eBay rights advice

[Professor Frink]

Seems I've split the forum.

[KeyboardDemon]

Those photos showing the size printed inside the shoes are not that clear and there is no close up photos of the size label or the size on the box. Well, There was only a link to conversion charts there was not a chart on the listing. The seller put in very large text SIZE 10. If only he had put the US there.

I had to click on the picture in order to see it more clearly, and while the text is out of focus it is still clearly legible.

If I was the seller in this case I would refund 100%. Purely because it is the right thing to do but, Then maybe I'm too honest and I can admit when I make a mistake.

I think knowing this, if I wanted to buy from you I'd have more confidence, but truth be told, if I were the seller I wouldn't be happy at being left out of pocket after selling an item and then agreeing to pay a refund.

When I buy from eBay I always compare the product I'm bidding on to other similar products, and I am surprised how often other people don't do this, in this case it might have highlighted the size issue, but I suspect that the desire to own quite a unique pair of shoes was so great that maybe this took over where otherwise the OP might have been more stringent with his checks.

To show little people check other listings I can tell you about how I bought some toner cartridges for a colour laser printer. I found a listing starting at £0.01 which I bid on, there was also a full set with a buy it now price for £38.00 plus £6.99 postage. I watched the bidding on the Toners I was bidding on go up to £35 making these £40 after delivery and decided to get the buy it now set, the auction ended at £85 plus £5 postage.

Seems I've split the forum.

I wouldn't say that, this has been an interesting thread, it's a shame that you are left out of pocket but it does highlight quite a few things about what we all consider to be fair and proper trading morals, while I disagree with some of the opinions voiced on here, I do understand where they are coming from, and as stated by Sputnik I also try and include as much information in my listing as I can which usually includes a link the manufacturers website where people can see the original item specs and details.

[Spank]

Seems I've split the forum.

Your doing something right then

[Sputnik]

Seems I've split the forum.

Naw, Everyone has a different view of what they believe to be right. I tend to always try to be sure that what I'm buying is definitely what is advertised and on the other hand when I sell something I always want people to not have a reason to want their money back.

I've had a couple of Idiot buyers on ebay, One who won the auction and then demanded he would not pay until the item arrived. I just cancelled the sale and ended up selling it for more later on.

The other I sold a CPU to and he complained it's performance was poor even though he agreed it met the benchmark for that CPU, Then changed his story a further 4 or 5 times. In the end I just gave him a full refund because I could not be asked to mess about for £10.

[scaryjim]

As others have said, the seller hasn't actually done anything wrong.

There's some extra things he could have done that would have been better, like stating he was listing a US size and providing the extra conversions (when I sell shoes on ebay I always explicitly state UK sizes, and I provide the EU and US sizes if there's any risk of confusion (I recently sold a pair that were women's 7 but had an EU size listed that didn't match the usual conversions, so I explicitly stated the EU size as well and told buyers to check ). It's that attention to detail that makes the difference between a good ebay seller and a bad one. But it doesn't make the difference between a fair seller and a con artist, and I'm afraid in this case you've been unlucky to hit one of the less useful sellers. Don't forget that by offering a refund for the shoes he's also taking a hit in the way of seller's fees - both from ebay and from paypal - that I'm pretty sure he won't get back...

[Saracen]

So after including a photograph showing the size label and including the link to the conversion chart you still think the seller is at fault? Despite admitting that you saw the conversion chart? .....

I'm not sure I'd characterise it as "at fault". I think this ....

But, It is not listed as US size 10. Just as size 10. So it is misleading regardless of it being intentional or not.

.... sums it up.

Was the seller out to mislead? It's impossible to know, but I see no evidence to support that he was. Having said that, if it's a "political" truth, there wouldn't be any.

Even the inclusion of the "US" bit in the images is inconclusive. The seller may not have even noticed that, as indeed, many buyers would not. Or, he may have made sure that was visible precisely to fall back on it if it was queried.

So I think it comes down to :-

- in an ideal world, the seller would have stipulated US size.
- in an ideal world, the buyer would have noticed or asked.
- I see no evidence of intent to deceive on either side, so therefore
- it's just one of those things.

For me, the convincer is that I can't see what the seller has to gain by being misleading. All that changes if he'd stipulated US size, and given the UK/EU equivalent, would be that a slightly different group of people would be interested.

I mean, the ad as it stands would attract either a genuine US size 10 buyer or someone that missed the "US" bit, but a UK size 9.5 person wouldn't bid if they missed that it was a US size. If he'd said US10/UK9.5, those UK 9.5'ers might have bid. So he'd lose some bidders but gain others. I can't see the point in misleading. Ergo, it's unintentional.

If he'd advertised these as UK size 10, it would be different. That would be both misleading and incorrect, and therefore misrepresentation. But he didn't.

I can only conclude that it appears it's one of those things were there was no ill intent either way. It just went wrong. It's a shame, but it happens. Quite a lot.