When the Ebay 45 days protection policy doesnt work.

boozy_chick

I ordered a UV sterilizer lamp from Ebay back in may. The company were apparently based in Portsmouth. My parcel took two weeks to arrive, which should have rung alarm bells, but once it was installed, it worked fine for two weeks. Then the uv bulb stopped working. I contacted the seller, who said they would send out a new one. After two weeks, the bulb still hadn't arrived. When i contacted the seller, i was told the bulb was coming from China (i guess this is no where near Portsmouth) and that it would take 20-35 working days to arrive. They offered to look into it for me. 40 days later and I was still waiting.
In the meantime I thought Ebay and their buyer protection policy should be able to help me. After speaking to two very nice but very false people, i was told that basically because my claim was outside of the 45 days it was tough. Obviously no account is taken for the fact there are many international sellers, where postage does take a long time.
I am still waiting for this to be resolved, and am stuck with a faulty item. :mad: :mad: :mad:

Avoriaz

What proportion of the total cost of a UV steriliser is the bulb itself?

What did you pay for the unit and how much would it cost you to buy a bulb locally?

Bulbs are consumables and you should expect them to fail occasionally. This one has failed prematurely which is annoying but not especially unusual.

You probably don't have a faulty item, you have an item that needs a new bulb.

Buy a new bulb locally.

A replacement bulb may eventually arrive in which case you have a spare.

If the replacement bulb never arrives you are down the price of a bulb, not the total cost of the steriliser unit. Irritating but no more than that.

onetwothree123

I am fed up as well of seeing China-based companies over ride the "posted from" part by putting UK a geographic place item was posted from, closer looking at their username then reveals the country of origin they registered from.

Cheap garbage ,guff /dangerous goods, non EU tested electricals and China go hand in hand .Ebay state somewhere a policy about people being who state they post from a different location and you're seemingly not allowed to fake your geographical area on ebay.

It is how these rubbish sellers get their cheap tat sold as UK buyers feel confident thinking its based in UK,you buy an item from someone claiming to be in Birmingham...find out later gets shipped in weeks later from Beijing!....grrrr

Just hope you don't get electrocuted touching it!

boozy_chick

Thank you Avorias for your reply, Yes I agree a bulb can be replaced. But as the title of my thread suggests, it is actually Ebays time scale for their purchase protection, when you are in good faith buying from what you think is a UK based seller, then getting your item thirty odd days later. This gives you fifteen days to then have the item go faulty on you. Would you be saying on day sixteen having bought a £400 laptop, "that is irritating".

There are two points, the first being ebay not allowing for international postage times, the second being a company saying they are UK based and they are not.

I have always been a fan of ebay, but my mind is changing.

sequence

I know it's too late now but alarm bells always ring for me when I see item location "Portsmouth"! I always check the seller out in more detail to check they are actually in the UK.

Avoriaz

boozy_chick wrote: »

..There are two points, the first being ebay not allowing for international postage times, the second being a company saying they are UK based and they are not.

I have always been a fan of ebay, but my mind is changing.

I take your point but you can select "UK Only" on "Item Location" which should stop sellers on Ebay Uk who are shipping from abroad appearing in your searches. I'm not sure what happened in your situation. Can you post the seller user ID so we can take a look and see if they are misrepresenting themselves.

Ebay has to have a limit for claims and 45 days should be long enough.

I know it is too late for this situation but, in future, bear that 45 days in mind if you have a delayed delivery or an early component failure.

You can raise a claim after say 44 days in order to protect yourself if a promised replacement part never turns up.

Obviously_the_best

You may well find the actual item was posted from Portsmouth, as there's several large fulfillment centres in Portsmouth, which chinese sellers use quite a lot, in order for their items to be posted from the UK.

techspec

So Ebays 45 day policy does work. I was worried there for a mo - after reading your heading.

forgotmyname

I always click the buyers name now and see where they registered.

Too many London, Swansea, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Manchester's which turn out to be in China.

No issues with buying from China, But if i want it today and not in 14 days or so then i want to know beforehand.

aeb_2

When I rang up with a similar problem they extended it for and extra 10 days. Luckily the replacement arrived with three days to go so they can be flexible

soolin

For me this issue affects a seller, not a buyer. If they misrepresent their locality then they run the risk of a protective INR claim being opened within the 45 days.

It's the same as surface mail, we on here always suggest that surface mail is not used for outward items even if a buyer begs for it to save money, as if it doesn't arrive in 45 days a claim will be opened regardless of delivery times.