What do I do now re. Faulty eBay purchase?

kitkatt1982

Hi, I'm a bit stuck and need some advice please!

I'll try and keep this short but need to include as much info as necessary to give the full picture (and I'm not sure which bits are relevant!)

So.. In October I went against my better judgement and bought some beds from eBay. It was a company who had 100% positive feedback, and item was coming from UK so thought it should be ok. I was very wrong!

Item was delivered two weeks early with no warning, by two men who offered to assemble it. (I hadn't realised I had paid for this service with the beds). I explained that we were not ready for them as had not yet had carpet fitted etc. Agreed to assemble ourselves and stored parts until ready two weeks later.

Very disappointed with quality of product for what we paid. Numerous parts were broken, some were missing and overall just cheap and nasty. Contacted company who did get straight back to us, but turned out to be abroad and struggled with language barrier. Settled on an agreement that they would refund the assembly charge (which they did straight away) and promised parts to be sent within 5 days.

Waited, waited and waited for parts which were promised and didn't come. My children slept on mattresses over Christmas. Spoke with eBay who were not at all helpful and advised only solution was to request refund and the seller arrange to collect the beds, which we did.

A full refund was issued including assembly charge so was actually refunded £60 more than I paid. Seller asked whether I would be honest and repay the money when I received the parts and item was put right which I agreed.

Then informed by seller that parts had been sent and provided tracking number. Random parts arrived in dribs and drabs over the next couple of weeks including broken wood, a sharp dangerous metal pole (??!!) etc. Finally had enough when someone rang and said they would hand deliver the final missing parts (the bunk ladder). By this point bed was assembled (with lots of 'doctoring' by my husband - would have been easier and cheaper to build them from scratch). Needless to say they broke down. Hubby went to collect them from a tatty van with two aggressive men who threatened to only 'release' the parts on production of said metal pole, which he said had been thrown away as it was dangerous. They gave him the ladder rungs which he signed for again as damaged.

This was 4 weeks ago. We have had no further contact. I am unable to contact them on eBay for some reason although it appears they are still operational. So now I have a complete set of bunk beds, and the full cost plus extra sitting in my bank account. Lucky me! Accept I've got no idea what to do.. I would have been happy to negotiate a large reduction in price but can't contact them and quite frankly after all the hassle can't be bothered to go back through eBay, but can they turn up and take the beds away? And how long can this go on for before they even ask for the money as I've heard nothing. Obviously don't want to spend it!

Thanks for any thoughts- I am an honest person and don't expect something for nothing but will not be paying anywhere near the orignal price for the rubbish we've been sent which is now only functional thanks to my husband. It's a shame these companies give distance sellers a bad name :mad:

marliepanda

They can request the money or the beds for six years.

hollydays

How many previous transaction was the feedback for?
It seems strange if they were this bad that they had 100%
Did they ask you to put positive feedback?

kitkatt1982

Thanks for the quick replies. Marliepanda, how would this be done? I.e through an invoice sent to me? If this is the case, I am happy to return them but don't know how to do it, I'm not footing the bill for the return cost to a foreign country and when I asked them to pick them up they didn't turn up.

I've got no idea hollydays I'm baffled, as i can't see how anyone would be happy with them! (And I'm not that fussy I do know you get what you pay for but they were the same price as I've seen in decent furniture stores, but chose these due to the functional extra bits they had). The only thing I can think of is that all the other feedback relates to the great assembly service so I'm wondering if perhaps the people assembling them had the spare parts etc and were able to fix any flaws without the customer noticing. We probably would have been none the wiser if we hadn't had all the other problems (although the assembly service was optional). Tbh though we have also bought extra mattresses as they were awful (very thin foam) so not sure who would be happy with them. They had about 60 positive ratings. I do remember though when I was eBay selling regularly that once I hit a certain amount my account was protected from negative feedback or something like that which in my mind makes a mockery of the whole system! (I had forgotten about that!)

naedanger

kitkatt1982 wrote: »

Thanks for any thoughts- I am an honest person and don't expect something for nothing but will not be paying anywhere near the orignal price for the rubbish we've been sent which is now only functional thanks to my husband. It's a shame these companies give distance sellers a bad name :mad:

If you don't make efforts to contact the company (e.g. through ebay) then I think that you will weaken your case if there is a dispute later (e.g. over the size of any discount).

I don't think you have a right to any discount (beyond the refund of the assembly charges). If the item was not as described I think you would have been entitled to demand a full refund (and hand back the beds) but I think you have probably lost the opportunity to do that as a right, as you will be deemed to have accepted the beds.

