eBay Problem

127charlie

Hello, I wonder is someone could give me some guidance on a problem I am having with eBay.

I purchased a mobile phone from a seller on the 30th of August 2011. The listing stated that the phone was in perfect working order, brand new in the box. The seller also “guaranteed” that the phone would work. I paid £129 for the phone through Paypal.
However, when the phone arrived, it was faulty. I contacted the seller and he told me to ship the phone back to him (which I had to pay the cost for) and he would send me a replacement. I sent the phone back to him that same day. When he received it, he sent me the replacement; however, this phone was also faulty.

Again, I contacted the seller to tell him about this. He told me to ship the phone back to him (again at my cost) and he would refund my money. However, I have had no contact from the seller since. I have sent him countless emails and he has not responded to any of them. I even sent him a money request through Paypal, which again he has ignored.

I contacted eBay to tell them about my situation, but they said that as the listing ended more than 45 days ago, there is nothing they can do about it. I did ask them to take into account that I had to ship the phone back twice; both taking at least 15 days to arrived back with the seller, and also the fact that the seller was then shipping the replacement back to me. Obviously, this is where all the time has gone. But again, eBay told me that there was nothing they could do. They told me that I had to contact the seller directly. eBay then sent me a contact detail swap with the seller. I have tried phoning him and he has just ignored all of my calls.

So, again I contacted eBay to tell them that the seller was still refusing contact with me. They told me that they could not get involved and that I would either have to go to the Police or take it to court. However, the seller is based in the US, so how would the police be able to help me? Again, as the seller is based in the US I could not take him to court, never mind the costs of this!

I am so frustrated with eBay. I have always trusted them to be able to sort out any problems I have, hence the reason I always use them!
Please let me know if anyone has any ideas. I have been scammed and so far I have found no one who is willing to help me.

Thank you.

Charlie

RFW

I'd suggest getting in touch with your local Trading Standards although I'm not sure that anyone will be able to help you at this stage. Your best hope would be for Ebay to take pity on you and refund you out of their own funds as has happened occasionally in the past. You'll need to contact and keep pestering them. Try on the .com site too if the seller was in the US.
Is the seller still active? I'm assuming not but if he is that would give you some options.
Also if you paid by credit card via Paypal your credit card company may/should help.

127charlie

Hi, thank you for your suggestion. I will try to contact my local Trading Standards to see if they can help at all. The seller is still active, however, they currently have no items for sale and haven't for the past month. I paid through Paypal with a debit card rather than a credit card. Thanks again. Charlie

steveo3002

id say you are out of luck ...ebays fine until you get sold something dud/fake/broken

soolin

steveo3002 wrote: »

id say you are out of luck ...ebays fine until you get sold something dud/fake/broken

Even then this would have been fine as paypal or ebay would have fully refunded on an SNAD claim after he tracked the original phone back to seller.

steveo3002

well apart from you have to keep paying the return postage each time

soolin

steveo3002 wrote: »

well apart from you have to keep paying the return postage each time

I suspect many people would have gone for a refund on the first item rather than allow seller to keep stringing them along. We are talking 4 months here, even if this had been a Tesco or Carphone warehouse purchase I wouldn't have waited 4 months.

127charlie

Please remember that I had to allow time for the phone to be shipped to me and then returned twice. This took a long time. I have not simply just left it 4 months and the decided to kick up a fuss about it.

Also, I trusted the seller, thinking that the first faulty phone I received was a one off. Hence the reason I asked for a refund after the second one that arrived was faulty.

It was a present, so I wanted to do my best as not to disappoint the person I gave it to.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

When you sent the phones back were both sent back tracked and show as delivered?

127charlie

I have proof of posting both returns. However, neither have tracking numbers on them. I do have an email from the seller confirming that the first return was received.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Without proof of delivery it may weaken yuor case but you could find the number for the seller's local police station and send them another email stating eBay have informed you to contact the police and the number you have is such and such.

If that doesn't prompt a reply you could report the matter to the police their end but without proof of delivery I'm not sure where you would stand to be honest.