Hi all, I just wanted to try and get some advice to see what’s the best action moving forward. On march the 14th I sold a brand new sealed iPhone 16 pro max 1TB on eBay for £1140. The buyer was happy when she received it and thanked me On the 3rd of July she contacted me saying the phone is not accepting her 02 SIM card and that 02 is suggesting the phone has been blacklisted and claims she did not open the phone for 4 months as it was a gift for her mother so has only just faced this issue now.
I spoke to my phone provider EE who sent me the phone directly and they checked on their barred list database and said the phone is absolutely fine and there’s no blacklist on it and confirmed all of their phones are unlocked to all networks, which I then explained to the buyer. I also mentioned the phone has 1 year apple warrenty so any issues please take it to Apple.
She was not happy with this and went straight to her bank to do a charge back, I had to provide evidence that the phone was as described and the bank still chose their buyers side. My eBay account has gone into minus 1,140 which I’m not happy about. I called eBay on the 6th August to complain and they gave me back the dispute fee of £15 and said that’s the best we can do but they will escalate this.
I called back on the 11th of August and was told that the eBay escalations have looked into this and see I’ve done everything correct and decided to credit back the full ammount of 1140, meaning I do not owe them anything. I requested a second call back to confirm this with another agent and the second agent confirmed this is correct. I spoke to a third agent on the 12th of augest and asked them to triple check it while I had them on the phone and he confirmed that it’s correct and should clear within 14 working days.
Yesterday I received an email from their collections team chasing their money, I thought it may be automated but worth calling in to double check. The agent told me I been misinformed and that the case has been closed with you owing us the £1,140. I was really angry about this especially after being told by the three agents that this debt is being credited. I got through to a manager and he said he will listen to the calls but basically told me I have to pay it regardless of what the 3 agents told me.
It’s been a really difficult situation to deal with will appreciate any advice, the steps I’ve taken so far are: Financial ombudsman complaint about eBay and Complaint through eBay about the 3 agents misinformation
I am currently also in the process of small claims court against the buyer but my concern is if this is a organised con, even if I win in court will I be chasing a ghost for my money? For those who say I’m covered by seller protection apparently as soon as the buyer does a chargeback through their bank eBay loses all control and policy is the seller is not protected.
Thank you for reading
3 comments
This is probably better for r/LegalAdviceUK.
However, in my un-trained opinion, I think the bank has been over-hasty in issuing the chargeback. The buyer requested and received the goods, they should not have done the chargeback. I have a strong suspicion that the buyer has lied to their bank about the phone being delivered.
It might be worth enquiring with the Financial Ombudsman to see if you have recourse against the buyer’s bank in the event of an invalid chargeback
You’ve broken EEs terms and conditions as you can’t sell a contract phone within the first 6 months.
Typical scam tactics I’m afraid.
If you haven’t received the phone back I believe you can report it stolen (something along them lines) and get it blacklisted so it cannot be used.
You can try court , not much to file a small claims court claim.
Okay, I can help here because I was the buyer in a similar situation (but I had a genuine case and the seller was an arsehole who ignored messages).
The bank will issue the chargeback and eBay will appeal. Basically eBay will side with the seller and provided that a return wasn’t initiated during the return period, they’ll back you.
On top of this a chargeback against eBay isn’t valid anyway, and once the bank investigates a little further they’ll argue that eBay was the payment processor and not the merchant and will find in their favour anyway.
(Mine was a laptop with a loose USB C charging port. It was always a bit loose but worked fine, until it didn’t. When I looked more closely I saw that it had been very inexpertly reflowed and the seller told a bunch of lies to eBay and my credit card company. In the end I actually got a whole new main board for £24 but I hope that the seller (ont-626) forever has biting ants in his underwear.)