Can I seek compensation for currency conversion charges due to faulty product?

radio-ham_2

I bought an item of electronic test equipment on eBay from Agilent, who are probably the worlds largest manufacturer of electronic test equipment. It was bought directly from the manufacturer, but it was reconditioned, not new. It was a personal purchase, not a company one.

It was a "buy it now" or "make offer" rather than an auction. The prices agreed for this was $17,736 (USD), which cost me about £11463.74 (GBP) to pay ia Paypal. The seller told me to use Paypal, though I said I'd prefer to use a wire transfer. (Paying with a credit card was not practical, as this was over the limit of my credit card).

The goods were faulty, and needed repair. But not only was there a fault, which sometimes made the instrument unusable, there were many bugs in the firmware in this instrument. (The firmware is information programmed into it),

I requested a refund, so returned the item to the seller 57 days after the date of payment via Paypal. The seller had a full 3 working days to cancel the Paypal transaction, but did not, so it was too late to cancel the Paypal transaction, as Paypal have a limit of 60 days.

The UK offices will refund my money in pounds sterling.

There has been neglibable change in the $ vs £ between the date of the Paypal transaction and the date on which the company are basing their conversion rate of 1.61078 USD = 1.00 GBP, whereas Paypal used 1.54714 USD = 1 GBP.

Hence the result of this, is that I've had to pay Paypal £11463.74,
but will receive back £11010.84 from Agilent. Hence I will have lost
£452.90.

It's clear the company will not refund me the amount it cost me in pounds. I've given up fighting that, so will have to accept the refund they give.

However, what options (if any), do I have to recover the incedental losses as a resut of

1) Being supplied goods not fit for purpose
2) Agilent taking more than 3 days to process the refund, so it became impossible to cancel the Paypal transaction.

I'm wondering if I can seek compensation for my losses of £452.90

Dave

roonaldo

Nope, currency exchange rates fluctuate.

If your refund actually gave you more back you wouldn't be complaining! You refer to currency as charges but they are not. The seller is not liable, you purchased it at $17,736 and they refunded it at the same.

Personally, I never buy anything off Ebay unless the purchase price is in sterling.