faulty memory card from ebay that contains personal info

hal34325

I bought a miniSD card from ebay, from someone in China, and after a few months it stopped working and is not recognized at all by the phone. I want to get a refund, but I don't want to return it to the seller, as I had saved photos and possibly other personal information on it. (Since the card stopped working I have been unable to view its contents, on my phone or on my PC using an adaptor, but it is possible that the seller might be able to view them.)


For faulty items ebay only seems to allow buyers to return them. I can't post links but I am talking about a page on ebay.co.uk that ends with return-item.html


So what should I do? Thanks for any help!

mrcol1000

How much was it? Have you contacted the seller? Many sellers in China will just refund you for cheap items as it is not worth the cost for it to be returned.
Also as it may be outside time scale to open a return so you may have to go through PayPal to open a case. Either way I'd contact seller to see what they say first.

pinkshoes

What has the seller said?

You cannot expect a refund AND to keep it!

GabbaGabbaHey

hal34325 wrote: »

after a few months it stopped working [...] For faulty items ebay only seems to allow buyers to return them

As far as I'm aware, eBay only allows for INR or SNAD claims. As the card was delivered and originally worked, I'm not sure that you would be able to make any sort of claim against eBay.

If the seller offered a warranty on the card, then you may be able to claim directly from the seller through that, but I'm not sure that eBay would be involved. Even then, you might need to prove that the problem with the card was down to a manufacturing defect, and is not down to, for example, the phone having corrupted it.

soolin

hal34325 wrote: »

I bought a miniSD card from ebay, from someone in China, and after a few months it stopped working and is not recognized at all by the phone. I want to get a refund, but I don't want to return it to the seller, as I had saved photos and possibly other personal information on it. (Since the card stopped working I have been unable to view its contents, on my phone or on my PC using an adaptor, but it is possible that the seller might be able to view them.)


For faulty items ebay only seems to allow buyers to return them. I can't post links but I am talking about a page on ebay.co.uk that ends with return-item.html


So what should I do? Thanks for any help!

After 'a few months' ebay won't be interested at all. If you go via paypal and you win a SNAD case then you would have to return the card, tracked and at your own cost before you got any refund. Unless this was a very expensive card it probably isn't going to be worth doing anything other than contacting the seller to see what they say.

There is a known issue with faked memory cards from China and I suspect seller won't be in the slightest bit interested as he almost certainly sold you a cheap card with faked date storage amounts claimed.

GabbaGabbaHey

soolin wrote: »

If you go via paypal and you win a SNAD case

But surely it wouldn't be a valid SNAD claim, as the card was working fine when the OP received it. For all we know, there may have been a problem with the phone which corrupted the card...

Dox

Sounds like buying another card from a reputable source might be the best idea.

soolin

GabbaGabbaHey wrote: »

But surely it wouldn't be a valid SNAD claim, as the card was working fine when the OP received it. For all we know, there may have been a problem with the phone which corrupted the card...

PayPal seem to be working the same as eBay on occasions and just allow a SNAD regardless. It's not an automatic win which is why I said 'if', but there's a fair chance it will suceed.

About 5 or 6 months ago I had someone open an SNAD saying item was faulty on delivery and had now failed and PayPal automatically told them to return it for a full refund. Buyer asked me for return postage, which I refused as their claim was nonsensical and item could not have failed as suggested , and after a month with no return I phoned PayPal and the case closed in my favour. The PayPal rep I spoke to agreed it sounded daft, and at best like the buyer had got all the use he wanted from item and just wanted a refund on a made up excuse, but said the system just allowed for the return with no human input.

hal34325

Thanks for all the replies. It cost 5 pounds. I had not contacted the seller, but I have now and I am waiting to hear back.

You cannot expect a refund AND to keep it!

I think I should be able to get a refund, because it was faulty, and I should be able to keep it, because it probably still contains personal data so it is reasonable for me to not want to ship it back to Shenzhen. Maybe this isn't going to happen, because ebay doesn't enforce high standards of fairness, but I think it is sensible to want both.

he almost certainly sold you a cheap card with faked date storage amounts claimed

It worked for a while, and the phone said it had the right amount of storage. It looked OK visually and the seller's reviews on ebay were good as I recall.

For all we know, there may have been a problem with the phone which corrupted the card

I think that is unlikely. The phone is a major brand and not old. And the card is not just slightly corrupted but completely fails to be recognized by either the phone or a desktop computer (I have an adaptor that plugs into a USB). I can't even reformat it.

Sounds like buying another card from a reputable source might be the best idea.

Yes. I did read two or three articles by sensible-sounding people who recommended just buying any cheap no-brand card, but I won't do that again.

I will post an update when I hear from the seller.

Tealblue

All this fuss for £5? Destroy the card and buy a decent quality one - don't waste your life agonising over trivia.

soolin

hal34325 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. It cost 5 pounds. I had not contacted the seller, but I have now and I am waiting to hear back.

I think I should be able to get a refund, because it was faulty, and I should be able to keep it, because it probably still contains personal data so it is reasonable for me to not want to ship it back to Shenzhen. Maybe this isn't going to happen, because ebay doesn't enforce high standards of fairness, but I think it is sensible to want both.

It worked for a while, and the phone said it had the right amount of storage. It looked OK visually and the seller's reviews on ebay were good as I recall.

I think that is unlikely. The phone is a major brand and not old. And the card is not just slightly corrupted but completely fails to be recognized by either the phone or a desktop computer (I have an adaptor that plugs into a USB). I can't even reformat it.

Yes. I did read two or three articles by sensible-sounding people who recommended just buying any cheap no-brand card, but I won't do that again.

I will post an update when I hear from the seller.

For legal purposes your data is immaterial- seller can refuse to refund unless they get the item back- it would be up to you to ensure your data was removed to your satisfaction. Even if the UK this might be more a warranty issue with manufacturer than an issue with seller, you can't just return items for a full refund, it would depend on how long 'a few months' actually is.

However this is muddled by the issue of the seller being overseas, so logically UK consumer law would not apply - so it is nowhere as simple as just activating any warranty with the manufacturer.