I recently purchased a reproduction chair upon eBay here in the UK.
Due to the extensive distance it had to be sent via courier. The listing stated Freight. I messaged the seller and asked how much the postage was, she replied that she would get a quote from her courier, which came back at 55 pounds. I agreed and after she asked me to purchase the chair as if collecting in person, I did so, seeing nothing untoward. She asked me to pay for the purchase via PayPal and that I was to pay for the postage directly to her courier upon delivery. This was 5th December.
After much chasing the item was finally delivered on the 20th December. It was a gift for my Mother.
The courier had no tracking and was a "man with a van", she had assured me that she had used them for several years and that they were reputable. The reality could not have been further from the truth. The van turned up, the chair which was upholstered in a linen fabric was not packaged and had stuff stacked upon it. There were Two men, (father and son?) and the younger literally slung it onto the muddy wet verge, I picked the chair up and carried it in myself as I was worried about the mud etc. I heard one of them utter an insult but I ignored it.
The chair turned out to be an absolute disaster, the buyer hadn't described both fading and marking, she had turned the seat over to disguise white marks upon the seat. The back was very faded with definite differences in shading. I opened a case and contacted her. Apart from citing family problems, she agreed to refund upon return, I agreed.
She did not send a reply label although she told eBay she had, it took 4 calls to eBay over Christmas to find a way forward. She defended the courier, who it appears may be more than a business assoc, despite me saying the van was chaotic.
It got very nasty with her "accidentally on purpose" sending a copy of text supposedly destined for the courier full of name calling, she said it confirmation of the pick up to me.
In the meantime eBay found in my favour. I agreed to let her collect the item and asked if she might refund the original postage (I now realised that eBay would not cover this). She said that until she has the chair back she would not consider a refund and to add insult to injury started to insinuate that I may swap the chair, I was really upset but agreed to let the courier who had also gotten involved with the case, (very unpleasant man) collect on 2nd January.
I also shown her the chair in detailed pics to reassure her.
She asked me not to pack the chair but I was concerned that any damage in the dirty van would be attributed to me, so I packed it in rolls of cling film and bubble wrap. As a precaution we filmed every inch of the chair AND the courier coming into the house, pucking the chair up and taking it to the van. He complained that we had wrapped it, as apparently" you've made it difficult" for me to handle. It was light and easy to pick up. You can still see the clear outline of a very distinctive chair.
So my question is, forgive me but I'm not that well versed in the intricacies of eBay, was the seller violating any of eBay's policies in asking me to pay for the courier directly and not including it in her listing?
She hasn't received the chair back and having sent me a very angry message asking why on earth I wrapped the chair, will not be inspecting it until tomorrow.
I now can see it will be difficult to recoup the original postage. The courier told her it was in a box, I sent screen shots from the I minute video to prove it wasn't.
Advice welcome
