E-bay Mirror Smashed When Delivered.

slowloris

Hello money savers!

I have recently been renovating my bathroom and, being on a tight budget, I thought Ebay was the way to go to keep costs to a minimum.
So, I purchased a large mirror from an Ebay shop, a couple of days before my partner and I went away to stay with family for a few weeks – we wanted to be out of the house whilst the bathroom work was in progress. Our plumber and good friend of ours kindly signed for the mirror on our behalf when it arrived.
We arrived home and opened the package to discover that the mirror was broken in many places and therefore completely unusable. I read over the Ebay shop policy and it states “In the unlikely event of you receiving a damaged item this must be reported to us within 7 days of you receiving the product from the date of delivery. Late reports of transit damage cannot be compensated for regardless of the date of installation of your mirror or cabinet.” I fully accept that it was stupid of me to have this delivered whilst we were away, I have definitely learned from this mistake and have been kicking myself ever since! I now stand to lose a lot of money if they are not going to provide a replacement, and I really cannot afford another one!
I have been trying to research what our consumer rights are when items are faulty/damaged and it seems that the retailer should provide a replacement if the goods are ‘not fit for purpose’, however, there is a bit of a grey area on whether the customer is deemed to have ‘accepted’ the goods. I can’t find any guidance on time limits/what constitutes having ‘accepted’ the goods. I know that our rights are decreased the longer we leave it to report the damage to the seller. Our mirror was delivered on 13th Oct, and we have reported the damage to the seller on 2nd Nov. We have emailed them pictures of the mirror that show it all wrapped up in the original packaging but you can clearly see that it is cracked all over.
Does anybody know what our rights are on this? Are we entitled to a replacement, or is it at the discretion of the seller because we left it too long to report the damage?
Many thanks in advance for your help.

Leo2020

Yes there is a grey area with acceptance but SOGA covers so many different products that it can not state specific timescales. As you say you have a reasonable amount of time to inspect the goods to ensure that they conform to contract. After a reasonable amount of time it is deemed that you have accepted the goods.

With something like damaged goods, where it is immediately obvious on inspection, then I would say you don't have very long to report it. You had over two weeks to inspect the goods, although you weren't actually able to inspect them due to being away. It isn't the seller's fault that you were away when delivery took place, so I'm inclined to side with the retailer. But what other posters think may be different.

You could always try appealing to the retailers better nature and explain why you couldn't check the mirror.

VfM4meplse

No advice to give but I have sympathy for you - seems like jolly bad luck

InsideInsurance

If the seller says no then go through the eBay/ PayPal dispute process which certainly is longer than 7 days. Evidently the seller wants it done quicker as it is probably the limitation on their cover from the courier.

Dont know how strictly eBay apply sellers policies -v- a customers dispute.

nomoneytoday

VfM4meplse wrote: »

No advice to give but I have sympathy for you - seems like jolly bad luck

7 years of it

MoneyAnt

If you get no joy or response when contacting the seller, It would certainly be worth looking into opening a disbute with Ebay and also Paypal. Ebay are always looking to protect buyers because of Ebay's reputation.

Paypal then would be your next port of call ...

Good Luck

slowloris

Thanks for all your replies (and sympathy) so far. The seller has responded to say that they are unable to offer us a replacement as they are unable to claim the cost from their courier, due to us reporting the damage outside of the 7 day limit. They have offered to sell us a replacement glass panel, at a cost of approx half of the original cost of the mirror.

What would you do in my situation? I am tempted to try and open a dispute with e-bay as some people have suggested.

Thanks again

bod1467

What have you got to lose with an Ebay dispute? (Apart from perhaps the 50% discount offer).

bb999

How about claiming on your insurance (if you have addidental damage cover.)

Hintza

Let's all just shaft the seller eh............

The OP had 7 days to inspect and failed to do so. Not the sellers fault.

misssarahleigh

Hintza wrote: »

Let's all just shaft the seller eh............

The OP had 7 days to inspect and failed to do so. Not the sellers fault.

True, but not the buyers fault that the seller has a very small time scale to claim against the courier.

Had they sent it royal mail I assume this wouldn't be an issue.

So why should the buyer pay for the sellers choice of courier.