Help! eBay appalling customer service regarding refund

Henno

Hi all, this is a long one so please bare with me.

Background story

My girlfriend bought a coat from a seller 2 months ago now but once received, she found it was faulty. As this was a present for someone we had no alternative but to ask for a refund. The only problem was the seller had shipped from China.

Having looked at the cost to send back the coat fully tracked (£17.85) I contacted eBay to make sure that the seller would have to refund these costs. eBay told me, and I quote:

"According to the revise UK Distant Selling Regulation, if an item is being returned because of an issue, sellers must shoulder the returns postage unless it was return because the buyer no longer want the item"

The seller also agreed to the refund of these costs. Great I thought, what can go wrong?

We duly posted the coat back to China, fully tracked. This is when things started to go wrong. Firstly the seller said that the item hadnt been delivered. On the Royal Mail website the tracking stated that "A delivery was attempted for your item. If the addressee does not collect or make an arrangement to have it redelivered, it will be returned to sender in the UK." which i passed on to the seller and he said he would try and find out.

A week passed and we were still going around in circles so I contacted eBay and went through the resolution system as asked. We then received the refund for the item .... however we didn't receive the return postage costs.


Problems continue

I contacted eBay again stating what they had told me before I posted the parcel back. eBay then basically said that unless an agreement had been made with the seller first, they pretty much couldn't help. However an agreement had been made!! ... On telling eBay this, they said I would still need to contact the seller in order to get this refunded....

So, having had no help from eBay on this matter, i duly contacted the seller. We went through eBay messaging system for a couple weeks and he was fine about it, saying he would refund it. We passed on the PayPal details and then he said it had been refunded. Great we thought! .... But no refund has appeared in the account.

To sum everything up, the seller has pretty much gone round in circles telling me everything was fine and that he has now refunded it, when in fact, he hasn't. eBay have been no help whatsoever.

The final straw is when I contacted eBay help again to tell them. I was passed between 8, yes 8 different people and departments over a period of 2 and a half hours as each person basically said they cant refund it and would need to pass me through to another department that can. This is when id had enough.

I asked to speak to the manager and 'apparently' I was put through. They said they would give me back £20 voucher as compensation. I wanted the cash really but I was so sick and tired of being passed around that we accepted. I was told the voucher would appear in the account in 72 hours ...

72 hours passed ... no voucher received.

To say im frustrated is an understatement. We have been beyond patient in this matter. I can understand a seller spinning this rubbish on eBay but for eBay themselves to have a customer support that is this bad???? Its unforgivable. I have never, ever known a support service so bad.

Im not someone to give up on something like this and I will fight it as hard as possible because its the principle if nothing else and that money means a lot to my girlfriend at this moment in time.

So, my question is, what can we do now?

Can I go to trading standards? Is there anything ive missed?

I thank you all for your time reading this, any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Henno

ben9090

I think dealing with ebay sometimes you just have to take it on the chin. You did well to get the item refunded including the original p&p cost, some sellers wouldnt have refunded that quite so easily.

chancesare_2

Henno wrote: »

Hi all, this is a long one so please bare with me.

Background story

My girlfriend bought a coat from a seller 2 months ago now but once received, she found it was faulty. As this was a present for someone we had no alternative but to ask for a refund. The only problem was the seller had shipped from China.

Having looked at the cost to send back the coat fully tracked (£17.85) I contacted eBay to make sure that the seller would have to refund these costs. eBay told me, and I quote:

"According to the revise UK Distant Selling Regulation, if an item is being returned because of an issue, sellers must shoulder the returns postage unless it was return because the buyer no longer want the item"

The seller also agreed to the refund of these costs. Great I thought, what can go wrong?

We duly posted the coat back to China, fully tracked. This is when things started to go wrong. Firstly the seller said that the item hadnt been delivered. On the Royal Mail website the tracking stated that "A delivery was attempted for your item. If the addressee does not collect or make an arrangement to have it redelivered, it will be returned to sender in the UK." which i passed on to the seller and he said he would try and find out.

