eBay item received faulty, expensive courier costs - where do I stand ?

[Deleted User]

Is this seller based in the Highlands as when doing a quick search through couriers online Tuffnells have a price of under £30 for delivery. I'm not sure if I got the correct dimensions but this was based on 60kg. If they are Highlands than that is why there is larger increase in shipping. What courier did you use initially? 

minorman

ups's by default nearly always require the battery to be disconnected or a battery fuse removed for transport. If the seller did not do this then by default he could be held liable  (in Scotland it might be different) . A ups will flatten its  battery and probably destroy it if it is not recharged quickly. If the battery is tired to start with then it will fail and not recover. These type of batteries are usually  sealed for life and need replacing every (say) 5 years or so. Perhaps this is why the ups was up for sale !  Have you considered going to the small claims court even though he is in Scotland?  It's  a process but if you do it right you can win and recover your costs. Ebay's  system is a pain and unreliable.  Did you pay by PayPal?   You might be able to get them to do a "snatchback" of the money so at least some of the money is recovered and tell him to recover or remove at his own cost .

soolin

minorman said:

ups's by default nearly always require the battery to be disconnected or a battery fuse removed for transport. If the seller did not do this then by default he could be held liable  (in Scotland it might be different) . A ups will flatten its  battery and probably destroy it if it is not recharged quickly. If the battery is tired to start with then it will fail and not recover. These type of batteries are usually  sealed for life and need replacing every (say) 5 years or so. Perhaps this is why the ups was up for sale !  Have you considered going to the small claims court even though he is in Scotland?  It's  a process but if you do it right you can win and recover your costs. Ebay's  system is a pain and unreliable.  Did you pay by PayPal?   You might be able to get them to do a "snatchback" of the money so at least some of the money is recovered and tell him to recover or remove at his own cost .

This was a collection only item, it could well be argued that buyer would need to make safe arrangements for their courier to carry the item. Even if not it doesn't solve the situation that the seller cannot be expected to pay the outbound courier costs, the argument here is only how the OP can attempt to get this back to seller without losing any more money.

I have absolutely no idea either what you mean by a paypal snatchback?

Jimmy_Boy

The unit was based in Callander, Scotland. If I’m honest, I didn’t do an awful lot of searching around on prices for delivery. Tried a couple online quotes and they where coming in at over £300!! Went to nationalpallets.co.uk and got a quote of £79 including tax and the dimensions / weight was well within there ‘Standard Mini Quarter Pallet’ so went with that.

It has gone through my mind more than once that they were just trying to shift a faulty item, but there seller states ‘it was a working unit otherwise I would of left it on site’.

I did use PayPal for the payment as I hoped this would give some extra security if such a issue was to happen. Court is not something I would relish doing.

I have contacted the seller again asking for some assistance to resolve the situation. I figure if I give him 48 hours and get no reply then I would have to consider my options.

I figure my biggest defence based on previous comments about me not having buyer protection due to my arranging collection, is that the seller didn’t not carry out the necessary due diligence by disconnecting the battery from the unit before shipping.

thanks for all the advice so far.

Jimmy_Boy

Just on a side note... National pallets sent me an e-mail before collection stating a list of requirements that must be met in order for the item to be safely transported (don’t have the e-mail to hand at the moment as I’m at work)... I forwarded this e-mail to the seller asking if the requirements listed would be met by him for safe transportation... he replied yes stating that they do many pallet collections and it would be packaged safely.

soolin

Jimmy_Boy said:

Just on a side note... National pallets sent me an e-mail before collection stating a list of requirements that must be met in order for the item to be safely transported (don’t have the e-mail to hand at the moment as I’m at work)... I forwarded this e-mail to the seller asking if the requirements listed would be met by him for safe transportation... he replied yes stating that they do many pallet collections and it would be packaged safely.

Jimmy_Boy said:

The unit was based in Callander, Scotland. If I’m honest, I didn’t do an awful lot of searching around on prices for delivery. Tried a couple online quotes and they where coming in at over £300!! Went to nationalpallets.co.uk and got a quote of £79 including tax and the dimensions / weight was well within there ‘Standard Mini Quarter Pallet’ so went with that.

It has gone through my mind more than once that they were just trying to shift a faulty item, but there seller states ‘it was a working unit otherwise I would of left it on site’.

I did use PayPal for the payment as I hoped this would give some extra security if such a issue was to happen. Court is not something I would relish doing.

I have contacted the seller again asking for some assistance to resolve the situation. I figure if I give him 48 hours and get no reply then I would have to consider my options.

I figure my biggest defence based on previous comments about me not having buyer protection due to my arranging collection, is that the seller didn’t not carry out the necessary due diligence by disconnecting the battery from the unit before shipping.

thanks for all the advice so far.

A paypal SNAD chargeback can be done but as per my earlier response if you win then paypal do not expect the seller to pay the return postage costs, so if you are going to try a claim ebay might be your best hope.

As for the packing regulations with the courier I can't see how that will help? I don't think anyone here has doubted your word that item is faulty, therefore technically, as long as seller doesn't realise you have no buyer protection, (and many sellers don't realise that) you should win a SNAD case. Your argument then is return postage costs and you may need to be very proactive with ebay on the phone to get them to understand this can't just be handed in over the counter at the Post office. Your initial courier costs though are lost , I can't see anyway at all of recovering those. 

You took a gamble arranging a courier to collect something, you admit yourself that you may have paid over the odds for the courier, unfortunately that is not something that the seller can be held accountable for. 

Jimmy_Boy

Daveym79 said:

Is this seller based in the Highlands as when doing a quick search through couriers online Tuffnells have a price of under £30 for delivery. I'm not sure if I got the correct dimensions but this was based on 60kg. If they are Highlands than that is why there is larger increase in shipping. What courier did you use initially? 

Do you have a link to this? Ive looked on the Tuffnells site to get an idea of cost if I have to pay for return but im being presented with a 'Get in Touch' button.
Anybody else recommend a company with good rates - item is about 30kg (63cm (L) x 50cm (W) x 60cm (H)) dimension would be slightly larger when in a box.
Seller has not replied yet, sent another email, if no reply or not willing to help by end of the day then I will open a case with ebay.

Jimmy_Boy

Just a bit of waffle... its strange how the posts I write on my Mac have no spaces between paragraphs (like above), but those posted on my phone do, like my post on 21 April @ 3:36, they were both written with spaces between paragraphs.

Jimmy_Boy

Just to keep you updated, I have had a reply from the seller and I think he has been very reasonable with his response.
He has asked me to start a return with ebay and he will refund the money. Says to keep the unit and not return it. Also there is a network management card with the unit which I can sell for £50 - £100 (which was his suggestion) so should cover my delivery costs.

Jimmy_Boy

Well, that was quick... money refunded. Fair play to the seller, I was expecting a fight but he was very reasonable.