 Advise needed please. unfair fees applied to account!
I do not use Ebay very often for selling, I am a housewife, I don't work, I have no income and I am not very computer literate.
When i went onto Ebay to pay the fees on a couple of items I had sold, I was horrified to see I was being charged £250 for the Horsebox which, I hasten to add, hadn't sold as the brakes had seized on and I had to end the listing stating it was “broken”!!
I innocently listed my Horsebox (which has an engine and is 30 years old) under the wrong category, but I had assumed that the category “Horsebox“ would have come under the “MOTORS” section (as it has an engine), It is not stated anywhere when listing under “Horsebox’s” that it doesn't count as a “MOTOR VEHICLE” which in itself is misleading.
With items listed under the MOTORS section, my understanding is that you can put your name/address and contact numbers on the listing and you can treat it like any classified newspaper and allow viewings before selling the vehicle, therefore allowing the seller to give out details such as their phone number etc!
I felt that it was only fair to allow potential purchasers to come and view the vehicle before bidding so therefore gave my details to a couple of people so they could come. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN TOTALLY UNREASONABLE to expect someone to buy the Horsebox unseen, NO one in their right mind would have given a reasonable offer without viewing it or having it inspected before purchase, it is not like buying hair grips, it is a large vehicle WITH an engine which requires a HGV plating (or MOT to the layman) and is classed as a HGV LORRY - MOTOR VEHICLE!!!!
Looking under the MOTORS category, this is allowed and the most I would have had to pay IF it had sold would have been the £10 listing fee and 1 percent of the final value fee, which would have been £29.99
After making contact initially with Ebay Customer Services I requested a call back from a manager, no one called me back!!
I had to request yet another call back and finally managed to speak to a manager, having to explain the situation yet again, I offered as a “gesture of good will” to pay the Ebay MOTORS fees even though the box hadn’t sold, totalling £39.99 as I had innocently made a mistake listing under the Horsebox category but he refused the “offer of goodwill” and he was adamant that I have to pay the outstanding £250 remaining on my account,
When I spoke to the lady about the initial restriction placed on my account, I explained that it was a motorised Horsebox and that Vendors would want to view it before purchase, she understood the situation and lifted the restriction, but at no time did she say I had listed it under the wrong category or mention that if I had listed it under the MOTORS section then I could have put the contact details on it without issue!
This £250 in my view is basically a fine as I innocently violated the policy of “giving my details” out so people to come and view the Horsebox,
No one from Ebay at any time had pointed out to me that I had listed it under the wrong category, if they had done this could have all been avoided
the long and the short of it is that motorised horse boxes should be a sub category under the commercial vehicles/lorries section and therefore you could allow people to view before bidding, but the horsebox section seemingly works like a normal auction were you not allowed to put contact details in the listing or have any contact with people before the listing ends!
can anyone advise where i should go from here?
i have sent a letter to ebays "trust and safety" office, which i was told is the legal department in dublin in the vain hope that they will remove this fine from my account, will they take me to court for failing to pay if i refuse?
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he did say however that i had a point and he would forward my suggestion re putting the motorised horse boxes under the motors section but that wouldn't help me now