A week passed and we were still going around in circles so I contacted eBay and went through the resolution system as asked. We then received the refund for the item .... however we didn't receive the return postage costs.


Problems continue

I contacted eBay again stating what they had told me before I posted the parcel back. eBay then basically said that unless an agreement had been made with the seller first, they pretty much couldn't help. However an agreement had been made!! ... On telling eBay this, they said I would still need to contact the seller in order to get this refunded....

So, having had no help from eBay on this matter, i duly contacted the seller. We went through eBay messaging system for a couple weeks and he was fine about it, saying he would refund it. We passed on the PayPal details and then he said it had been refunded. Great we thought! .... But no refund has appeared in the account.

To sum everything up, the seller has pretty much gone round in circles telling me everything was fine and that he has now refunded it, when in fact, he hasn't. eBay have been no help whatsoever.

The final straw is when I contacted eBay help again to tell them. I was passed between 8, yes 8 different people and departments over a period of 2 and a half hours as each person basically said they cant refund it and would need to pass me through to another department that can. This is when id had enough.

I asked to speak to the manager and 'apparently' I was put through. They said they would give me back £20 voucher as compensation. I wanted the cash really but I was so sick and tired of being passed around that we accepted. I was told the voucher would appear in the account in 72 hours ...

72 hours passed ... no voucher received.

To say im frustrated is an understatement. We have been beyond patient in this matter. I can understand a seller spinning this rubbish on eBay but for eBay themselves to have a customer support that is this bad???? Its unforgivable. I have never, ever known a support service so bad.

Im not someone to give up on something like this and I will fight it as hard as possible because its the principle if nothing else and that money means a lot to my girlfriend at this moment in time.

So, my question is, what can we do now?

Can I go to trading standards? Is there anything ive missed?

I thank you all for your time reading this, any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Henno

UK Distance Selling Regs were superseded earlier this year, which is moot because you purchased from China, so therefore they wouldn't apply anyway.

Did you ever open a case? I can't work out if you got your initial payment refunded or not…..

TKPeters

If you opened a case then eBay could have issued a shipping label.
Also was the item shown as Located in the UK, as you could have forced the seller to provide the UK address

RMS2

Initial payment and initial refund of postage was paid according to initial post.


It is the return postage that is being chased.


Seller had shipped from China, which probably means that he is China based.


I have bought from Chinese companies which are supposedly UK based as well and item usually turns up in under a week from a UK based warehouse.


Contact details at the bottom of the auction usually show whether there is a UK base.

RFW

Henno wrote: »

I asked to speak to the manager and 'apparently' I was put through. They said they would give me back £20 voucher as compensation. I wanted the cash really but I was so sick and tired of being passed around that we accepted. I was told the voucher would appear in the account in 72 hours ...

72 hours passed ... no voucher received.

To say im frustrated is an understatement. We have been beyond patient in this matter. I can understand a seller spinning this rubbish on eBay but for eBay themselves to have a customer support that is this bad???? Its unforgivable. I have never, ever known a support service so bad.

Im not someone to give up on something like this and I will fight it as hard as possible because its the principle if nothing else and that money means a lot to my girlfriend at this moment in time.

So, my question is, what can we do now?

Can I go to trading standards? Is there anything ive missed?

I thank you all for your time reading this, any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Henno

You've agreed to the £20 voucher, so just chase that up. 72 hours in Ebay world is anything up to a fortnight. A reminder by live chat, telephone or message to ask where the voucher is that they promised you will probably make it turn up.
As above, if the seller is in the UK you can try Trading Standards, if not, there isn't much they can do.
No help to you here, but you are entitled to ask for funds to pay for return postage before sending.
I personally wouldn't follow anything up other than the £20 voucher.

Henno

Thanks for the replies everyone.

