Ebay - item not as described

Patty_Odore

Hi everyone, I haven't posted for ages but I browse frequently and appreciate all the advice here; it's helped me with loads of things.

I have a disabled friend (let's call him Bob, and no, it's *not* me!) who (very foolishly in my view) bought a wheelchair on Ebay late last year. The item was for sale in the US and was described as reconditioned and in perfect working order. It wasn't until Bob had paid around $1,000 (through PayPal) that he looked at the photos of the wheelchair again and realised that he was actually buying something with no brakes (and nowhere on the listing was it mentioned that the wheelchair had no brakes). Anyway, Bob contacted the seller (let's call him Fred) to say he hadn't realised there were no brakes and wanted to cancel the purchase. Fred had already shipped the wheelchair and suggested he send some brakes at his own cost for Bob to fit. Bob declined (he's disabled and struggles with everything) and Fred agreed to a refund (minus shipping costs) as soon as he received the returned shipment, and Bob agreed to this. Weeks went by with nothing from Fred. Bob emailed him constantly (through Ebay) with Fred either not responding or getting very grumpy and saying that he hadn't received the returned shipment. Bob looked into this further and found that Fred had in fact signed for the goods which were returned to him 10 days after his original dispatch. More weeks went by with more email correspondence re refund (all done through Ebay) to no avail. After a month or so, Fred eventually admitted he'd received the returned shipment but would only refund Bob partially. At no time would he admit that his listing was inaccurate. As the case had gone over Ebay's 45 day time limit, Ebay would not help Bob, and neither would PayPal. I contacted Fred through his website, appealed to his honesty, good nature and conscience and eventually he refunded about half what Bob had originally paid. It's certainly been a salutary lesson to Bob (don't bid on expensive overseas items) and hopefully also to Fred (please list your for sale items more carefully/honestly). Because this was an international transaction, no-one could or would offer any assistance/advise. I'm still certain that, had I not intervened, Bob would never have seen any refund. Fraud? Theft? Who knows? Caveat emptor, I think.

And if you have been, thanks for reading.

P x

ballisticbrian

I know you said Bob had learnt his lesson, but it does seem incredible that someone would look for something so heavy as a wheel chair on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. It's obviously going to cost a fortune in shipping and Bob's lucky he didn't get stung on import duties (unless disbaled stuff is excluded that is). But as a seller, I've almost stopped selling abroad, people were having the most ridiculous things sent half way round the world, often back to counties I had bought them from.

Patty_Odore

ballisticbrian wrote: »

I know you said Bob had learnt his lesson, but it does seem incredible that someone would look for something so heavy as a wheel chair on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. It's obviously going to cost a fortune in shipping and Bob's lucky he didn't get stung on import duties (unless disbaled stuff is excluded that is).

Hi Brian, thanks for this and totally agree with you. What was Bob thinking? And yes, I think disabled stuff is exempt from import duties.