Scared about an ebay transaction please advise

[looking4help]

State: Texas

I sold a pretty expensive item on ebay ($1300) and I'm scared to death of paypal so I only used money orders. I've been doing business on ebay for years and never ripped anyone off once.

I put in the auction that I only wanted to sell to the US and Canada, but got "talked into" dealing with a person from Italy. Anyway I ship the person's equipment (they paid using western union) and now they are claiming I sent them an empty box and the guy is demanding a refund!! He's ruining my reputation on ebay and threatening to take me to court. He said his lawyer is talking with the US embassy.

I shipped the item fair and square, and now the guy is trying to swindle money out of me. What happens in a case like this? We're currently in ebay buyer dispute but we're just going back and forth. I'm scared because he's saying he's going to take me to court over this, and apparently he's trying to extort money from me by fear, because we both know he got his equipment.

Any advice for me? Thanks

 

[Litigation!]

State: Texas

I sold a pretty expensive item on ebay ($1300) and I'm scared to death of paypal so I only used money orders. I've been doing business on ebay for years and never ripped anyone off once.

I put in the auction that I only wanted to sell to the US and Canada, but got "talked into" dealing with a person from Italy. Anyway I ship the person's equipment (they paid using western union) and now they are claiming I sent them an empty box and the guy is demanding a refund!! He's ruining my reputation on ebay and threatening to take me to court. He said his lawyer is talking with the US embassy.

I shipped the item fair and square, and now the guy is trying to swindle money out of me. What happens in a case like this? We're currently in ebay buyer dispute but we're just going back and forth. I'm scared because he's saying he's going to take me to court over this, and apparently he's trying to extort money from me by fear, because we both know he got his equipment.

Any advice for me? Thanks

My response:

There is no help for you. People who deal on the Internet, with faceless persons, either across State lines, or across oceans, deserve what they get - - or don't get.

These people don't "think" beyond their noses, and don't understand "jurisdiction" or the various contractual problems they cause, or are visited upon themselves.

You're on your own. Stop buying and selling over the Internet.

IAAL

 

[looking4help]

Stop buying and selling on the internet? What kind of legal advice is that? This is a legal forum, not behavioral correction.

Could someone please offer me some advice on THIS particular situation? Namely, does the guy have a chance at somehow suing me or proving fraud?

 

[HomeGuru]

Stop buying and selling on the internet? What kind of legal advice is that? This is a legal forum, not behavioral correction.

Could someone please offer me some advice on THIS particular situation? Namely, does the guy have a chance at somehow suing me or proving fraud?

**A: yes**************....

 

[dallas702]

Soooooo....how's the buyer going to sue OP from italy, and how's he gonna prove the box was empty when sent? When the box was weighed at the shipper it would indicate whether or not there was something inside. If the buyer claims the box was "empty" that would be easy for OP to prove he sent "something" if the buyer was required to weigh the box as received, or prove somehow that the box was, in fact, empty.

I bought a laptop on Ebay a few years ago that was substantially misrepresented. I contacted the seller and upon his instructions returned the laptop. After a few weeks of waiting I contacted the seller who told me he hadn't received the computer. Fortunately, I had insured the pkg, and when UPS investigated their driver signed an affidavit that he had handed the box to the seller at his address. The guy still tried to lie his way out of it, but UPS paid me and stopped doing any business with him. So, there are people out there who will try to get something for nothing. Fortunately, I had the documentation on my side.

I like the part where the lawyer is going to talk to the embassy. Talk about padding the billing.

 

[ablessin]

I don't think this Italy person has much to go on. I "think" he would have to come here to the USA to sue you.

But the embassy thing - how sweet is that.

Let me tell you something, when I am buying on e-bay, I look at all the feedback - if I see 3 negatives, but 400 positives, I take it with a grain of salt. I have seen 1 negative in the middle of 50 positives, person saying "never got the item" - -
Seems to me one or 2 out of hundreds is like - whatever! You know what I mean?

Your potential buyers are hopefully doing the same thing, and this one negative won't harm your status

 

[looking4help]

So dallas702, are you saying that there's no way he can sue me from Italy? I'm not sure what you mean in your remark regarding the embassy comment. And yes the package was weighed, it had the item along with paper to pad it with, it was 6lbs. I guess I should have gotten someone to notarize the contents lol

 

[divgradcurl]

So dallas702, are you saying that there's no way he can sue me from Italy? I'm not sure what you mean in your remark regarding the embassy comment. And yes the package was weighed, it had the item along with paper to pad it with, it was 6lbs. I guess I should have gotten someone to notarize the contents lol

No, he can sue you in Italy -- but so what? The Italian courts have no jurisdiction over someone in the U.S. I suppose if he got a judgment against you in Italy, and you ever travelled to Italy, and someone found out that you were there, potentially they could try and enforce the judgment against you -- but they certainly can't take a judgment from an Italian court and get it enforced in the U.S., the U.S. courts will have none of it.

If he wants an enforceable (in the U.S.) judgment, he'll have to come here to get it.

Now, that doesn't mean that Western Union or whoever won't use their own internal mechanism to find against you, and he can certainly leave bad feedback on eBay -- nothing you can do about that.

 

[cjbrown929]

I would emphasize how important and generally inexpensive it is to insure valuable shipments. My father deals in scrap gold occasionally, and one of his shipments to a refiner worth $5,000 never made it to its intended destination.

Chances are it was an inside job because the gold just looked like real heavy black sludge. Being insured for $5,000 probably tipped off the thief. The $5 or $10 dollars he spent to insure it was well worth it. It's much easier to let the shipper moan about the loss than yourself.

 

[looking4help]

OK thanks divgradcurl, I appreciate the help. THat's what I was looking for.

 

[txstars15]

Your eBay issue in Italy

Well, I have been buying and selling over eBay since 1998 with only rare instances of a real problem. You should NOT have sold to Italy for the very obvious reasons. That said, the buyer knows he got the item and won't really press the issue. I think he is just trying to scare you into being a total sucker, since he talked you into shipping your item to him in the first place.

The worst that can happen is you get a scathing negative feedback. I have over 500 feedbacks and maybe 3-5 negatives. So what. Ultimately, he'll have to come up with some compelling proof that he only got an empty box. Although, 6lbs could have been the weight of your box and packing, unless it was a small box!!

I wouldn't sweat it too much. Boycott pizza and you'll be fine.