Problem with Ebuyer

cjw32

Hello all,

Im wondering if there is anything I can do about the following:

I bought a graphics card 11 months ago. It had been faulty all the time I had it, but I could underclock the card and make do with it. After 10 months it started to come up with errors even when underclocked, so I sent it back. They eventually agreed it was faulty and placed an order for a new one. I got an email saying that they were out of stock and that they dont expect any more stock.

I phoned and spoke to a customer services guy who told me that I could either - take a proportion of the cost in cash back to my account, which would have been £266 out of the £309 cost. OR I could take the full £309 as an Ebuyer credit and choose something else from their site as replacement.

The guy advised me that if I took the credit for the full value, I could use it to upgrade to the next card up for about the same price, or put a little bit of money toward it and get an even better one.

They cancelled the order for the replacement card and it showed a £309 credit on my account. I took my time to decide what to do but when I logged on 6 weeks later, the value on my account has been reduced to £266. The same value as it would have been if I had taken cash in the first place.

I phoned them and the guy on the phone apologised and said an email should have been sent to tell me the credit was reduced but hadnt been, but then backtracked and said it had always been £266.

I told the guy that if I had been told the credit would be reduced anyway, then I would have taken the cash at the time and spent it elsewhere and bought from somewhere cheaper. I am so annoyed that I was lied to and ended up leaving cash with them for 6 weeks when I would have had it in my bank account for the last 6 weeks had they told me the truth. Im guessing that if they went bust during this time, then I would have lost that cash.

I sent a letter of complaint and received the following:

[FONT=&quot]I am writing to you today further to your letter of complaint which has been passed to me to be addressed. First of all please accept my most sincere apologies on Ebuyer’s behalf for any inconvenience that may have been caused with this issue. I can assure you this is not indicative of the usual high levels of service offered at Ebuyer.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Having looked into your complaint further for you, I can advise that your RMA return has been processed in line with the Ebuyer returns policy and Customer Regulations. As your item was outside of the initial 28 days when we were informed of the defect by you, unfortunately you were no longer eligible for a full refund for your item. Due to this, Ebuyer firstly attempted to repair your item and as this could not be done a replacement order was raised to replace the item with a like for like product (order xxxxxx). Your replacement order has now been cancelled due to the item being out of stock; therefore as your item has been in use for over 6 months you have been issued with a partial refund based on the total amount of usage. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Your partial refund has automatically been applied as Ebuyer account credit and can be used when placing your next order. Alternatively, if you would like this amount to be refunded to you, this can be refunded to the credit/debit card used to place your original order. I can advise that your account credit now totals £266.48 and has been calculated in line with the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended).[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I do apologise that you have been misinformed by a member of staff and I can assure you that this has now been passed to the Technical Support Team Leader to investigate as a serious training issue. Once again, please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience that has been caused.[/FONT]

pcombo

Why didn't you return soon as you found out it was faulty, Overclocking or Underclocking is against warranty i believe.

cjw32

pcombo wrote: »

Why didn't you return soon as you found out it was faulty, Overclocking or Underclocking is against warranty i believe.

The card was factory overclocked from 850 MHz standard ATI spec, to 950 MHz. The card cost a premium due to the overclock.

I installed it and it kept making my PC crash, I turned down the speed from 950 to 900 Mhz and it seemed stable and worked fine.

9 months into having mine, I borrowed a friend's card before he sold his. It was an exact same card that I had. I instaled his and it worked perfectly on full speed, which meant it wasnt my PC at fault, it was definitely the card.

When I sent back to Ebuyer - they tried to tell me my card was fine and it was my PC that was causing the problem. That is why I didnt send the card back in the first place as I knew that is all they would do.

It wasnt until I phoned them and offered to send them a video of testing both cards at the same time, on the same PC with one giving errors and the other not, and proving it wasnt my PC and it was in fact the card that they agreed my card was faulty and offered a replacement.

cjw32

Any thoughts on whether it is worth pursuing them here?

Hammyman

You'd have to prove a manufacturing defect. Had you notified them within 28 days you could have rejected it. Had you notified them within 6 months it would automatically be deemed faulty and you'd be entitled to repair or replacement. After 6 months, the onus is on you to prove a fault existed at manufacture.

gonzo127

to be honest i think they are being pretty good offering to refund your card now as well as store credit option, in all reality you can not help the occasional c()ck up no matter who you deal with, i can understand it is probably pee'ing you off that you had the £300 in your account for a few days before they realised their mistake in which you could have spent it but in all reality you have had 10 months usage out of the card for £40

and currently for £260 you can get a AMD 6970 or a nVidia GTX570 both of which are probably better than the card you are/have returned (5870?)

jaydeeuk1

Agree with Gonzo. Ebuyer have been their usual excellent selves here.
Get a 6950, flash it to 6970 speeds and blow the rest on a game or two.