posted on February 4, 2004 08:35:20 PM new
Hello All, after reading the post about a sellers being sued for a feedback the seller left. I realized that yes Ebay sellers can be sued for any number of reasons. When you are selling something on Ebay you are running a business. Lets say you sold a toy that was found to be unsafe and that toy (God Forbid) hurts a child. I am sure the seller could get sued for selling an unsafe toy. What if you sell an old lamp and the power cord is bad if the lamp starts a fire couldn't a seller get sued for that. Maybe you sell Banana bread and use a little peanut oil for flavor if that person that can't eat peanuts gets sick he or she could sue you also couldn't they? When you sell on Ebay you are running a business and business get sued all the time. Did ya ever think about it?? I just did!! I like to think at common sense prevails but then again sometimes it don't.
posted on February 5, 2004 03:47:27 AM new
Not knowing the validity of People's Court, there have been at least 2 eBay sellers on there as... Defendants!
Both lost their cases to the plantiffs... both the plantiffs said they did not get what they paid for...
posted on February 5, 2004 07:19:52 AM new
can you sell homemade food on ebay or anywhere??
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
posted on February 5, 2004 07:24:36 AM new
Stop, used to be an Amish lady who sold homemade cakes on ebay. She did pretty well. Dont know if she is still selling them.
posted on February 5, 2004 07:31:23 AM new
she can sell until she gets into trouble.
but then small town convenience stores sell homemade food made by relatives or friends.or themselves
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
posted on February 5, 2004 07:33:16 AM new
stop - there is one seller who makes the most wonderful homemade jellies, jams, and preserves on eBay. Oh, forgot the homemade maple sugar candy! I originally started buying from him on eBay, and now buy directly from his website.
His prices are incredibly low, but every single thing I have purchased has been delicious. He makes salsa, pepper jelly, marmalades also.
His about me page mentions that he has met the requirement to sell food items and he is licensed.
From his about me page...
"Our production facility is similar to your own kitchen except we use two stoves and larger kettles (5gal.) and probably produce more brow sweat in the warm weather than you do. Regular kitchen stoves, stainless steel kettles and utensils are used to produce our fine products. Since we live in Pennsylvania and produce food products for retail and wholesale and we are mandated by the State of Pennsylvania to be a licensed food producing facility. Furthermore, we are required to up keep updated on the latest technical and food processing methods required to produce a safe food product for the consumer.
YOU CAN BUY WITH CONFIDENCE OUR PROCESSED FOOD PRODUCTS
Registered Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture - License #65-828704-4 FP"
__________________________________
"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to the people who sleep under the very blanket of freedom I provide, and then question the manner in which I provide it. I'd rather you just said 'thank you' and went on your way." - A Few Good Men
[ edited by wgm on Feb 5, 2004 07:35 AM ]
posted on February 5, 2004 07:37:13 AM new
The cold hard facts are that a lot of ebayers think they aren't responsible for a lot of things. Taxes, sales tax, etc. This post and the other about a lady possibly being sued for feedback, bring up a lot of good questions. When offering items to the public, we are a target for the psychos out there. I would highly suggest that if you are doing any volume at all on ebay, that you become incorporated. We recently have and it makes us feel so much better. This way, if anything ever happened and we were sued for any reason, it isn't us being sued, it is the corporation. It is a seperate entity. I never thought as an ebay seller I would have to do that... but I have a friend who is a lawyer and he told me it is a must when dealing with the public. He has a corp for his rental properties (he only has 2) but says we have to be responsible.
People crawl out of the woodwork and complain about the silliest things sometimes but protecting ourselves should be high on our priority list.
It is easy to do, you can even do it online (we did) and used bizfilings.com It only takes a couple weeks for the papers to be finalized. Plus it lends credibility to buyers if you can say XXXX, Inc.
It is pretty cheap as well, each state is different but ours was the 'high end' deal and it costs less than $350 but I saw some states as low as $125 or so.
There are other online sites we found as well but liked the customer service here best. Our accountant said it was easy for him as their papers were nice and tidy and easy to understand.
Just something to think about. People get 'sue 'em' crazy these days and I don't want to loose our home because their lousy parenting skills allowed their kid to swollow a barbie shoe and they sued me because we didn't say they were removable or some stupid thing like that. We have heard worse cases win.
