Hi Famous Memorabilia, Thank you for your post, I would like to email you directly regarding your case. Ridiculous as it may be, we are unable to publically announce the result of ourclaim. Make sure you send the court papers to eBay in Richmond UK and it is likely thatyou'll receive a response from one of their UK solicitors who are based there. It seems that eBaydo not like taking the matter all the way to court if it can be avoided andwill try to resolve it themselves. Your case is very interesting, and you certainly are not on your own withthis, in fact I know of many very successful eBay sellers who have had their businessesruined by eBay limitations and I have had firsthand experience of this too. A business can be successfully selling thousands of pounds worth of items ina month, then receive an impersonal email from eBay informing the business thatthey are now limited to only £1800 worth of sales in a month, and usually it isas a result of a trademark infringement or because three customers have openedan “item not as described case.” This clearly isn’t fair, firstly because the negligent eBay call centre advisesbuyers to open cases, rather than advising buyers to contact the seller toresolve the problem first. In a high turnover business it is inevitable thatcases will be opened for the following three reasons; -Items will at some stage become damaged in transit with pretty much anycourier -Any business will tell you that there are always customers who are impossibleto please -There are inexperienced 0 feedback eBay members who will purchase somethingthey do not want, they will then “resolve a problem,” then open a case. It is obvious that you have been treated very unfairly by eBay. Thelimitations eBay impose on sellers will not usually cover the cost of awarehouse, staff or pretty much any other costs a business has. I am not alegal professional, but I don’t think a business can legally dictate thatanother business must stop selling for unfounded reasons. They certainly can’tcharge £375 for an Anchor shop which you can’t even sell on. It is certainlyworth trying to get this money back. Make sure you keep paperwork of everythingthat has happened to back up your case. You sound as though you have a good eBay account, have you consideredselling on your own website, where you have no selling fees, and are notdictated to by eBay? The £2000 a month seller fees would make a relatively goodbudget for Google Adwords etc. If you take eBay to court for loss of earning and are successful, we toowill try this due to a limitation placed on one of our accounts last year,causing massive inconvenience as well as a fall in profit of approximately£5000. How do you intend on doing this, through the small claims court or byopening a money claim? The justice system in this country shouldn’t allow eBay to trade the way itdoes. If you’d like to email me directly, please do.

Thank you for your advice. As part of the freedom of information act, eBay provided the contact details for the seller. Although they would not like to admit it, these contact details were all phony. EBay offer “buyer protection,” the seller has disappeared and they have specifically told me that they are holding the money, who knows whether that information is true or not. They understand the situation, have seen the clear evidence and yet they fail to help. This is why I hold them responsible and am taking them to court. I have tried contacting PayPal once or twice and didn’t get very far and was transferred back to eBay as it’s all pretty much in house. I will definitely pursue this again and will go for the fraud department. The envelope is standard DL and the postage weight is that of a piece of paper and not a laptop. I would also like to point out that no one signed for the envelope and it was just dropped at reception like all other post. When you type the tracking number on Royal Mail’s website it says it hasn’t been delivered and is being “processed through the delivery network.” Unfortunately as I initially explained the situation to eBay, they will not change the case and are treating it as an item not described. I appreciate all your help in this matter. When will Panorama or Watchdog do an episode on eBay?

It was paid for using the funds already in the PayPal account. Wasn't on a credit card unfortunately, everything will be in the future though, that’s for sure.

Thank you. I personally hold eBay responsible as they are very aware of the situation, yet have decided to unfairly hold onto the money themselves and close the case. According to eBay, the seller does not have the money as they froze his account, so he/she is out of the equation. What concerns me is that according to all the forums, eBay are doing this to their members on a regular basis. Yes I have kept the original tracked envelope and letter safely in a folder with all printed email correspondence with eBay. Tempted to put it in the safe to make sure I don’t lose it!

Hi there, Thank you for your reply. We are based in Sutton, Surrey.

"See you in court" were among my last words during the most recent conversation with the eBay call centre in April 2011. Way back on the 17th of February 2011 I ordered a Macbook Pro which cost £570 from an eBay user who was later removed from their system for being a suspicious seller. The seller received five negative feedbacks in two weeks for attempting to con other eBay members. On the 22nd of February I received a very poorly drafted letter from the seller stating I will not receive the Macbook Pro, and the seller advised me to open an “item not received” case with eBay. The seller tracked this letter through Royal Mail and provided the tracking number to eBay to suggest the Macbook Pro had been delivered, when in fact the tracking number corresponds to the letter and not the Macbook. Having spent nearly ten thousand pounds on eBay in January and February of 2011, as well as being the director of an online consumer electronics store, I was well aware that this letter seemed very suspicious and I did not open an “item not received” case as this would have won in the sellers favour by default. I immediately contacted the UK police and reported this matter to them, who responded with a crime reference number. Shortly after contacting the police, I reported the matter to eBay on the telephone and an “item not as described” case was opened. At this stage, I was assured that I was covered by eBay buyer Protection and I would get my money back. To cut a long story short, eBay decided to close the case in the seller’s favour, despite having removed the suspicious seller from their system. They obviously did not take into account my 100% positive account with over 400 feedbacks on high value items. After appealing the case and contacting the customer service department numerous times, I was continually faced with “we need a police report from your local police station” before they refund my money and if I do not produce this within 3 days, my case will be closed permanently. Having already contacted the police, I was happy to attend my local police station with all the evidence, but was disappointed to find that as part of police policy, they would not write a letter or produce a police report for what is a ‘civil’ matter. The only documentation they could possibly provide was a print out of the police reference which takes 40+ days and wasn’t really what eBay requested. The police informed me that the CAD reference they provided should be sufficient for a reputable business to check the details and in fact EBay were requesting something I could not possibly obtain which is a matter for trading standards. The case was closed by eBay and it became apparent that I was getting further and further away from claiming my money back. As a last attempt, on the 13th of April 2011 I decided to write a letter to both the Dublin and Richmond offices explaining the situation. Needless to say, I received no reply. EBay now have £570 of my money and are effectively refusing to give it back. I am not quite sure how they can get away with doing this. On Tuesday the 3rd of May, nearly three months after ordering the Macbook, I submitted a Money Claim Online through the HM Courts and Tribunals Service using the Richmond EBay address. After researching online, I anticipate that eBay will most probably ignore the court papers. Ultimately this means I would ‘win’ over the next 14 days by default judgement. I understand that eBay will then receive a letter from the court stating that they have lost. They will most likely respond to this by claiming not to have received any paperwork from the court and the default judgement will be set aside. A court hearing date will most likely be set in my local court where I will be given the opportunity to show the clear evidence. I will update the forum when I have any further details.