their own fault and didn’t realise how
much the P&P was going to be. If they just refused to pay then I would follow it up and try claim off them.

finbarrk

You should never bid on anything if you aren't happy with the p&p charges, its as simple as that.
If I was the seller I'd be pissed off too.

FlyOver

finbarrk wrote: »

You should never bid on anything if you aren't happy with the p&p charges, its as simple as that.
If I was the seller I'd be pissed off too.

I agree she should have enquired and got the actual p&p for the item for Ireland before placing a bid. Her arguement was the p&p was a lot more than that for the UK, as in it was €100 for Ireland and €30 for the UK, she was only informed after she won the bid. I thought the fact that she didn't recieve a strike from Ebay for not paying was strange.

Apparently there hasn't been any further contact from the seller for a while, must have given up.

The_Conductor

It shouldn't put you off using ebay- just be careful re shipping. I get stuff from all over the world on ebay- but am careful as hell about shipping. I won an auction for 9 Heinlein books earlier in the week- for $4, the shipping being $12- which is amazing (then again the cheap dollar helps). Moral of the story is- if the shipping price is not clear- ask before you bid.

S/

Jeff Albertson

Hello, a "friend" of mine was complaining about the people who buy tickets for concerts etc, and then flog them at crazy prices on Ebay.

HIS plan is to bid crazy money for some tickets, and win the auctions. Obviously HES not going to pay for the tickets, its mainly just to inconvenience the touts.

HE has an Ebay account but doesent care about getting kicked off, however its says something about a legally binding contract and HE doesent want to be taken to court for not paying for 600 Peter Kay tickets which HE agreed to pay 2000Eur each for?

Is worst case scenario to be kicked off Ebay?

KTRIC

This is a bit odd. I'm living in Germany at the moment and recently sold a lot of stuff on ebay. I would say about 75% of the stuff I sold to Germans there was problems. Some refused to pay, collect goods, complained when items didn't arrive the next day.

I hate to generalize but I would never ever sell stuff to Germans on ebay again.

RoadKillTs

Is worst case scenario to be kicked off Ebay?

Probably

jor el

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