Did you know you could sue e-bay buyers?

N

nabuch

CAGiversary!
I've seen lots of posts on here about sellers being taken on e-bay; though I myself have found just the opposite. Either way you do have recourse, in small claims court.

On Oct.23's episode of "The People's Court", a woman sued a buyer who lodged a complaint against her on e-bay and won. The woman won her case, so the buyer had to pay up, and take the item.

I never realized you could do that and thought others here might benefit from knowing this.

On the other side of the fence, several years ago a buyer sued an e-bay seller because he did not get what he bought, but instead got a box of bricks. The seller said it wasn't his fault that the post office did this, but of course the judge wasn't buying it and the buyer won.

So, there you have it, if you've been ripped off and e-bay or pay pal, etc., don't back you up, just take them to small claims court.
 
Easier said than done. You have to make sure you can get jurisdiction in your local small claims court, you still have to provide the person you're suing with proper service of process, there are fees associated with all of that.

If you could even get that far and win when they appear, great. If they don't appear and all your ducks are in a row, you can get a default judgment.

Good luck taking that shit across state lines and getting a judge there to enforce it and allow you to put a lien on some sort of property.

When all is said and done, suing someone over an ebay transaction and winning is going to cost more than whatever you were selling in the average or typical ebay transaction.

The only way it would really work well is if you were in the same geographical area of the person you're suing. Otherwise there are just too many things that can go wrong in terms of you never even getting the court process off the ground.

And what you see on TV isn't real court. The parties agree that Judge Judy or whoever the fuck it is acts as an arbitrator in a binding arbitration. The TV judges can do whatever they want and act or side emotionally if they want. Real judges, even in small claims court, aren't going to be the same, especially with their case load volume. So ebay disputes appearing on those shows are there because the parties wanted to get their mugs on TV. I'm sure they get some kind of nominal compensation for appearing.
 
You didn't know that you can take people to court?

And kodave is right, taking someone out of state/county to court is most likely going to cost you more than it's worth (unless we're talking about a huge transaction). The people on these shows already had pending cases, which means they were already dealing with the court system and they agreed to drop those cases in favor of letting the TV judge handle it. You don't just call up the show and plead your case to them whenever you feel like it.

And yes, they do indeed receive compensation for appearing on television. I'm sure it's different for each show and the amount may have changed over the years, but I know it used to typically be about $500 for each litigant. This might help with previous legal/court fees, but like I said, the amount could be inaccurate.
 
Had you seen Judge Judy? there was an episode where someone was suing a lady because she thought she bought a cellphone, but claimed it was only for a photo of 2 cellphones or something like that (as if people are that dumb enough spend 200$+ on pictures of cellphones)

Judy saw it in the buyers favor because the seller was also in trouble with other things like child care or something like that. it was a pretty funny episode.
 
[quote name='iTofuMan']Had you seen Judge Judy? there was an episode where someone was suing a lady because she thought she bought a cellphone, but claimed it was only for a photo of 2 cellphones or something like that (as if people are that dumb enough spend 200$+ on pictures of cellphones)

Judy saw it in the buyers favor because the seller was also in trouble with other things like child care or something like that. it was a pretty funny episode.[/QUOTE]

I remember that one- basically Judge Judy called her out for being a smug c**t and setting a horrible example for her kids. Then she pointed out the product info box listed a weight, and the photos obviously didn't weigh that much or offer the noted features.

But yeah- small claims court is for when the principle is more important than the money, becuase you'll pay more in the end.
 
If I remember correctly, the 'judge' show pays any award that is made plus an appearance fee and possibly transportation/lodging costs for both the plaintiff and the defendant.
 
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