I live half my year in Australia, and the other half in the UK, and while in Oz sold some magazines I had collected in the 1980s to a British buyer.
I bought the magazines when I was a teenager and found them after clearing out my storeroom. There are about 200 from between 1983 to 1986 and consist of “Smash Hits”, “TV Week” and “Countdown”, all kept in pristine condition.
I split them into lots of 20 each, and listed them on eBay. The winning bidder, who is based in the UK, paid £150 for each lot, a total of £450.
I sent the magazines in mid-April. The buyer received them but said they arrived water-marked and damaged. She sent me photos as proof, but to my mind this was very minor damage and everything was still legible.
She wanted a refund and I agreed on the basis that she sent the magazines back (which I would pay for – she had paid for the postage to the UK). But then eBay took £450 from my account – and the buyer hadn’t returned the magazines. This means I’m out of pocket by £550, including the £100 I had paid her to post them back.
The buyer has stopped communicating with me. eBay has not been helpful. I just want a refund if she is keeping the magazines, or my magazines back as promised. Please can you help? Damien, 54, via email
Grace says: You have a great collection of old magazines from Australia ranging from classics such as Smash Hits to TV guides like TV Week (who knew people would buy old copies of TV Week!).
The buyer claimed some of the magazines had suffered water damage and mould, which you say must have happened in transport as they were in perfect condition when leaving Australia.
I have seen the photos sent by the buyer which show some small curling at the edges of the magazines and suggested a small amount of water damage.
The buyer first contacted eBay to complain, was then told her to contact you, and she asked for a refund. You said this was fine as long as the magazines were returned to you, as you did not feel they were in a bad enough condition to just give away, and you wanted to re-sell them. You then sent the buyer a bank transfer of £100 for them to courier them back.
However, not long after, things got confusing. eBay put the case “on hold” and told you this meant you are to do nothing but wait as it gathers more information from the buyer. You tried to move the case forwards, but to no avail. You said: “eBay won’t do a thing about it. I have called them at least 12 times, each time getting a different person.”
Then eBay refunded the buyer in full and closed the case. It told you the “hold” period was when you were supposed to give the buyer your return details and as you didn’t provide these, it took action. However, you had been told by someone at eBay on email to wait before communicating with the seller as she had raised an official complaint.
Since then, you have contacted the buyer to no avail. “eBay say I can get my items back by ‘communicating’ with the buyer, even though I have told them countless times she is ignoring me.”
You told me you would have been able to sell the magazines to someone else if they were returned and it wasn’t for the buyer to keep, especially if they made a complaint in the first place.
I could certainly understand your frustration as you were left out of pocket with essentially no control over the situation.
This is also not the first time I have heard of eBay acting like this. Over the years, I have heard from many readers who have complained that as soon as the buyer raises a complaint, they have been left with no recourse to defend themselves and have had money taken from their account without warning.
I decided to contact eBay to find out why it was dragging its heels over this case.
It confirmed it was refunding you, minus the postage, leaving you with a return of £450 but would not go into further detail about why it had not refunded you when you asked.
You are £100 out of pocket but happy to draw a line under the episode. You have more magazines to sell, but are understandably you are concerned about selling them with eBay again.
Have you got a concern, query or consumer problem? Let me know: grace.gausden@inews.co.uk