Suing Ebay.

[Fuji Apples]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

Hello, I am in need of help.

In summary, I am trying to sue ebay in small claims court in Brooklyn, NY. I need help with figuring out small details.

To clarify my reasons: Sum that I am fighting for is very small ($170) and by 99% will be considered not worth it. I am not doing this for money but because that sum rightfully belongs to me. After calling ebay for 5 months and hoping their customer support will resolve this issue, but as a result ebay ended up totally neglecting my interest and showed absolutely zero concern, and I am determined to get to the bottom of this.

There will be no lawyer since sum is very small. I will be representing myself.

Plan of action:

a) Collecting all proof and evidence. Making a “statement”?
b) Writing physical letter to ebay, stating that I am planning to sue ebay in Small claims court in 3 weeks time after sending physical letter.
c) If no response achieved by ebay proceed to Small Claims Court.

I have never been to small claims court. From what I’ve read so far (forgive me for lack of information, I will read more about it in couple days) I need to attend small claims court, pay fee, present my statement and evidence, and if court representative will think that the case is valid will proceed with starting a process.

Please let me know if:
a) it’s not as complicated as I think and even for a small sum it’s still worth a try.
b) My plan is correct.
c) Any suggestions if you have them.

Thank you,

Bulat.

 

[adjusterjack]

I've sued people for less - and won.
David slew Goliath.
But Don Quixote tilted at windmills.

Nothing complicated about your plan or the small claims process.

What's wrong is you'll probably lose. All these complaints that I read about people being eBayed for X dollars all have one thing in common: eBay's ironclad Terms of Service that YOU agree to whenever you use eBay. My guess is that, wherever your $170 went to, it was in accordance with eBays Terms of Service and that's why you'll probably lose.

Now, if you'd care to provide the details about that $170 you might get helpful comments.

 

[CTU]

Arbitration is the agreed upon first step, I believe.

 

[Taxing Matters]

Please let me know if:
a) it’s not as complicated as I think and even for a small sum it’s still worth a try.
b) My plan is correct.
c) Any suggestions if you have them.

Thank you,

Bulat.

The basic process for NY small claims court is that you file your complaint with the court and have the defendant served with the summons and complaint. Then the court sets a hearing date. You show up and present your case; the other side then presents its case and the judge makes his/her decision. For the exact details see this from the New York City courts: https://www.nycourts.gov/courts/nyc/smallclaims/startingcase.shtml

The process for small claims court in Salt Lake City Utah is similar. Why this is important will be explained a little later. The Salt Lake City UT small claims information may be found here: http://www.slcgov.com/courts/small-claims

The problems you are likely to have is:

(1) ebay might not be the right defendant. A lot of claims for deals gone bad on ebay really have to be pursued against the other party in the transaction that you did, not ebay itself.

(2) If ebay is the proper defendant, the ebay user agreement requires that most disputes between you and ebay must be resolved by binding arbitration, not by court. However, the arbitration provision does allow for claims to be brought in small claims court. The problem, though, is that if you elect out of arbitration and decide to litigate the case, the ebay user agreement states that you must litigate the case in a federal or state court in Salt Lake City, Utah. Thus, it appears that ebay could insist that you bring your small claims court case in Salt Lake City, Utah. That would significantly increase your costs to litigate this given the travel expenses there and back. You and ebay could agree to have it litigated in Brooklyn, but if ebay refuses you might get stuck with going to Utah for small claims. Note that if you do decide use the binding arbitration, that arbitration would take place in your county.

(3) The ebay user agreement specifies that Utah law will apply to decide the case, so you would need to argue you case based on Utah law.

The ebay user agreement terms for disputes is found here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/user-agreement.html#17

I hope this information helps.

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

Hello, I am in need of help.

In summary, I am trying to sue ebay in small claims court in Brooklyn, NY. I need help with figuring out small details....

What exactly is your dispute with eBay over, Bulat?

 

[Fuji Apples]

Thank you for all the replies! Very helpful!

 

[Fuji Apples]

I've sued people for less - and won.
David slew Goliath.
But Don Quixote tilted at windmills.

Nothing complicated about your plan or the small claims process.

What's wrong is you'll probably lose. All these complaints that I read about people being eBayed for X dollars all have one thing in common: eBay's ironclad Terms of Service that YOU agree to whenever you use eBay. My guess is that, wherever your $170 went to, it was in accordance with eBays Terms of Service and that's why you'll probably lose.

Now, if you'd care to provide the details about that $170 you might get helpful comments.

What exactly is your dispute with eBay over, Bulat?

I sold a snowboard on ebay. This is not my 1st time selling a snowboard and I already sold about 200 items on ebay in 5 past years. I offered free shipping and chose to send it with Fedex. During a lable purchase through ebay website they offered a price of $30 (I have electric scales, and tailors measuring tape. All measurements were precise.).

Now for your information (if you didn't know this) labels purchased from USPS are paid right away from your paypal account, but when it comes to Fedex, ebay adds label cost to monthly account statement.

So now instead of getting a monthly fee for about 65$ (35$ ebay fee + 30$ shipping) I have received statement stating that I owe ebay 240$. $204 of that is shipping. During many calls since March month to ebay,fedex and paypal it was clear there was made mistake during puting measurements in the system. It stated that item's weight was 155 pounds and length/width/height was also incorrect.

