Is it possible to sue eBay in small claim court?

[jlch_9]

Long story short, I have a recent order that involves Global Shipping Program. The seller refunded the order because it was out of stock, but the Global Shipping Program fees, including shipping, and customs charges were not refunded. I filled an "item not received" case and thought it was a straightforward one. But eBay closed that case and claim they won't refund anything they charged for GSP. Requesting a call from eBay won't help - they said they would open an appeal, but in the following up email they said they will keep the decision.

I am thinking of suing eBay in a small claim court. The situation is simple and easy to prove - I paid for a service from eBay, I didn't receive the service, and eBay refuses to refund. Has anyone done that before? I am located in BC. Do I have to submit the small claim case to Ontario, or do I have to do it in BC?

[litono]

Hi,

I have a similar issue as yours, I listed 1 item Ebay bidding, 1bidder won the bid but he is from oversea, at first I did not want to ship but he convinced me that I willing to pay because he need that item, after agreed on the condition and shipping cost then I sent it to him but when he received I turned his word a want to return, ebay never protect seller and they only care about buyer, hopeless with ebay decision. DON'T SELL ON EBAY if you don't want to headach because they don't care about us

[marnotom!]

I'm not really going to answer your question, but I will point out that eBay's Money Back Guarantee process is pretty much automated, and you likely weren't given a refund of your GSP fees because the bot working on your claim "saw" that you'd received a refund from the seller already and stopped processing the claim at that point.

My suggestion would be to call eBay customer service and talk to a human being about this, preferably a Global Shipping Specialist if those positions still exist.  You may have to wait a bit to talk to somebody, but it's far less hassle and stress than trying to pursue something in small claims court.

[marnotom!]

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@litono wrote:

Hi,

I have a similar issue as yours. . .

---

No, you don't, actually.  First off, you're a seller.  The other person posting is a buyer.  I suggest you post your query on the Seller Central discussion board rather than the Buyer Central discussion board.

[femmefan1946]

@jlch_9 

You paid.

The seller was Out Of Stock.

The seller refunded the amount she had recieved.

Since eBay will not allow you to open a Dispute, you can go to your Paypal account and try a Not Recieved dispute there.

The PP Resolution Centre is under Tools at the top of your PP account page.

But before that, try to contact a GSP Specialist.

In addition to the Help and Contact people, who are pretty burned out, you could try:

https://twitter.com/askebay
https://www.facebook.com/eBay/

Those clerks seem to be better trained, less tired, and have a bit more authority.

The last Small Claims case I participated in (some 20 years ago) cost me $25 to file and took about two months to come in front of the mediator.
DD was sued by her neighbour more recently. The case took over six months and the neighbour had to pay not only his own costs, but hers, since he lost the dispute.

[femmefan1946]

@litono 

Your issue is not similar.

You are the seller.

The buyer (overseas?) paid and you shipped.

I don't understand what happened next.

Since English is not your first language, write out the problem in your mother tongue and use Google Translate to turn it into English.

Then make a new post in both languages.

Someone will be able to suggest a way out of your problem.

[pjcdn2005]

Did you receive a cancellation notice when the seller refunded? Normally when the seller cancels, the refund for the item comes from their account and the gsp to refunds the amount they were paid although that can take a few few days.  It's odd that you haven't  the received the gsp refund but obviously you are entitled to it.   F you gave Facebook or Twitter you might have better luck with customer service.  Send them a private message with your ebay ID and eBay email.

[jlch_9]

I got a refund notice from eBay. Following the "refund detail" link in the email, I can see the reason of the refund is "Seller cancelled/Out of stock". I didn't recieve anything else regarding the cancelation. Thanks for the advice. I will try twitter or FB CS tommorrow and see what happens.

[mcrlmn]

Sure you can.

I made it easy peasy for you.

All the links you'll need are below.

So have at it.

How much are you wanting to sue for?

It'll cost you $100 to file a notice of claim for claims up to and including $3000.

$156 for claims over $3000.

Fees current to April 20, 2021 are here.

How to guide is here.

[jlch_9]

Thank you for the info. Going to court is always the last resort, but it is sometimes necessary not just for taking the money back. What confuses me is, in eBay Canada ToS, I saw it as I will have to submit to the jurisdiction of the courts located in Toronto, Ontario.
https://www.ebay.ca/help/policies/member-behaviour-policies/user-agreement?id=4259#20.%20Legal%20Dis...

I was wondering if small claim cases are a part of that? I am not asking for legal advice, but if someone has done it before, then maybe worth hearing the experience.

