Ebay boat purchase, the sequel

gasdave said:
Personally I wouldn't offer him anything at this stage without first having a full examination of his boat to your satisfaction. A seller with nothing to hide would not have caused such hassle and would at the very least have been willing to accept a fair deposit, say 10%. Either this seller is "green" or should be avoided.

As someone else has said - there are plenty of boats out there and it's a buyer's market.
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I don't see how you think the seller has caused any hassle. You say don't offer him anything at this stage but this is exactly what he did when he bid on Ebay.
I'd like to hear this one from a sellers point of view.
It's his first sale on Ebay, he advertises a boat knowing the terms and conditions regarding payment, he gets an offer he is willing to accept, the buyer doesn't ask to see the boat and presumably the buyer makes no contact about how he intends to pay. The auction ends then he hears from the winner saying he isn't paying until he's seen the boat and is happy that everything is OK.
There were plenty other bids for this boat, If I was the seller I'd be pretty P...ed off at having being messed about.
 
Spyro said:
The auction ends then he hears from the winner saying he isn't paying until he's seen the boat and is happy that everything is OK.
There were plenty other bids for this boat, If I was the seller I'd be pretty P...ed off at having being messed about.
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That's not being messed about. That's behaving in a perfectly sensible way. What the buyer should have done is say "Fair enough, but I have to spend some time getting the boat ready for you, so I'd like a deposit." Buyer says "Fine", all goes according to plan.

Anyone who insists on full payment before allowing the buyer to see the goods, on something of this size, should be avoided.
 
Anyone who sends money through the post on the basis of a few photos will get little sympathy if the money disappears. I just think that the ground rules on this deal were not quite satisfactory.

When I bought a car on ebay, no way was I going to send £5k through the post until I had seen proof of ownership, and indeed the car etc. A non returnable deposit is as good an act of faith as anybody has a right to expect.

I can tell you that when my speculative bid 'for a laugh' won the damned car, I had kittens all night and didn't sleep a wink worrying about it. Three years on its proved itself pretty good car, but you never quite know do you:D

Tim
 
Ubergeekian said:
That's not being messed about. That's behaving in a perfectly sensible way. What the buyer should have done is say "Fair enough, but I have to spend some time getting the boat ready for you, so I'd like a deposit." Buyer says "Fine", all goes according to plan.

Anyone who insists on full payment before allowing the buyer to see the goods, on something of this size, should be avoided.
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Sorry, think we'll have to disagree on this one. I do agree that the sensible thing to do is pay a deposit and pay the rest when you are happy with the goods but that was not agreed before the end of the auction and it should have been.
 
A seller on ebay with no previous history immediately raises some warning bells.
Clearly they need to start sometime, bit if genuine would expect them to be more accomodating
Too easy to post pictures of any boat and take some money
 
just how binding is a bid on e-bay in legal terms rather than moral? and what are the possible consequences for dishonouring one?
 
Ebay has a long and comprehensive rules section. It clearly states that you should not bid unless you are prepared to buy. Once a bid is accepted you enter into a binding contract with the seller, as in any normal auction.

In this case the seller appears to have played strictly by the rules - fair enough.

The bidder should have been more careful about questioning the seller prior to bidding - a lesson.

However I still believe that any reasonable seller would be grateful for the winning bid and, for large amounts like this, be prepared to accept a non-returnable deposit to satisfy a buyer that what they have bought exists, is legal to sell and as described. What have they to hide in not doing so?
 
Comes accross as a bit overbearing to me, he could have used a rather less aggressive approach but using the same conditions.
However this is a large value item, I certainly would not be bidding on that unseen.
I think of ebay items under s catagories,
Inexpensive items where you can pay up front and hope for the best,
Mid value items ( £1000/5000) where you should get a comprehensive description and pay a deposit with cash on collection.
Expensive items where both sides would be better to ensure that the buyer inspects.
I have been happy both selling and buying with these sort of terms and have just passed 500 ebay deals with no red marks to date!!
 
pcatterall said:
Comes accross as a bit overbearing to me, he could have used a rather less aggressive approach but using the same conditions.
However this is a large value item, I certainly would not be bidding on that unseen.
I think of ebay items under s catagories,
Inexpensive items where you can pay up front and hope for the best,
Mid value items ( £1000/5000) where you should get a comprehensive description and pay a deposit with cash on collection.
Expensive items where both sides would be better to ensure that the buyer inspects.
I have been happy both selling and buying with these sort of terms and have just passed 500 ebay deals with no red marks to date!!
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I have bought a car on ebay without a prior inspection for £7,500
Buyer had superb feedback and gave a full description of the car, service records and it had a fresh main dealer service. I paid cash on collection and both sides were very happy with the deal.
Sellers feedback is everything though, without that I wouldnt have touched it.
 
BlueChip said:
I have bought a car on ebay without a prior inspection for £7,500
Buyer had superb feedback and gave a full description of the car, service records and it had a fresh main dealer service. I paid cash on collection and both sides were very happy with the deal.
Sellers feedback is everything though, without that I wouldnt have touched it.
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If you had turned up to find it leaking oil with two flat tyres, a dented door and a broken windscreen would you have paid up anyway because that's what eBay wants? 'Cos that's what some posters here seem to expect ...
 
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