I just bought a TV on Ricardo and three days before the pick up the seller just emailed me to cancel the transaction. He is arguing that the TV is not functioning properly anymore (I think he got another offer). Is there a way to get compensated for the 1K of the transaction. I know there is a binding contract but no clue how to proceed.
Thanks
If not paid then not sure what compensation you would be expecting.
Hope it works out.
If you haven't yet paid , then that's the end of it, apart from reporting the matter to Ricardo, neutrally. If you have paid , write the same letter to all of the parties: Ricardo, the seller and your credit card company, including a copy of the seller's mail saying he can't sell because the TV is defective. Ask the credit card company to stop the payment, if it's not already too late. Ask Ricardo to refund you. Ask the seller to ensure that Ricardo refunds you.
If this doesn't work immediately, write again, but no longer by e-mail, but instead on paper, in an envelope, by registered mail, at least to Ricardo, and to the seller if you have his postal address.
Once you receive a refund of any money you've paid, that will be the end of the matter. You see, Switzerland doesn't generally have any legal room for "compensation", in the sense that is known in some other countries, of awarding you damages because you've suffered this disappointment and inconveniece, nor of compelling the seller to supply you with an equivalent TV. The matter stops once you've been refunded, and then it is over.
Here's hoping this will be resolved speedily.
The seller is obligated to deliver as contractually agreed. OP could drag them to the courts for this.
The question is however if it's worth the cost, time, and effort. For most people that answer is an unambiguous "Hell, no!".
- My (fill in family member) wants to have it
- It is or has been broken
- The family decided against it
- I made a mistake with the pricing (how dare you think you can buy at this price!)
The last one happened to me some times already, buying and being confronted with a "of course this is not the real price". Unfortunately, Ricardo is very protective for the seller, so even when leaving a negative feedback you will normally receive one in return from the seller. So no point at all, call Ricardo and their customer service (chf 1 pm) will just shrug and tell you to contact your legal insurance instead of bothering them...
If it has they deserves a refund,
If they haven’t he can’t force the other party to complete the transaction.
If it really is broken, the OP should be thankful.
If it isn’t well, what can he do?
He should alert Ricardo as they are probably expecting their commission.
They describe the procedure to take against the seller IF you have paid already, on their website. It basically means sending a few standard emails stating a delivery deadline, and including a formal statement you wish to withdraw from the transaction in the last email reminder you send. You need to keep a copy of these emails and eventually fill in their form and send it to them.
So far the sellers have with me always refunded or sent the item after the first email reminding them of their obligations. Keeping your email short, factual and to the point seems to help a lot.
Won an item on ebay at a really good price, and then paid. Two days later, the seller messaged me saying their dog damaged it and refunded me the money.
At the same time, I saw that the seller had relisted the item on ebay as buy-it-now (for more than I won at auction), and the listing had closed for around 100 pounds more than I had won it at.
I wrote them a polite email stating that as per UK law, once the hammer falls at auction the item is my legal property. As such, they had the option of either sending me the item (if they still had it), or paying me the difference between what I paid for it and what they sold it for. I quoted a few web articles and threatened legal action (small claims court in the UK costs £25 and doesn't allow lawyers)
Surprisingly, the day after, without too many questions, the seller sent me a paypal payment for the £100 or so. I was pleasantly surprised.
The problem lies in determining a fair price, and thus make-good amount. Usually, buy-now means selling below actual value in order to get a speedy sale. So, his buy-now offer is only a floor for the actual value; but if that's a price/difference you're fine with that's all the better.
Good on you for standing your ground
We arranged the pickup and 20 minutes before he got here, I tried to start the thing again and it fell apart (it was a gas powered garden trimmer). He hadn't paid yet. I called him asap and he turned around and went home.
That was it. Had he asked me to provide him with a new trimmer instead, I would have told him politely and firmly to take lessons in sex and travel. He didn't.
Maybe the guy is bs'ing you. Maybe he isn't. If you haven't already paid, then I would just sing a few bars of "That's life" and move on to the next chapter.
Of course, if you have paid, that is a completely different matter. And you need to be re-imbursed asap, without further ado.
No i haven’t paid for those who asked. But I was wondering if it’s legally possible to do something since there is a binding contract behind. In my home country you can get significantly compensated for that.
Thanks
Second-hand goods are deemed to potentially include signs of use, or wear and tear, and private sellers are not regarded as having the same capabilities as professional sellers. So when the seller said he could no longer sell to you as he'd realised that the equipment was defective, an outsider, such as a Court, is likely to think the seller sounds fair and pragmatic, and that he provided a reasonable explanation of why he could not deliver.
This will still be so, even if you were to show that he advertised the same item later. This, if for no other reason that that you can probably show, at most, that it was a similar item, but you're probably unlikely to be able to prove that it was the identical item.
You hadn't paid him, so you haven't lost any money. That's good.
You didn't receive the goods as promised, so you lost the potential to receive the goods as contracted.
"Compensation" in Switzerland is regarded, in general, as being only to restore unto someone what they have lost, materially . Therefore, if there is a case, it is only to be about the loss of the item, itself, and not for anything additional, around the blank sale.
Therefore, it would be most unusual and is very unlikely for anyone - especially not at this level of transaction - to be provided a financial settlement to compensate for aspects such as inconvenience, emotional suffering of disappointment, sorrow or regret, for help to recover one's dignity, for days on which the person might have had to get by without having the item they had hoped to purchase, or for the costs of the mails, letters and and phonecalls involved.
If it were me, I'd probably be annoyed, and would make a note of that seller's name, so as not to transact with them again, and would then turn the page and look for another item that seems more or less to fit the purpse. I'd much rather do that than fight my way through a Court system which isn't built for this kind of dispute within a culture that, in general, finds the "compensation" notion odd and often a little nonesensical.
I'm not saying you don't have a right, as I think Urs Max is correct that you do. I just would never want to sacrifice my free-time and nerves for such a cause, knowing that you're unlikely to win, from it, neither a shiny new TV, nor that particular TV that was not sold to you, nor enough money to buy an equivalent item new, nor any "pain and suffering" type of compensation.
Now, I’m really curious since I wouldn’t do that but a guy at the office told me I could ask for debt enforcement (Betreibungen) and I kept wondering, if that’s true can i just simply point anyone and say he/she owes me!???!! That is crazy! ( again is just curiosity since the guy owes me no money)
Really great points and answers guys.. didn’t expect it! Cheers to all the EFrs!
https://www.ch.ch/en/debt-enforcement-bankruptcy/
I don't see how it could apply to your non-selling Ricardo seller.