RMS2 wrote: »

It is the return postage that is being chased.

Yes that is correct. It is the returns postage of £17.85 being chased.

RFW wrote: »

You've agreed to the £20 voucher, so just chase that up. 72 hours in Ebay world is anything up to a fortnight. A reminder by live chat, telephone or message to ask where the voucher is that they promised you will probably make it turn up.
As above, if the seller is in the UK you can try Trading Standards, if not, there isn't much they can do.
No help to you here, but you are entitled to ask for funds to pay for return postage before sending.
I personally wouldn't follow anything up other than the £20 voucher.

I didnt realise you could request return postage before sending. eBay never told me that. Its the first big problem ive had with a seller which is why i contacted ebay asking how to proceed. Nice to know for the future so thanks for that.

Yep i am going to try and chase the £20 voucher, but after being passed around for over 2 and a half hours trying to get this back in the first place im not holding my breath. If felt like i was being passed from pillar to post as no-one wanted to deal with it. I suppose i was wondering what happens if they dont actually follow through with issuing the voucher.

I will report back.

daytona0

Henno wrote: »

The final straw is when I contacted eBay help again to tell them. I was passed between 8, yes 8 different people and departments over a period of 2 and a half hours as each person basically said they cant refund it and would need to pass me through to another department that can. This is when id had enough.

At the end of the day you've got a full item refund.

You've sent it back to a country in which they might not even need to comply with DSR or SOGA etc so you might not technically have rights

You've been offered a 20 quid voucher and if you have proof of this then they should pay up eventually (be patient and persistent!)

I've quoted the above for one reason though, whilst I can appreciate you are !!!!ed off..... if you spent the 2.5 hours (plus writing forum posts etc) doing overtime at work then you'd possibly earn more than the 17 quid you have lost. Waste of time in the end, just do some overtime and move on!

techspec

Did you know you were buying from China? If so its a risk you take that it might need returning. I've bought the odd £1 wallet from China, but would never buy anything that might need returning.

If they claimed to be a UK seller - why didn't you return it to the Ebay registered address?

Henno

daytona0 wrote: »

You've sent it back to a country in which they might not even need to comply with DSR or SOGA etc so you might not technically have rights

You've been offered a 20 quid voucher and if you have proof of this then they should pay up eventually (be patient and persistent!)

I've quoted the above for one reason though, whilst I can appreciate you are !!!!ed off..... if you spent the 2.5 hours (plus writing forum posts etc) doing overtime at work then you'd possibly earn more than the 17 quid you have lost. Waste of time in the end, just do some overtime and move on!

The point is, i checked with eBay support before sending it back, therefore i feel lied to. Yes i have been offered a £20 voucher after jumping through hoops, and if i get it, im happy. Its ok to say work for another 2 hours and you get the money back but you dont because you have still lost that £17.85.

With all due respect if everyone thought like you then these companies would be clapping their hands. Like i said in the first post, its the principle of it. I feel i have been lied to by the seller and most disappointing of all, eBay. But you really do have to see eBay support to believe it, im truly shocked at how bad it is and with the size of the company i really didnt expect it.

techspec wrote: »

Did you know you were buying from China? If so its a risk you take that it might need returning. I've bought the odd £1 wallet from China, but would never buy anything that might need returning.

If they claimed to be a UK seller - why didn't you return it to the Ebay registered address?

Unfortunately no, my girlfriend didnt realise it was a seller from China. I think she will look in future

---

I have just been in contact with eBay again and was told i would need to be passed to another department again ... you couldnt make it up.

Asked to speak to the manager and suddenly he could help me. Apparently the voucher will appear in 2 hours. Time will tell.

ballisticbrian

The point is, i checked with eBay support before sending it back, therefore i feel lied to.

What needs to be said because no-one else has, is most people find it costs £17.50 to return and sometimes much much more than this, and at that point, they sell the item on eBay as in need of slight repair and move on, and decide not to buy from China.