Should I Sue eBay?

 

Background:In October-2013, I purchased an item (new watch) that was fake (confirmed by the manufacturer).  I opened eBay/PayPal dispute.  PayPal decided in my favour and instructed me to return the watch for full refund.  I did.  Seller refunded the money less shipping costs (and immediately re-listed this same watch with the same description).  I left negative feedback about the transaction.  eBay removed my feedback next morning.  I phoned to inquire and was explained that it's been removed by mistake – a computer error, whatever that means.  As compensation, eBay offered a $50 coupon to be used for future purchases.

 

Follow-Up: I tried using a coupon recently and it does not show up anywhere.  I phoned eBay and after being on hold for 45 minutes was told by a rep that this "transaction must be reviewed by a supervisor, who would have to call me back".  Nobody called or left a message in two days.  I phoned back.  Nothing, same conversation after half on hour on hold and same reply.  Again, nobody called.  I posted my complaint on eBay Facebook page.  Someone named Brady from Customer Service Team encouraged me to contact him directly.  I did.  No further reply or action.  I posted on Facebook again, they started deleting my posts.  I phoned one more time on Saturday and, after being on hold for almost one hour was given the same reply as I had before: "Supervisor is busy, he/she will have to call you back".

 

I have no more patience for this blatant arrogance and would like to issue a Statement of Claim.  This is not about $50, but about absolute contempt for the customer.  Has anyone here sued eBay or heard of a customer suing eBay outside of US?  I am in Canada and I read of Canadian Court clearing way for eBay being sued  by consumers locally where it does business under Consumer Protection Act.

Message 1 of 21
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Should I Sue eBay?

I suggest you contact rodney@ebay.com

 

Give him the full story, including listing numbers, etc...

 

He will see to it that the problem gets handled properly.

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Should I Sue eBay?

I did, thanks for reference. However; this is the automatic reply I received:

 

This email account is checked infrequently. Rodney does not work in customer support. If you need customer support, please use our Contact Us page located at http://pages.ebay.ca/help/contact_inline/index.html, or use access Live Help from the eBay.ca homepage (10:30am - 10:30pm Eastern time).

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Should I Sue eBay?


@vladochka_88 wrote:

 

I have no more patience for this blatant arrogance and would like to issue a Statement of Claim.  This is not about $50, but about absolute contempt for the customer.  Has anyone here sued eBay or heard of a customer suing eBay outside of US?  I am in Canada and I read of Canadian Court clearing way for eBay being sued  by consumers locally where it does business under Consumer Protection Act.


Oh my goodness.  Would you like some input from someone who was a paralegal for over 20 years? 

 

You can't sue in a commercial civil matter unless you've suffered a provable financial loss that was a result of breach of contract, misrepresentation, gross negligence or other such bases for claims in corporate law.  If you have documentation to prove a loss, you still must be able to show that there was some egregious act on the part of the other party which caused that loss andthat you did everything in your power to mitigate the loss.  The onus is on you -- the plaintiff -- to prove your case, not on the defendant to prove they're right.  Many lay people misunderstand this fundamental fact of civil law, which is the opposite of criminal procedure.

 

As you can imagine, such lawsuits are usually difficult, lengthy and require specialized legal representation, usually costing anywhere from $150 to $300 an hour -- and that's before any expenses are involved.  Most corporate trial lawyers will require a retainer up front of anywhere from $1000 to $5,000, plus anticipated disbursements (court registry costs, office expenses, etc.).

 

A claim needs to be both solid and substantial to have any chance against a megalithic corporate entity like eBay.  It may now be possible to bring a private lawsuit against eBay within Canada, but at what cost -- and for what gain -- $50 plus your legal expenses?  It's a huge gamble and complete waste of your time and money. 

 

There are criminal cases (as opposed to civil suits) against corporations but those are generally launched by entities such as the RCMP or other oversight bodies, based on gathered evidence.  Your experience has no connection with criminal wrongdoing.

 

Everybody thinks it's simple to sue every time they have a bad experience.  I can guarantee you that launching a lawsuit is an even worse experience.  You were treated very poorly by eBay's customer service, but you can't sue for rotten customer service.  There's no point initiating a lawsuit over a complimentary $50 coupon that was never issued to you -- there was no obligation on eBay's part to do so.

 

There are other avenues for such complaints.  Specialized media and consumer organizations are usually interested to hear about customer experience if you have proper documentation.  Or try bringing up your issue at the Wednesday open board discussion here on eBay, emphasizing the poor customer service you got, and see if you can get a satisfactory response.  It depends on whether you're looking for an apology and recognition of the problem, or just wanting your $50 coupon. 

 

I'd be very cautious about Facebook though -- people tend to feel free to say things they could later get into real legal trouble over. 

 

 

 

Message 4 of 21
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Should I Sue eBay?

Anonymous
Not applicable

Pierre, nice thing to give the email when in fact it is no longer working.  I hate it when someone like you did here, do that.  It is call "runaround" or "wrong referral".

 

Too bad Rodney is not around to help us.

Message 5 of 21
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Should I Sue eBay?

My understanding is that the eMail address is working.

 

However it is checked infrequently.

 

Lots of businesses have an out of office message when the staff member is out of the office.

 

 






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Should I Sue eBay?

However the link in the message the op received does not work 🙂

 

May I suggest they post on Wednesday in the weekly board hour thread.






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Should I Sue eBay?

