R
roXide
- Original Poster
- #1
Hi All,
I regularly read over these forums but haven't had the need to post here until now.
In May 2011 my company began selling on a large worldwide auction website. By July we were the 5th Biggest store on this site, making a large turnover - business was going very well.
In July I decided to change our business strategy slightly, and list for 10 days instead of 30 - so all of our listings would be more up to date (with T&C's, postage times etc). We had an Anchor shop, so all listings were free. All 450k products were uploaded and shortly after a large invoice appeared for £4,500+. I immediately contacted <removed> and they explained that 10 day listings were not free but charged at 1p each, but if I removed the listings they would credit all the listing fees. All listings were immediately removed, they confirmed I would be fully credited.
1 month passed and after many ignored emails the invoice dissapeared - with no explanation. Later in August a new invoice appeared for around £8,000 I contacted <removed> again via live chat, they explained it would be removed again. My emails went unanswered after this, and upon the multiple phone calls I was always told you cannot speak to the billing department. This time the invoice wasn't removed and increased to over £12,000.
Our account was put on hold in September, upon phoning them and asking to speak to a manager I was told I would have to pay the full balance and we would then be refunded after it was paid! We're still a very small startup and cannot magic up this kind of money.
I sent an email to the CEO of the auction company, and was contacted by someone in the Presidents Office. They asssured me the fees would be removed (which I have full email logs of). At the beginning of October I was contacted by a debt collection agency - demanding £12,000. The person in the presidents office then recalled this debt and reduced it to just above £7,000. However this staff member doesn't reply to my emails unless I call/fax/email multiple times, and even then it takes over 2 weeks to get a reply.
It's now the end of November, they're saying it isn't possible to issue any further credit - but I know we don't owe this money. The debt is just sat on our <removed> account - we can't sell products any more, and I've just had to give up the lease on the office space and scrap any plans of hiring more employees.
I want to take <removed> to a small claims court - but don't know if this is possible. My hope is that the debt will be passed back to the debt collection agency and they'll take me to court - ideally with the debt being cleared and us being able to sell again (but I assume we'll receive a permanent ban?).
We haven't once been sent an invoice via post or email - just amounts owed. Within our <removed> account if we attempt to view the invoice contents the page just times out - so I can't see what's been credited, or how they've fabricated these extra fees.
Any advise is appreciated, thanks for reading
I regularly read over these forums but haven't had the need to post here until now.
In May 2011 my company began selling on a large worldwide auction website. By July we were the 5th Biggest store on this site, making a large turnover - business was going very well.
In July I decided to change our business strategy slightly, and list for 10 days instead of 30 - so all of our listings would be more up to date (with T&C's, postage times etc). We had an Anchor shop, so all listings were free. All 450k products were uploaded and shortly after a large invoice appeared for £4,500+. I immediately contacted <removed> and they explained that 10 day listings were not free but charged at 1p each, but if I removed the listings they would credit all the listing fees. All listings were immediately removed, they confirmed I would be fully credited.
1 month passed and after many ignored emails the invoice dissapeared - with no explanation. Later in August a new invoice appeared for around £8,000 I contacted <removed> again via live chat, they explained it would be removed again. My emails went unanswered after this, and upon the multiple phone calls I was always told you cannot speak to the billing department. This time the invoice wasn't removed and increased to over £12,000.
Our account was put on hold in September, upon phoning them and asking to speak to a manager I was told I would have to pay the full balance and we would then be refunded after it was paid! We're still a very small startup and cannot magic up this kind of money.
I sent an email to the CEO of the auction company, and was contacted by someone in the Presidents Office. They asssured me the fees would be removed (which I have full email logs of). At the beginning of October I was contacted by a debt collection agency - demanding £12,000. The person in the presidents office then recalled this debt and reduced it to just above £7,000. However this staff member doesn't reply to my emails unless I call/fax/email multiple times, and even then it takes over 2 weeks to get a reply.
It's now the end of November, they're saying it isn't possible to issue any further credit - but I know we don't owe this money. The debt is just sat on our <removed> account - we can't sell products any more, and I've just had to give up the lease on the office space and scrap any plans of hiring more employees.
I want to take <removed> to a small claims court - but don't know if this is possible. My hope is that the debt will be passed back to the debt collection agency and they'll take me to court - ideally with the debt being cleared and us being able to sell again (but I assume we'll receive a permanent ban?).
We haven't once been sent an invoice via post or email - just amounts owed. Within our <removed> account if we attempt to view the invoice contents the page just times out - so I can't see what's been credited, or how they've fabricated these extra fees.
Any advise is appreciated, thanks for reading
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