Trying to get money back for wrongly describbed item

jack_121

Guys, i purchased a casio projector online and the seller described it as little used, he said it had been used for approximatly 100 hours in total, i assumed from his description it was in good condition

I paid £500 and he shipped me the projector but i noticed in the menu it had been used for 3000 hours so was coming to the end of it life.

What can i do, the seller is uninterested, the bank says the £500 payment was direct debit from my debit card and there is nothng they can do about it.

Is there anything i can do.

Thank you. Jack.

neilmcl

Private sale, online, ebay?

agrinnall

Well it definitely wasn't a direct debit (pity really as you could have used the DD guarantee to reverse it), it was a debit from your debit card. So you need to research Chargeback to see if it applies in this situation, and if it does go back to your bank and make your case for them to reverse the payment.

marcarm

I think the key word in there is 'assumed'. If I was to spend that much on an item I hadn't physically seen I would be asking for photos of everything, including the menus showing the usage.

However that doesn't help you now. You say the seller is uninterested, so this means you have contacted them? What did they say?

If they really are not going to help, and are happy in the knowledge they have ripped someone off, I think your only option is a LBA and then follow it through, but you may have to be prepared that they have not got the money to repay you, so you may be chucking good money after bad.

Is it the lamp that is near the end of its life? Not sure how much a lamp is but it may be more worthwhile spending the money on replacing the lamp instead of court action, but you have nothing to lose by sending a LBA, this may scare them into paying, or at least providing a partial refund to enable the lamp to be replaced.

Where did you buy it from?

George_Michael

marcarm wrote: »

Is it the lamp that is near the end of its life? Not sure how much a lamp is but it may be more worthwhile spending the money on replacing the lamp instead of court action

You can easily spend £250 on a replacement lamp for a decent projector so legal action may well be worthwhile if the OP can get proof (such as a copy of an advert) showing false claims about the age.

marcarm

George_Michael wrote: »

You can easily spend £250 on a replacement lamp for a decent projector so legal action may well be worthwhile if the OP can get proof (such as a copy of an advert) showing false claims about the age.

Wow, didn't realise they were that expensive!

As you've said, I'd go the legal route if you have proof you've been misled.

hollydays

When you say the seller isn't interested, what exactly has he said?
I suspect you need to tell him you will be taking him to court if this isn't resolved.
If you knew this menu thingy existed, why didn't you ask for a screen shot?

vuvuzela

marcarm wrote: »

Wow, didn't realise they were that expensive!

As you've said, I'd go the legal route if you have proof you've been misled.

Some are, some aren't. That would be mid-range, there are many projectors with lamps under £150, some under £100.

I'd agree completely with the 'letter before action' saying you were sold something that substantially differs from the advert (if you can prove this...) and asking for the cost of a new lamp.

jack_121

Hi. Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

The projector was advertised on ebay, i emailed the seller asking questions as i was interested in purchasing and he replied with an offer of £500, but he insisted that i pay from my paypal account to his paypal account as that way he would not suffer any charges.

I did speak to the bank santander and was told it was a direct debit payment from my santander debit card, but santander say there is nothing they can do, not sure why as i thought there was some kind of protection.

I phoned the seller who was not interested and said "Relist it on ebay" then hung up.

But there is no way i will get my £500 back for a 3000 hour old projector, it is not just the lamp but the projector as a whole, power supply, dlp system. There is an identical projector on ebay right now and the seller is asking £250 for it, but no one is interested.

Really am confused by all of this and am not sure what to do.

Many thanks. Jack.

Caz3121

jack_121 wrote: »

The projector was advertised on ebay, i emailed the seller asking questions as i was interested in purchasing and he replied with an offer of £500, but he insisted that i pay from my paypal account to his paypal account as that way he would not suffer any charges.

was the transaction completed outside of ebay or do you show as the buyer against the item on ebay?
If the latter, and the information was clearly incorrect, you should be able to open an "item not as described" case
If this was completed off ebay I don't believe you have any protection

You may be better reposting over on the ebay board

boo_star

jack_121 wrote: »

I did speak to the bank santander and was told it was a direct debit payment from my santander debit card, but santander say there is nothing they can do, not sure why as i thought there was some kind of protection.

It was either a direct debit payment or a debit card, it can't be both.

Unfortunately I don't imagine you'll get anywhere even if it is a debit card payment. As PayPal acted as an intermediary, chargeback rules don't apply.