Hi everyone,

 

Wanted to jump in for a couple of comments: the Rodney email address is in fact working, but as per the auto-responder, he doesn't check it often.

 

@vladochka_88 - very sorry to hear this has happened. I'll personally take this to the Manager of Customer Support & see to it that all issues be addressed. I work with Brady & I'll follow up with him as well to see where this case is at. Please keep in mind that these are different workgroups - the CS team that attend to our Social pages (Facebook & Twitter) are different from the our CS reps that you get on the phone.

 

If you don't hear back from me within a couple of days, please do email me directly: kalvin@ebay.com. I won't let this one slip through the cracks. Though I can't promise a favourable resolution, you have my word that we'll take a good second look at this & get back to you as soon as possible.

 

Thanks, 

~Kalvin
eBay.ca Community Manager

kalvin@ebay.com

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Should I Sue eBay?

Within three days from me posting the first message in this thread, eBay has deposited $50 coupon into my PayPal account, so that one is resolved.

 

However; now I have a much bigger problem.  The Seller shipped the watch via FedEx.  FedEx sent me almost $300 bill for customs and brokerage fees.  Even though I explained that the watch was returned and supplied a copy of the return shipping receipt, FedEx is not withdrawing their charges, because they need the Seller to initiate all of the credit instructions.  I don't believe I am going to get a lot of co-operation from the Seller at this point.  And PayPal/eBay policy on not recovering shipping costs for returned items could cost me big time.  Has anyone dealt with similar issues before?  Does PayPal provide some kind of an explanatory letter to FedEx in these situations?

 

What a horrible purchase experience this was!

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Should I Sue eBay?

Send a Registered Letter with Signature Confirmation to FedEx enclosing copies of the paperwork.

Then ignore them.

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Should I Sue eBay?

I can't ignore them, unfortunately.  The package arrived at my work address and FedEx can threaten to close our office account even though this was a personal package.  It is easier for our accounting department to deduct the charge from me and pay FedEx than to take my side and fight them on this.  I am furious.

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Should I Sue eBay?

You might want to double check this information to see if it is current but I know that in the past that when Fedex ships an item internationally, the sender is responsible for any fees incurred if the receiver does not pay them. It is the sender that has the contract with Fedex, not you.

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Should I Sue eBay?

Something is wrong with the system if a buyer has to suffer so much aggravation in case of a bad transaction with unscrupulous seller.

 

This is an excerpt from the dispute resolution email I received from PayPal:

 

After carefully reviewing your case, we've determined that you'll be
eligible for a refund (including handling and shipping) once you've
returned the merchandise to the seller.

Once you have returned the merchandise, you will be covered under PayPal
Buyer Protection and eligible to receive a full refund.

 

I highlighted the text in brackets.  Technically, FedEx charges, if not withdrawn by FedEx, are part of shipping and handling, are they not?  So, I should be able to get eBay/PayPal to refund them.  I believe PayPal should intervene with FedEx on my behalf and have the charges removed. I wish someone from PayPal could comment on this here.

 

 

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Should I Sue eBay?

You state in your first post that the seller refunded the cost LESS shipping.  Was this through PayPal?  Because PayPal states you are eligible for a full refund including handling and shipping.  This part, PayPal should help you with.  Call them.

 

Did the $300 charge from FedEx include any amounts for duties?  With the proper paperwork, you should be able to claim that part back from Canada Customs. There have been other posts here that explain all the paperwork, or perhaps you can find all the information on Canada Customs website.

 

I'm sure that FedEx considers their brokerage charges non-refundable, since they did actually prepare and present the correct documents for the watch to clear Customs, so unless PayPal wishes to voluntarily help you with this, you might consider the $50.00 "coupon" as helping to offset this expense.

 

A bit off topic, but perhaps this is the type of transaction that would have been simplified by the Global Shipping Program, since through the GPS, a refund is possible for all but the brokerage charges, and it is possible that Pitney-Bowes charges would have been less, as has been reported elsewhere on these boards.

Message 14 of 21
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Should I Sue eBay?

Sorry, meant to say duty and taxes can be claimed back from Customs

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Should I Sue eBay?

Yes. The GSP is the current whipping boy, but there are thousands upon thousands of posts about FedEx and even more about UPS and their amazing brokerage fees.

 

The basic difference seems to be that sellers who used couriers were usually also shipping high value items and the buyer was expecting to pay some duty and tax.

 

A great deal of the problem comes down to poor explanation of the uses of the GSP, It seems to have been sold as a panacea for International Shipping. That apparently new sellers were being automatically signed in to the program made things worse.

 

The responsibility for these errors rests with eBay.

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Should I Sue eBay?

I think that ebay began by selling items based on trust and community . I am not so sure ebay can not be sued for gross negligence when it winds up costing you your reputation and there for prevents you from selling your items. Most people give up trying to sue large coorpot'ration but I truly believe that ebay needs to stop
Abusing their honest seller's and stop the best they can the fraudulent accounts funny how we can all find them in a minute and they just do nothing I wish I could so them for their negligence they make mistakes we pay
Message 17 of 21
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Should I Sue eBay?

ZOMBIE THREAD FROM 2014

 

The problem with zombie threads is that the information in them is often out of date and misleading.

Message 18 of 21
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Should I Sue eBay?

Ifyou have a specific problem with a transaction, start a new thread and explain.

 

The busybodies posters here will be happy to advise.

Message 19 of 21
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Should I Sue eBay?

Yes

I'm looking for a lawyer as I've been screwed 3 times and that's enough

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