Ebay problems

Belle68

Hi! This is the first ever time I have posted anything on these forums and I hope someone can help!
I purchased an item off Ebay for £84.02 and received delivery by 'special delivery' for free (which I thought was strange as it costs the seller £5.50 to post) anyway the item arrived and to my dismay it was fake!
It was a face cream that retails for £305...and yeah, now I feel an idiot but I believed it was the genuine article. I had a sample of the cream from House of Fraser and thought it was amazing, so had something to compare it with.
I contacted Ebay and the seller agreed to refund the item immediately once I had posted it back to her. I had paid by Paypal and thought there would be no problems.
I was wary about posting it back, believing she would sell it on to someone else. I took the item to an Estee Lauder counter, they said it was fake but would not provide any written confirmation of this.
I took photos of it next to the genuine sample pot, packaged it up carefully and sent it back to the seller using recorded delivery as advised by Ebay.
That was over 3 weeks ago (26th May 2010) and she still hasn't had it. I went on the Royal Mail website and I am told it is in the process of being delivered!
I have emailed the seller and she says I am not getting my money back untill she receives the item.
I have opened a dispute with Paypal who say they will refund the money once the seller has received the item.
I believe the seller did not take delivery of the item on purpose.
Has anyone else experienced this? I send parcels by recorded delivery all the time with no bother at all.
I feel so upset that people can be so deceitful and that Ebay does not seem bothered at all.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

soolin

Agrh, the curse of recorded. In some areas the item is never signed for or updated online and as far as paypal is concerned the item has not been received by seller.

Paypal advised you badly, an £84 item is not coverd by standard mail you needed to have used special delivery and unfortunately that means thta you will not even be able to get a full refund here at all from RM.

I'm really not sure what to suggest here

emerald_starcat

I suppose you can't even claim the amount back from Royal Mail as you will be insured up to £41 only. When you went to the post office did the counter assistant not ask you if the item was worth more than £41, or even ask for the value of the item? I know in the past when I have sent recorded they have ask me these questions.

UnderPressure

Tricky one, firslty you need to be contacting royal mail and asking what has happened to this package, as Soolin said recorded delivery can be skethcy with many different reasons as to why royal mail could not confirm delivery, not your problem royal mails so give the customer service team a call and see what they say.

So far as the seller, well what can I say firstly £305 cream for £84 does that sound right to you? Really? Ever heard if something sounds to good to be true................................, of no use now but food for thought for the future

There is not more you can do really apart from hope that royal mail can provide you with some kind of proof of delivery, if not then in this case the seller wins and you will have to make a claim with royal mail however (someone will know the definate figure) the most you can claim from royal mail is around the £50ish mark maybe a bit less.

If it was a business seller then you could get really shirty and speak to your local trading standards, Ebay just dont seem bothered about such things one of the many reason why I ditched my powerseller account almost 2 years agao and hardly ever go near the site at all now, full of scammers and thieves and Ebay just dont care...............

cyberbob

UnderPressure wrote: »

There is not more you can do really apart from hope that royal mail can provide you with some kind of proof of delivery, if not then in this case the seller wins and you will have to make a claim with royal mail however (someone will know the definate figure) the most you can claim from royal mail is around the £50ish mark maybe a bit less.

It's £41 but a lot of the time they wont payout for an item worth more (not even up to the £41 mark) as as far as they are concerned you used the incorrect postal service so it's not covered. You may be lucky and they may payout but i wouldn't bank on it.

soolin

UnderPressure wrote: »

Tricky one, firslty you need to be contacting royal mail and asking what has happened to this package, as Soolin said recorded delivery can be skethcy with many different reasons as to why royal mail could not confirm delivery, not your problem royal mails so give the customer service team a call and see what they say.



QUOTE]

Unfortunately it is likely to be OPs problem rather than RMs as Recorded was the wrong service. They will offer compensation of 74p (or more usually a book fo stamps) because they cannot track item to delivery. In my area recorded never ever tracks at all and is worse than useless.

Belle68

Thanks for your replies soolin,emerald_starcat,UnderPressure and cyberbob.
I had a feeling that there would be a problem posting the item back and I considered Special Delivery but was told I wouldn't get any return postage back from the seller so opted for the cheaper option.
I was asked in the post office if the item was worth much but didn't realise it was what it was worth to me if it went missing (not the fact that it was cheap cream in an expensive jar). Yes I now realise that was a mistake. I never for one second thought it would go missing as I use recorded all the time with no problems.

I have tried many times to contact RM..it is hopeless. I got through after pressing loads of options and was told they cannot help me with recorded and to go online! I tried again and got through to a human who told me she only dealt with 'missing special delivery' and there was nothing she could do!

