Fur Coat Misrepresentation

[tanuki]

Last fall my husband purchased a Fin (tanuki) fur coat for $600 from an EBay furrier in New York, the coat was not listed on Ebay...just one he had in his inventory. He's been selling furs on Ebay for some time so I felt comfortable buying from him. The coat was listed as a 4x in size, (I wear a 2x to a 3x) when it arrived I expected it to be too big, but it fit my co-worker who is a size 10.

My husband called him and told him we wanted our money back and he refused, he said his listings indicate no refunds. The seller told me to send the coat back and he would tailor it to fit. After sending my measurements many times, I ended up paying any extra $250 to pay for the alterations to the coat. The coat fits perfectly now, no wiggle room, but wearable. The first day I wore it a seam in the back opened up. I took it to our local furrier who refused to touch the coat.....I was told the coat was too old and dry to hold a seam for very long. I contacted the seller who told me to send it back to him he was sure his furrier could fix it. I did.....$40 to ship it back, $140 to pay for the repair. Since then the coat has ripped again, this time I opened the lining and saw that the coat is dry and crumbling, and has 2 small holes in the area I opened, and probably won't hold any repairs. I repaired the seam as best I could, contacted the seller and he refused to refund my money, he said I was too rough on the coat. Last night I went to hang up the coat and my thump went thru the fur. The coat is a piece of crap. Do I have any recourse?

 

[army judge]

Last fall my husband purchased a Fin (tanuki) fur coat for $600 from an EBay furrier in New York, the coat was not listed on Ebay...just one he had in his inventory. He's been selling furs on Ebay for some time so I felt comfortable buying from him. The coat was listed as a 4x in size, (I wear a 2x to a 3x) when it arrived I expected it to be too big, but it fit my co-worker who is a size 10.

My husband called him and told him we wanted our money back and he refused, he said his listings indicate no refunds. The seller told me to send the coat back and he would tailor it to fit. After sending my measurements many times, I ended up paying any extra $250 to pay for the alterations to the coat. The coat fits perfectly now, no wiggle room, but wearable. The first day I wore it a seam in the back opened up. I took it to our local furrier who refused to touch the coat.....I was told the coat was too old and dry to hold a seam for very long. I contacted the seller who told me to send it back to him he was sure his furrier could fix it. I did.....$40 to ship it back, $140 to pay for the repair. Since then the coat has ripped again, this time I opened the lining and saw that the coat is dry and crumbling, and has 2 small holes in the area I opened, and probably won't hold any repairs. I repaired the seam as best I could, contacted the seller and he refused to refund my money, he said I was too rough on the coat. Last night I went to hang up the coat and my thump went thru the fur. The coat is a piece of crap. Do I have any recourse?

You could bring a small claims lawsuit, in NY.
Why?
Because, unless he's stupid, he'd never be stupid to let you serve and sue him in Iowa.
But, that'll cost you more than you could recover.
Assuming, that is, you could prevail in your lawsuit.
Frankly, I don't think you could prevail.
You just made a bad deal, and bought dry rotted junk.

Your best recourse is to stop buying junk on eBay, it's a trap.
People sell on eBay to scam suckers.

Amazon is legit,
eBay is a money PIT.

 

[Proserpina]

Technically yes - you can sue him in small claims court.

The difficulty though is that you may need to sue him in NY, and collecting a judgment can be costly and time-consuming.

If the fur was sold as "used" though, rather than new, you've got an even bigger problem.

 

[KatDini]

You could bring a small claims lawsuit, in NY.
Why?
Because, unless he's stupid, he'd never be stupid to let you serve and sue him in Iowa.
But, that'll cost you more than you could recover.
Assuming, that is, you could prevail in your lawsuit.
Frankly, I don't think you could prevail.
You just made a bad deal, and bought dry rotted junk.

Your best recourse is to stop buying junk on eBay, it's a trap.
People sell on eBay to scam suckers.

Amazon is legit,
eBay is a money PIT.

OP did not purchase her coat via eBay. If she had, she would have been able to file a claim via eBay a month after receiving the coat.

 

[army judge]

OP did not purchase her coat via eBay. If she had, she would have been able to file a claim via eBay a month after receiving the coat.

Hard to say, but let's accept her representation it was eBay.
OP says the coat she bought wasn't listed on eBay, just mentioned that the seller sells some junk on eBay.
I doubt eBay would have done anything because of this familiar way to evade their policies.
That should have been a RED FLAG.
Sadly, people want that great thing, they'll persist, regardless.

Her time to seek a refund via eBay had likely elapsed, and remember she said the seller's policy was NO REFUNDS.
She likely used the month in which to seek a refund from eBay to get the coat altered.
Plus her furrier informed her the coat was dry rotted and refused to touch it.

The issue here is she assumed the risk even after being on notice, plus she altered the coat more than once.

I think it's a case of I want that great thing, but I want it cheap and will do anything to get it cheap.

It's a common story on here, sung in many keys, very sad.