All numbers were approximate for easier understanding.

Sorry if I made a mistake, english is my 2nd language.

 

[Shadowbunny]

I sold a snowboard on ebay. This is not my 1st time selling a snowboard and I already sold about 200 items on ebay in 5 past years. I offered free shipping and chose to send it with Fedex. During a lable purchase through ebay website they offered a price of $30 (I have electric scales, and tailors measuring tape. All measurements were precise.).

Now for your information (if you didn't know this) labels purchased from USPS are paid right away from your paypal account, but when it comes to Fedex, ebay adds label cost to monthly account statement.

So now instead of getting a monthly fee for about 65$ (35$ ebay fee + 30$ shipping) I have received statement stating that I owe ebay 240$. $204 of that is shipping. During many calls since March month to ebay,fedex and paypal it was clear there was made mistake during puting measurements in the system. It stated that item's weight was 155 pounds and length/width/height was also incorrect.

All numbers were approximate for easier understanding.

Sorry if I made a mistake, english is my 2nd language.

Who input the incorrect measurements?

(And your English is just fine; had you not said so I would not have known English was a second language for you.)

 

[adjusterjack]

So now instead of getting a monthly fee for about 65$ (35$ ebay fee + 30$ shipping) I have received statement stating that I owe ebay 240$. $204 of that is shipping. During many calls since March month to ebay,fedex and paypal it was clear there was made mistake during puting measurements in the system. It stated that item's weight was 155 pounds and length/width/height was also incorrect.

Clear to who? You?

What is eBay telling you?

What is Paypal telling you?

What is Fedex telling you?

 

[quincy]

I sold a snowboard on ebay. This is not my 1st time selling a snowboard and I already sold about 200 items on ebay in 5 past years. I offered free shipping and chose to send it with Fedex. During a lable purchase through ebay website they offered a price of $30 (I have electric scales, and tailors measuring tape. All measurements were precise.).

Now for your information (if you didn't know this) labels purchased from USPS are paid right away from your paypal account, but when it comes to Fedex, ebay adds label cost to monthly account statement.

So now instead of getting a monthly fee for about 65$ (35$ ebay fee + 30$ shipping) I have received statement stating that I owe ebay 240$. $204 of that is shipping. During many calls since March month to ebay,fedex and paypal it was clear there was made mistake during puting measurements in the system. It stated that item's weight was 155 pounds and length/width/height was also incorrect.

All numbers were approximate for easier understanding.

Sorry if I made a mistake, english is my 2nd language.

I am not sure from what you have said that eBay is the appropriate target for the lawsuit you are considering.

 

[Fuji Apples]

Clear to who? You?

What is eBay telling you?

What is Paypal telling you?

What is Fedex telling you?

It's written on the statement that item weighs 155 pounds. That's physically impossible.

All ebay did started a claim with Fedex. Promised to keep me informed. I ended up calling them once a week or so. After 3 months of "we are waiting on Fedex response" they just told me claim was declined. I started a new claim but of course it wasn't approved. I've gotten 0 of prove about this claims. No written or email information. Customer service was horrid during every call. Calls were 1-1,5 hours, most of them me waiting for them to check the "some notes". Sometimes representative will imply on hanging up and then calling back. After a very long time and their insistence I would agree and never get a call back.

Paypal just told me to address issue to ebay.

Fedex were super helpful and saw the mistake but they needed an account number to do the changes, and only ebay knows it.

 

[Fuji Apples]

Who input the incorrect measurements?

(And your English is just fine; had you not said so I would not have known English was a second language for you.)

That's a good question. Fedex representative told me whoever did invoice might have done that.

 

[quincy]

You will need to discover the source of the error so the defendant you name is the right one to sue.

I hope the time you are investing in this is not valuable time because time is not recoverable in your lawsuit should you win your lawsuit.

 

[adjusterjack]

It's written on the statement that item weighs 155 pounds. That's physically impossible.

All ebay did started a claim with Fedex. Promised to keep me informed. I ended up calling them once a week or so. After 3 months of "we are waiting on Fedex response" they just told me claim was declined. I started a new claim but of course it wasn't approved. I've gotten 0 of prove about this claims. No written or email information. Customer service was horrid during every call. Calls were 1-1,5 hours, most of them me waiting for them to check the "some notes". Sometimes representative will imply on hanging up and then calling back. After a very long time and their insistence I would agree and never get a call back.

Paypal just told me to address issue to ebay.

Fedex were super helpful and saw the mistake but they needed an account number to do the changes, and only ebay knows it.

Everybody's being "helpful" but nobody's giving you your money back.

And you can't seem to prove who made the mistake and how would you even prove that the shipment didn't weigh 155 lbs? Did Fedex weigh it and make a record of it?

If not, then I don't see you getting anywhere with a lawsuit unless you sue all three and let them sort it out in court. Good luck with that.

 

[quincy]

Everybody's being "helpful" but nobody's giving you your money back.

And you can't seem to prove who made the mistake and how would you even prove that the shipment didn't weigh 155 lbs? Did Fedex weigh it and make a record of it?

If not, then I don't see you getting anywhere with a lawsuit unless you sue all three and let them sort it out in court. Good luck with that.

Suing all three without proof that all or any made an error costing Bulat money would be a big mistake.

Someone or some entity named in error can countersue for attorney fees and costs.