eBay and Craigslist finds

I've just declined the cancel, and havn't paid anything. Also reported the seller to ebay. awaiting what they say.

Unfortunately, Fleabay do not always shower themselves in glory and you have to be careful what they promise on the website and what they actually do. I had an instance where a seller sold a front derailleur as NOS. When it came through it had chain rub to the inside of the cage and was also missing the mounting bolt and dedicated counterbored washer. So not NOS or complete. The seller thought that he could just say 'send it back for a full refund'. I had been looking for this item for some time and had the parts to make it complete so I decided to keep. I told him I would not send it back but wanted a part refund, to which he made a derisory offer. After extended emails we could not agree and I left him negative feedback and reported the matter to eBay. He later started to bid on one of my items that I had for sale so that he could then leave negative feedback in retaliation, but he was outbid in the end.

Although they promise to help resolve disputes, they gave in his favour because I had paid him by cheque(problems with my PayPal account) and they had not earned any commission from the PayPal transaction, bearing in mind PayPal is owned by Fleabay. I never got a part refund. A case of commercial interests overriding my statutory rights. The next time fleabay sent me a 'customer satisfaction questionnaire' I told them what a shambolic complaints procedure they had, giving in favour to a dishonest seller.

That said, if a seller decides not to sell the item, there is nothing you can do to make them. In my experience you either:-

• Pay for the item via PayPal and try and politely persuade the seller to send the item(highly unlikely). If he does not you can always claim the money back and leave him negative;
  
• Forget him and buy it from elsewhere but you will not be able to leave negative.
  Try and keep it polite and try not to get offended by any derogatory comments he may make and do not respond in the same tone should the seller descend to such indignified behaviour. Whatever happens, learn from the experience and move on.
  
  

Hope this helps.