1. The transaction occurred on 17th June.
2. We don't know how soon the buyer paid after the auction ended.
3. We do know the buyer joined eBay on 17th June. We have no information about whether he/she had previously been an eBayer under a different name, so we must assume on the basis of the evidence that this was his/her first transaction on eBay.
4. The buyer left negative feedback on 10th July, 3 weeks after the purchase.
5. The buyer said she contacted the seller through their online website. I assume he/she means
www.gwheels.com.au. There is a 1800 number listed on that website.
6. Assuming that the eBay seller and the gwheels.com.au seller are the same (not a stretch by any means! I'd accept it as a given), the buyer must not have read this:
Please allow up to 3-4 weeks for delivery of your items.
We apologise for any inconvenience, we are working to improve this.
-
linkAnd on the eBay listing, the seller states "Will usually post within 10 business days of receiving cleared payment". This indicates to me that buyers from this seller should not expect fast delivery, and that all in all, it's probably best to expect delivery between 3-4 weeks, just as the seller's website states.
It hasn't been four weeks. It's only just gone three weeks from the time the bidding ended (and we don't know whether the buyer paid a few days later, which would make the time even shorter). The buyer may well have given a negative too quickly, but I see this transaction as a recipe for disaster, since both the buyer and the seller are new to eBay. The seller has been registered on eBay since 23 May 2009.
Link.
7. The buyer says the seller isn't on eBay anymore. That is not the case. The seller is not NARU. The buyer is mistaken when he/she says the seller is "noq [sic] listed on eBay anymore".
8. It seems that the buyer didn't realise he/she could obtain the contact details for a seller through requesting the seller's details from eBay via
this page.
9. The seller hasn't mentioned the method of payment, but this is presumably a registered business (see below - I have to admit I can't locate the seller's ABN but this is mitigated by the fact that the seller accepts AMEX, since Amex acceptance is only available to businesses) able to accept payment by credit card (Visa, MasterCard AND Amex). PayPal is offered both on the website and on eBay. The very fact that the seller has a merchant account able to accept Amex indicates to me that this is not a shonky fly-by-night seller.
10.
Whether or not the buyer paid using PayPal is irrelevant in this instance. Absolutely and positively irrelevant. This purchase was NOT COVERED by the PayPal Protection Policy. I thought this was well-known - scooters do not fall under the PayPal Protection Policy and are not eligible for any protection from PayPal. Scooters are considered vehicles and fall under
VPP (Vehicle Purchase Protection).
11. If the buyer has not made any attempt to contact the seller via the contact details provided by eBay, the buyer can't proceed with a claim. However, let's assume the buyer does now try to do so, having "pulled" the seller's contact details as per the link in my point 8 above. If the buyer is not able to find a resolution to the problem after doing this, he/she can lodge a claim -
link.
12. I'm not sure the purchase is actually eligible, though. This is because the scooter may not have been in Australia at the time of the purchase. (It's only a suspicion, not a certainty, though. I base my concern on the delay mentioned by the seller. 3-4 weeks for delivery suggests drop-shipping to me. And unfortunately, "If the car is located overseas and the seller promises to ship it to you, it will not be covered by Vehicle Purchase Protection". If this concern is not borne out, the buyer is fortunate.
13. The VPP makes it clear the buyer's acted much too hastily, though. A claim is considered upon "the Seller's failure to deliver the Eligible Vehicle to You (where You have paid the Purchase Price for the Eligible Vehicle to the Seller) after the expiration of a period of 14 days following the Delivery Date". It hasn't been 14 days after the delivery date. In the case of non-delivery, the buyer has
90 DAYS AFTER THE TRANSACTION in which to lodge the claim.14. If the buyer paid using credit card, the buyer needs to initiate a chargeback by his/her credit card provider. "If You paid for the Eligible Vehicle using a credit card You must have already contacted your credit card issuer and sought reimbursement from the issuer before making a claim under the Master Policy. Where your credit card issuer provides a buyer protection program, You will be required to provide proof to Marsh that You have sought reimbursement from your credit card issuer and that your claim was denied by the credit card issuer before making a claim under the Master Policy."
15. One problem that I see from the buyer's swiftness in issuing a negative is that the seller now has a -1 feedback. This means that the seller cannot sell on eBay, really. It's not that there's something physically stopping him from selling, but the fact is that the VPP does not cover purchases where the seller has a feedback of less than zero. The buyer has effectively destroyed the seller's ability to sell through eBay, which is a shame if the seller isn't dodgy. I am a little concerned that I can't find the seller's ABN. It's not listed on the seller's website, and it doesn't appear with the business.gov.au site. It could be that it's such a recently issued ABN that it doesn't yet appear there. It is worth the buyer contacting business.gov.au to find out.
In essence, I think the buyer took quite a risk. Being a new eBayer and buying from a new eBayer - could be an awful mess, as this has turned out to be. However, the buyer also acted hastily and without using the resources eBay makes available - i.e., getting the seller's contact details.
I hope the situation doesn't deteriorate. I think the buyer has not given the seller long enough to deliver. I wouldn't have bought under those delivery conditions, nor would I ever buy a vehicle through eBay (especially sight unseen!), but it's too late to cry over spilt petrol now. I would advise the buyer to
1. get in touch with the seller using the contact details available through eBay, and hopefully have a courteous conversation to find out what is happening,
2. if the contact details are false, immediately proceed to initiate a chargeback if payment was via credit card,
3. if payment was not via credit card, initiate a claim via VPP once it's 2 weeks past the delivery date and no scooter has arrived,
4. contact Fair Trading and discuss with them the correct procedure if it turns out that the business does not have an ABN.
If the scooter arrives within the anticipated timeframe, the buyer should contact eBay to remove the negative since it impacts on the seller's ability to sell. If the seller is dodgy, all bets are off, of course, and the negative would be deserved. I think it's too hasty a negative, myself.
But definitely... the buyer should try to resolve this with the seller, and if the scooter doesn't arrive, as long as the buyer has evidence of payment (by cheque, by money order, by bank deposit or transfer, by PayPal, by credit card), there is the chance of being reimbursed. The highest chance for reimbursement is if the buyer paid by credit card. If the buyer paid by any other method, he/she should be aware that the VPP does not cover the first $200 (AUD) of the purchase.
