Online auctions: your rights explained How to complain about an online auction

If the item you ordered from an online auction site does not turn up

1. Contact the online seller

Send an email (or letter) to whoever you bought from, saying you have not received the item.

2. Decide who's at fault

If the trader or person says they did send it to you, you may need to get them to take the matter up with the courier or delivery organisation. If it was insured, they will need to claim and refund your money. However, if they do not reply, your options depend on the circumstances

• If you paid by credit card (and the item cost over £100 but not more than £30,000), you will be able to make a claim to your card company
• If you did not pay by credit card, contact the auction site to find out whether it can help get your money back. If you have fraud insurance through the website, you should be able to claim on that.
• If you bought the item from a trader (but not an individual) you could take the matter through the small claims court if the amount involved is less than £5,000 in England and Wales or £3,000 in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

3. Contact the police about online auction fraudsters

If you believe you have been defrauded (for example, you believe the item you bought was never genuinely on offer, or the seller had no intention of sending it to you) you could tell the police, who may investigate and could charge the person. But this won't get you your money back.

If the item you bought from an online auction site is faulty

You can provide feedback or seek advice on the service you received

1. Ask the online seller for a refund

Send an email (or letter) to the trader or person you bought from explaining the problem and asking to arrange to return it and receive a refund (or possibly a partial refund, if you would prefer to keep the item and have it fixed).

2. Take action against the online auction site seller

If the trader or person either doesn’t respond or refuses to help, your options depend on the circumstances

• If you paid by credit card (and the item cost between £100 and £30,000), you will be able to make a claim to your card company.
• If you did not pay by credit card, contact the auction site to find out whether it has a dispute-resolution scheme, such as arbitration, that you could use.
• If you bought the item from a trader (but not an individual) you could take the matter through the small claims court if the amount involved is less than £5,000 in England and Wales or £3,000 in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

If the item you bought from an online auction site was not what you expected

1. Contact the seller for a replacement or refund

• To arrange to return it and receive a refund
• For it to be replaced by the right item, or
• For a partial refund if you believe you paid too much for the item, based on how it was described.

It's worth paying off debts before you invest

2. Take action against the online auction site seller

If the trader either doesn't respond or refuses to help, your options depend on the circumstances

• If you paid by credit card (and the item cost over £100 but not more than £30,000), you will be able to make a claim to your card company.
• If you did not pay by credit card, contact the auction site to find out whether they have a dispute-resolution scheme, such as arbitration, that you could use.
• If you bought the item from a trader (but not an individual) you could take the matter through the small claims court if the amount involved is less than £5,000 in England and Wales or £3,000 in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Before commencing any action you must step back from the case and ask three basic questions: 

1. Do I have a good chance of winning? 
2. If I win, will I be able to recover the money from the other side? 
3. Is the amount at stake worth the cost of the court case?

In addition anyone considering starting court action in England and Wales (even in small claims) has to follow the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct.

The Pre-Action Protocol sets out what is expected of the parties to a dispute and the efforts they should both make to keep the dispute out of court. The parties should be open about their claim and defence and shouldn't hold back information or documents; both should carefully consider whether there is a system of 'Alternative Dispute Resolution' (ADR) open to them that could resolve the dispute rather than going to court. 

3. Complain about the online auction site seller

If you think the trader you bought from has breached the Trade Descriptions Act because they described the item wrongly, you could report the matter to:

• your local trading standards department, which may take action against the seller (though it won't be able to resolve your dispute with them), or
• the auction site, which could blacklist the seller.