I'm in the UK and have bought an item from Australia, Seller Communications

[baileynorris]

Hi, I have used the community pages before and have had some great advice back, so I'm looking for that again.

I recently bought an item from Australia for £750, paid with paypal and had initial communication with the seller because he didnt receive instant payment and it was being held in his paypal account on hold. He has sent the item standard delivery, provided tracking reference and it should be here within about 3 weeks, it's been 2 weeks already and appears to have left Australia. This morning I got a message from the seller saying that he had refunded me and wanted the item back, as he was having issues with paypal and couldnt get his money until the item has arrived here, so he wants to cancel all his dealings with paypal (and did day he was thinking of suing them). So the questions I need to ask are, I still want this item so do I have to legally return it or can I arrange a new payment and send it to them? The other issue I have is due to exchange rates within paypal, I paid £800 to buy this but the refund has been made for £750 so I'm don't want to pay extra to buy this item again. I'm also responsible for the import duty on this item, so if the seller is adamant he wants the item back, should I just let the post office deal with it and send it back to him and make him liable for the return postage? Any advise would be much appreciated, thanks

[john1297576 · Accepted solution]

Seller sounds like a new seller who does not realise what he is doing, money would be held until tracking showed as delivered. That is to ensure that there are funds available to refund if required.

By refunding he will still pay the selling fee of around 10% of the selling price plus postage. If he wants the item back when it arrives he will have to send you the return postage. 

As you will also be expected to pay import duty, I suppose you could refuse to accept the item when it arrives, but there is no guarantee it would ever get back to seller. With his lack of knowledge he probably has not put a return address on package. If you have paid duty, then you would have the aggravation of obtaining a refund of the Customs Duty.

This seller has made a right mess over what should have been a simple sale, and because he did not get instant access to his money has opted to having no money and possibly no item.

The simple answer to my mind would be when it arrives, so long as no problems such as not as described, to offer to pay the seller again. That is the easy way of sorting out, but with a foolish seller like this he would probably not agree.

[baileynorris · Accepted solution]

Hi John, Thanks for taking the time to post that reply, that was helpful. When I purchased there were a few red flags. I did explain that the same thing had happened to me when I started selling again on ebay, with Paypal holding my money and how exposed I felt with having sent the items out but didn't have the money, but I explained that you have to trust the system and it's there to protect both the buyer and seller. He then asked me to change the payment through friends and family but I told him that I couldnt do that. He also marked the item dispatched before he had actually taken it to the post office, I assume he thought that the payment would be released earlier if he had done this, but he posted the item the following day and added the tracking number. It does sound like he can't/doesnt want to wait for the item. I think I have paid a fair price for the item in a competitive auction situation, it wasnt a buy it now. I know that we have a legal contract for me to buy and him to sell but he has just complicated things by issuing a refund, when I havent asked for one, so even though I havent received the item yet, if it turns up and its all ok and as described, I think I'm entitled to keep it and pay him the money. I did point out that with the paypal currency exchange rates that there was a difference of £50 from what I paid and what they had refunded, but he took that the wrong way and thought I was trying to scam him and make some money. I wanted to get this recorded in ebay but Ive not had this happen to me before, so just wanted to make sure that I'm within my rights to keep to item, as long as I arrange payment. I dont believe that he has ongoing issues with Paypal, I'm just wondering whether he now thinks the item is worth more than what he has sold it for and just wants it back, back I'm not sure sellers can do that. I recently sold an item for £160 which is now going for £600, that's a lesson I've learnt and I won't make the same mistake again, that's just what happens!!, I have offered to pay once the item arrives and it's ok but he is saying don't open it just send it straight back, which did make me think whether I should just leave the import tax alone and not accept it. I have had a few items from USA and Japan recently that I have been notified have been received by the post office and that import tax is required to be paid before they will deliver it, but not sure what happens if I don't so will check up on that, thanks