Buyer paid in full for car - Now vanished. Suggestions?

[anonymous-user]

Hi all,

My friend put a car up for sale on eBay as a classified advert in September 2014 and immediately had numerous enquiries from people offering the asking price.

One guy drove a couple of hours to come and look at it, decided straight away he definitely wanted it, and said he would transfer the full asking price when he got home and then arrange for it to be collected shortly after.

The money duly arrived into the bank account for the car, in full, as promised.

Since then the buyer has completely vanished. Won't reply to calls, texts, emails or messages through eBay. And my friend has been trying to contact the guy at least once a week since September with zero response.

He only knows the buyers first name, no address or anything as it was all via email/calls.

Since September he has had various other people desperately trying to buy the car off him and offering to come 'today' with the cash if he decides to give up on the original purchaser.

What's the score with things like this if you really can't get in touch with whoever originally paid and can't even refund them as you don't know who they are?

cheers

[Mr Classic]

Sell the car and keep the money that the original buyer sent you in a separate account. There was a thread on here recently with a similar situation, buyer paid off finance then vanished. See if you can find in on search.

[anonymous-user]

part of me says sell it to someone else and if buyer 1 pops up again, just refund

part of me says it needs a bit of digging: has the eBay id of the buyer been active at all recently? could your mate call eBay customer services and explain the situation to them and see if they can check if the id has logged in since then for instance / send a message to the user

he could send a text saying that if he doesn't collect within 14 days, it will be sold and that his money will be available for refunding - keep a copy of that text of course

Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 26th April 19:18

[Countdown]

If I was him I'd sell it again to somebody else and repay the original guy if/when he turns up.

The original buyer can't really expect him to hang on to th car forever.

[ging84]

your friend?
there was a thread a few months back which started off very similar to this one, the story went on for ages, but turned out to be totally made up

[westtra]

why doesnt he just return the money then sell it again?

[anonymous-user]

Well he is considering selling it again and keeping the original buyers money ready for him in case he returns, but the concern is that the buyer legally owns the car seen as how he paid for it in full.

Although I guess it could be classed as highly unreasonable for the buyer to still expect to get the car after all these months and he should just be pleased with a refund?

[anonymous-user]

ging84 said:

your friend?
there was a thread a few months back which started off very similar to this one, the story went on for ages, but turned out to be totally made up

I remember the other thread you mention from a while ago but I didn't bother reading it at the time.

[roofer]

Car must be SORN then, so your friend is storing it ? I'd sell it again, and when the original comes for his money, deduct storage charges since September.

[Oakey]

Maybe he dropped dead?

[anonymous-user]

roofer said:

Car must be SORN then, so your friend is storing it ? I'd sell it again, and when the original comes for his money, deduct storage charges since September.

The car isn't SORN or anything as it doesn't have a V5.

It is an import requiring restoration.

[anonymous-user]

Oakey said:

Maybe he dropped dead?

Well... we did wonder that.

[Funkycoldribena]

Ripper Johnson will want his car when he gets out.

[KrazyIvan]

Getting da-ja-vue

[Funkycoldribena]

KrazyIvan said:

Getting da-ja-vue

Is that like when you go to the cinema twice in a week?

[anonymous-user]

KrazyIvan said:

Getting da-ja-vue

It must happen more than you would have thought really.

I mean I know people have a habit of leaving cars at garages for repair and never coming back for them despite them being worth far more than the repairs cost.

[Charlie1986]

rings a bell to the thread where the buyer paid the finance off then never returned.

[anonymous-user]

Charlie1986 said:

rings a bell to the thread where the buyer paid the finance off then never returned.

Well hopefully this one will be a lot more straightforward than the one that involved finance.

As I pointed out earlier, the only real worry is that legally the car belongs to the buyer as it has been paid for in full, and therefore what would be the repercussions of selling it again, even if you intended to refund the original purchaser.

He might not want the money back, he may just demand the car.

[KrazyIvan]

Funkycoldribena said:

Is that like when you go to the cinema twice in a week?

[160]

wasnt the other time a buyer from france who would buy a few cars send the money and then pick them up when he had enough for the transporter? iirc wasnt it 'lauras other half' or something like that.