[femmefan1946]

FWIW the eBay Canada office is in Toronto, over a coffee shop.

Small Claims Courts are a provincial responsibility, and inter-provincial cases can be difficult.

[mcrlmn]

Nothing stopping you...

"This Agreement and any dispute or claim you have against eBay shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein.

Except as otherwise agreed by the parties or as described in the Arbitration Option paragraph below you agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the courts located in Toronto, Ontario for the resolution of and all claims or disputes you may have against eBay."

"where the total amount of monetary relief sought is less than CDN $15,000, the parties may elect to resolve the dispute in a cost effective manner through binding arbitration"

However, if you loose, "eBay may recover attorneys' fees and costs up to CDN $1500".

Service Ontario Small Claims

Fees

[tyler@ebay]

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@jlch_9 wrote:

Long story short, I have a recent order that involves Global Shipping Program. The seller refunded the order because it was out of stock, but the Global Shipping Program fees, including shipping, and customs charges were not refunded. I filled an "item not received" case and thought it was a straightforward one. But eBay closed that case and claim they won't refund anything they charged for GSP. Requesting a call from eBay won't help - they said they would open an appeal, but in the following up email they said they will keep the decision.

I am thinking of suing eBay in a small claim court. The situation is simple and easy to prove - I paid for a service from eBay, I didn't receive the service, and eBay refuses to refund. Has anyone done that before? I am located in BC. Do I have to submit the small claim case to Ontario, or do I have to do it in BC?

---

Hi @jlch_9 - sorry to be late to this, I didn't see your post until today. 

In a situation where a full refund is issued via a cancellation, your Global Shipping fees should be automatically refunded to you as well. Occasionally that doesn't happen - but CS teammates are able to file a request to manually refund that portion back to you. 

@femmefan1946's recommendation is the one I'll echo - consider contacting one of our social media teammates for assistance. They can help with this and  make sure you get that portion of your money back. 

Thanks!

[musko-20]

AGREE 100%. Ebay does not care about seller AT ALL. As soon as they have their cut of the sale and the money from purchasing their label, there is NO NEED FOR LOYALTY TO SELLERS. They have their money so all loyalty goes to buyer, even if they do not return the product sold. I have not recieved the product I sold and ebay has already tried to debit my bank account. BEWARE SELLERS DO NOT SELL ON EBAY. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND CHOOSE ANOTHER PLATFORM. THESE DAYS THERE ARE PLENTY OF OTHERS.

[mrdutch1001]

ZOMBIE THREAD FROM 2021!

sellers are free to make their own choices as to where they choose to sell. Your experience does not necessarily reflect the experiences of the millions of other sellers here ...And this is not unique to eBay...other sites work in a similar fashion.

As a seller you make your choice to sell here or not. The rest of the sellers will carry on as per their own choice.

If you don't like it here BYE BYE!

[brettjet38]

ZOMBIE THREAD from 04-29-2021

[3_day_eventer]

I'm going through  a nightmare sale with a nightmare buyer and all the feedback I'm getting from ebay suggests they will support the buyer.  Once this is resolved, and I close my ebay account, they can't stay connected to my bank can they?  I want to cut all ties with ebay after the current mess is resolved. I also want to take them to small claims court in Virginia, but I saw one post above that if I lost, ebay would sue me for attorney fees. What a mess, so there is absolutely no recourse for a seller.  I guess the only recourse is to drop from ebay and not support them anymore??

[reallynicestamps]

You are adding on to a ZOMBIE THREAD FROM MARCH 2021

It would be better if you started your own thread, since the information in this one is dated and may no longer be accurate.

Why Virginia? You are in Canada and eBay is in California (and apparently Switzerland) while Managed Payments are handled by Ayden which is a Netherlands corporation.

EBay does not close accounts for a good six months which allows time for resolution of financial claims through Paypal (180 days) or credit card chargebacks (120-180 days usually).

[mrdutch1001]

this thread is old as is this so boring topic of threats of suing eBay....

this is where we all can say "oh here we go again, another threat about suing eBay"...

well good luck with that & be sure to come back to the forums here on eBay to brag about your success...

we all anxiously await hearing the details of how you successfully sued eBay ...

[pjcdn2005]

I have no idea how small claims work in the US as this is the Canadian board and the posters here are in Canada.  You haven't given any details about the situation but you might want to give more information here or on the US board as one of the posters might have an idea of hiw to gelp.    Start your own thread as they will likely close this one since it is quite old.

sellers board on .com -  https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/bd-p/selling-db