Yes I know that it was too good to be true now!!! it has put me off buying expensive face cream again!! I could never afford it anyway!!

My local post Office told me that it is likely that she never took delivery of the item and it will be sent back to me after 3 weeks.

Is this the new way of scamming people? did she send the item by special delivery at first so that I couldn't say i didn't receive it as a way of claiming my money back?
What do i do if/when I get the item sent back by RM?
Does she know that RM will just not bother returning it to me and she gets to keep my money? Has she done this many times before?
All these questions are going round in my head and I do feel that these people should not be allowed to get away with this.
I have proof of delivery and evidence that it's fake, therefore shouldn't Paypal refund me my money? Seems so unfair.

NJW69

Have you opened a dispute in paypal?

soolin

Firstly, she won't have sent it Special just to con you. Special was the correct method of postage as item was over £41 and therefore not suitable for standard mail (and that includes Recorded).

If you could prove it was a fake, and for that you would have needed a statement to that effect on headed paper from the manufacturers, then paypal would have told you to destroy it and would have forced a refund. Unfortunately paypal employ people who appear to have the sole intention of getting people off the phone as quickly as posisble.

Yes paypal would have dealt with this if you had proved to them using the proof they require that the item was a fake. They would not do it on your say so alone. As you were not aware of the UK legal requirements for fakes paypal have basically fobbed you off with a straight forward claim for item not received. That would have worled if you had understood the Royal mail requirements for tracking and also for value of item.

Unfortunately you now have no way of proving item is a fake, as you no lonhger have it, nor can you force a refund from seller as you cannot prove they have it back.

Your only hope is that it gets returned to you in time to work the process correctly, and is also dependent on you being able to get a signed letter from the appropraie company stating that item is a fake. That in itself is difficult as many of these high end items can only be sold via an authorised retailier, by buying on what is effectively the grey market you may find the owner of the brand unwilling to help you.

Belle68

Yes NJW69 I have opened a dispute in paypal and they won't refund my money untill she takes delivery.

I have bought many items off ebay worth more and no one has used special delivery, which sounds mad, but there seems no point as this would inevitably increase the price. I really do believe she did it to con me soolin....and it worked! I have emailed the seller many times and she is completely indifferent and is accusing me of still having the item, even though I have proof of postage!
I do not believe the postal system is that bad..just a lot of con artists out there!
I live in Northern Ireland and send many items over to relatives in England regularly by normal mail and have never, ever had something go missing. But I am aware that it can happen.
I could not get proof that the item was fake, the owner of the brand was unwilling to help, so I returned it to the seller.
Ebay told me to return it and to use recorded delivery too.
So soolin do you suggest that if I get the item back to re-send it by special delivery? then I will be covered by RM insurance?
What if she knows a way to not take delivery and I am then another £6 down? sorry for all the questions but this has made me so frustrated!

soolin

Belle68 wrote: »

Yes NJW69 I have opened a dispute in paypal and they won't refund my money untill she takes delivery.

I have bought many items off ebay worth more and no one has used special delivery, which sounds mad, but there seems no point as this would inevitably increase the price. I really do believe she did it to con me soolin....and it worked! I have emailed the seller many times and she is completely indifferent and is accusing me of still having the item, even though I have proof of postage!
I do not believe the postal system is that bad..just a lot of con artists out there!
I live in Northern Ireland and send many items over to relatives in England regularly by normal mail and have never, ever had something go missing. But I am aware that it can happen.
I could not get proof that the item was fake, the owner of the brand was unwilling to help, so I returned it to the seller.
Ebay told me to return it and to use recorded delivery too.
So soolin do you suggest that if I get the item back to re-send it by special delivery? then I will be covered by RM insurance?
What if she knows a way to not take delivery and I am then another £6 down? sorry for all the questions but this has made me so frustrated!

If you send it tracked (ie via special) then it will show if delivery is refused and if that is the case and paypal have told you to return it they will force the refund. However it all depends on timing and I rather fear you will be out of time to do that.

As for special, any seller that sends items over £41 is extremely foolish and is actually quite rare. Standard mail only covers up to £41 and sellers need to protect themselves against items going astray by using the correct postal method. Recorded is merely standard mail, designed for use with documents that need a signature on receipt, and that's why the PO asked you if there was anything of value in the package you needed to send.

Recorded is a complete waste of time, I used to have to use it for work documents but in october 2009 not one single item i sent ever showed online as received, yet it all arrived safely. At that point i finally managed to persaude one department to stop insisting on it being used. I also receive all my recorded mail here unsigned and un acknowledged online.

You face a problem if this is a dishonest seller as if she has the item and it never shows as delivered online you obviously won't be getting it back.