If the beds are faulty then you can demand they are repaired, or replaced or you are refunded, but it is the retailer that gets to choose which remedy to offer.

That said the seller may well be happy to negotiate a discount to help resolve all the issues they caused (and I suspect to help maintain their feedback ratings).

kitkatt1982

Hi naendanger,

My point is that I have made efforts to contact the company through eBay (25 times in total and have the proof of this). I cannot now for some reason message them directly, have tried to call eBay three times and they are always unobtainable and have requested a call back from them twice with no avail. Am at the end of my patience with it and don't know how long I should have to keep on chasing this up.

When I said I would accept a partial refund my point was not that I have a right to one, it was that I would be willing to pay some of the money but not the full cost as they are not worth that and would happily return the beds. The item was not fit for purpose or as described, and I did request a refund. I would have been more than happy to hand over the beds had they come to collect them as requested, instead they said (again) that they would issue the parts (I guess this would class as repairing?) which I agreed to as I wanted the beds I had purchased in a useable condition. When my husband accepted the final parts (is this what you would class as accepting the beds), I was still not happy as they too were broken (we did not see the full extent of this till we got home).

The company keep promising us things then not showing up. We have tried to make the best of a bad situation and put our faith in the company that they would eventually provide all the parts but this never came to fruition. The problem is they kept offering to resolve the situation but never actually did. I would be happy to put the beds outside the front of my house and try to arrange collection but don't know how to get hold of them. Do I have a duty to return the goods as they arrived to me as I can't store them until they decide to show up?

I am not willing to pay back the full price I paid for them, but would happily return them if I knew how (and just put the months of aggravation, time wasting etc down to experience!) . Stuck!!

hollydays

Who are unobtainable?
I can give you a freephone number for eBay,
08003583229

Alternatively go through the website and obtain a pin reference to call them.
I ring them fairly often and have no trouble getting through.
In addition you can request their contact details through eBay to double check.


What is their username?

kitkatt1982

Thanks hollydays I'll try this number first thing tomorrow. Think we've just had a string of bad luck and not getting through to eBay was the last straw!! Fingers crossed we'll get it sorted tomorrow Xx

naedanger

kitkatt1982 wrote: »

Hi naendanger,

My point is that I have made efforts to contact the company through eBay (25 times in total and have the proof of this). I cannot now for some reason message them directly, have tried to call eBay three times and they are always unobtainable and have requested a call back from them twice with no avail. Am at the end of my patience with it and don't know how long I should have to keep on chasing this up.

When I said I would accept a partial refund my point was not that I have a right to one, it was that I would be willing to pay some of the money but not the full cost as they are not worth that and would happily return the beds. The item was not fit for purpose or as described, and I did request a refund. I would have been more than happy to hand over the beds had they come to collect them as requested, instead they said (again) that they would issue the parts (I guess this would class as repairing?) which I agreed to as I wanted the beds I had purchased in a useable condition. When my husband accepted the final parts (is this what you would class as accepting the beds), I was still not happy as they too were broken (we did not see the full extent of this till we got home).

The company keep promising us things then not showing up. We have tried to make the best of a bad situation and put our faith in the company that they would eventually provide all the parts but this never came to fruition. The problem is they kept offering to resolve the situation but never actually did. I would be happy to put the beds outside the front of my house and try to arrange collection but don't know how to get hold of them. Do I have a duty to return the goods as they arrived to me as I can't store them until they decide to show up?

I am not willing to pay back the full price I paid for them, but would happily return them if I knew how (and just put the months of aggravation, time wasting etc down to experience!) . Stuck!!

If you cannot get in touch with them then there is really nothing you can do unless/until they get in touch with you. Keep all you records of having tried to contact them.

Personally I would continue to use the beds for two main reasons. Firstly - they are no longer in as new condition (and so will probably not be acceptable as a returned item) and secondly - I would not want to have to store them for up to six years (I suspect you would need to take reasonable care of them meantime).

You asked why I would class the beds as accepted. In my view you would only not have accepted them if you had clearly stated you were rejecting the beds and then (a) did nothing further to indicate your view had changed e.g. by accepting parts and (b) never used them.

If/when they get in touch you can then negotiate with them. I think you are in quite a strong position as you have the money, they probably won't want to take legal action in a foreign (to them) country, and positive feedback is likely to be more important to them than you.

kitkatt1982

Thankyou :-) I will try the number hollydays gave and see what they say. Tbh I'm doubtful they will last a year let alone 6 but lesson learnt :-( !!

arcon5

Just put the money to one side then wait for them to contact you