Soga @ ebay

T4FF

Hi there, I need some advice on an eBay purchase.

I decided to do some money saving this year and bought a total of 20 LED lights (ceiling lights) from eBay in March. I will admit in hindsight this was probably daft to start with but there we go. What's wrong is the lights have started to blow, last count half of them have blown :mad:

I contacted the seller this week to ask for a refund, that I'd invested in LEDs to save money but the LEDs that promised to last 6+ years have lasted -6 months.

The seller has responded as follows:

dear beyer
feel sorry for the item but as the item have past the refund preiod
we can resend to u
as we have change the supplier and the bulbs now are in good quality
is that ok?/kind regards

Now I'm aware that the SOGA suggests that items should be fit for purpose - an LED that only lasts 6 months is surely not fit for purpose, but where do I stand with eBay purchases? Note, the seller is a shop and I've just discovered is located in China (ugggh, why did I go through with this purchase!) so how does that affect my purchase? Is the best I can hope for that the seller does stand by their offer?

I'm a little surprised by the seller suggesting that the originals weren't good quality!?!? Any help would be welcome....

esuhl

The SoGA is part of English law, so doesn't apply to Chinese businesses. Your only recourse would be with eBay. As far as I know (I'm no expert!) they aren't legally liable in this case, so it's a long shot, but they might feel sorry for you and help in some way... maybe...

T4FF

esuhl wrote: »

The SoGA is part of English law, so doesn't apply to Chinese businesses.

Well I thought that might be the case, but what is the international SOGA (it's on Wiki, but I cannot link to it being newby)?

esuhl wrote: »

Your only recourse would be with eBay. As far as I know (I'm no expert!) they aren't legally liable in this case, so it's a long shot, but they might feel sorry for you and help in some way... maybe...

That is a thought, though I'm sure they only deal with disputes <45 days which in reality is absurd as a catch-all rule. The dispute centre "cannot find" my item, so not sure how I would do that.

Helix

T4FF wrote: »

Well I thought that might be the case, but what is the international SOGA (it's on Wiki, but I cannot link to it being newby)?

There isn't one, it would vary from country to country and I would very much doubt that a country like China has such a law plus even if they do trying to get it enforced would be a nightmare.

pendulum

T4FF wrote: »

Well I thought that might be the case, but what is the international SOGA (it's on Wiki, but I cannot link to it being newby)?

Buying a plane ticket to China to launch a court case over a few quid doesn't sound very money saving to me.

Their offer of replacement LED's is very reasonable. They could have told you to sod off and there'd be nothing you could do about it.

visidigi

Take the replacement offer - if you pushed the subject they could just walk away like others have said...

Equaliser123

Helix wrote: »

There isn't one, it would vary from country to country and I would very much doubt that a country like China has such a law plus even if they do trying to get it enforced would be a nightmare.

Actually there is. Sort of.

The UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

China is a signatory. However, as others have said, take the offer!

Meepster

Might sound a bit of a silly question, but the LED lights aren't on dimmer switches are they?

arcon5

Tbh even if they was a UK based company they are fulfilling their obligations under SOGA by offering a replacement of better quality.

paddyrg

Cheap LED lights are often designed pretty terribly. LED's may run cooler, but still need to dissipate the heat they and the transformers generate, and the cheapo ones do it badly, so heat up, so fail early. Maybe ask if they will replace them with ones of a different design in the hope they're better?