Ebay Seller not as advertised.

Ricardo1961

I purchased a Samsung phone for £62 on EBay at the end of June. It was sold as a new phone with a 1 year guarantee. It was bought as a gift for a family member in the Philippines. It was sent surface mail due to high postal costs and arrived in October. When the recipient switched it on, after a few minutes it turned off and could not be switched on again. I told the seller, but he said the guarantee covered repairs only. I pointed out it was only used once but he tried to say it was used as soon as received. It was taken to a repair shop locally, to be told the repair was £63.10 at the current exchange rate. Meanwhile I checked the EMEI number, which shows that the phone was several years old and the official guarantee of two years was well out of date. It was not new as advertised. The seller came back and said that it was not the phone he sold me, and accused me of it not being the phone he sold me. He said I should escalate matters with Ebay which I have, same with PayPal. There have been two other buyers whose feedback indicated his phones are not new. It was clearly not brand new as advertised, and had been through Kenya before the UK. Who else can I take matters to as it was clearly not as advertised, he said the guarantee cover the cost of repairs which now it does not apparently. I await a decision from Ebay as I reported the seller and PayPal, but want to protect others also. I will consider MCOL. Any other suggestions most welcome.

Supersonos

If you want consumer protection, buy from reputable sellers.  eBay is not reputable.

Lesson learned.

Aylesbury_Duck

You lost me at eBay.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

OP if the phone has been sent to the Philippines it would have to come back again in order for some kind of resolve to happen unless the seller happens to offer goodwill. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that but it would have just been sensible to check the phone worked before sending abroad.  

Cheapest Sim free Samsung phone on Agros appears to be £150 so £62 is likely for an older model which many people do buy and places like eBay are where you'll find them for sale. 

Buyers have good cover with eBay for 30 days and some cover with Papal for 180 days so I don't think it's fair to dismiss concerns over an problem just because someone decided to purchase on eBay.  

soolin

I am really confused- who sent it to the Philippines, what has Kenya got to do with anything? 
Firstly if the phone is within 30 days of the estimated delivery time and was bought on ebay UK then a SNAD case on ebay can still be opened , however the buyer would need to get the phone back to the seller within a short time frame in order to get a refund. The seller though would be expected to pay for the return (and if this was a UK to UK sale the return label will be for UK postage only)  - but as I said I am horribly confused as to whether this is an ebay.uk, whether buyer has shipped it on (In which case buyer protection would be lost) or what.

Also if cases are open with both paypal and ebay then all might be lost anyway as seller can apply for one to be closed (the one that gives you more rights as a buyer) and the other one could easily time out depending on where phone is. 

OP , with ebay it is very important to keep things short and to the point, any case is likely to be read (if at all) by someone who has English as a second language, your post is confusing and if anything like that has been presented to ebay you could lose purely in the confusion. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

I got the impression the OP sent it to the Philippines, maybe OP can confirm? 

Ricardo1961

Correct lunatic, it was bought as a gift for a member of the family. It was sent surface mail, otherwise the cost would have been prohibitive. It took 3 months to arrive. If you put a phone’s EMEI phone into one of the many websites, it gives the phone history. At some point it went from Korea to Kenya. The official warranty ended in 2015 which means the phone was new in 2013. It would cost £50 to send it back or £53 to repair locally. The seller has rejected both. The two who reported negative feedback was after I bought the phone recorded that the phones were not new. I switched it on once, it started, but when it arrived in Cebu, it started but after a few minutes, went off and would not restart. The local repairer said it needed a new IMMC IC as the old one was corrupted. My question was to see if anyone had any ideas on how I can save others from falling for this and how I can get my funds back to buy him another phone.

Ricardo1961

I do fail to see what is confusing but I have tried to clarify above. I bought on EBay uk and sent it to the Philippines. It stopped working straight away. So are we saying the 1 year guarantee only applies in UK? There were no terms and conditions, the seller said it would be repaired but then refused to pay the cost. It is a major fault. It would cost more to repair here.

soolin

Ricardo1961 said:

I do fail to see what is confusing but I have tried to clarify above. I bought on EBay uk and sent it to the Philippines. It stopped working straight away. So are we saying the 1 year guarantee only applies in UK? There were no terms and conditions, the seller said it would be repaired but then refused to pay the cost. It is a major fault. It would cost more to repair here.

So when was the phone actually bought and where exactly was the guarantee advertised ? 

Aylesbury_Duck

If you want the seller to refund you, you will need to get the phone back to him.  That would prove it's the phone he sold you.

DiddyDavies

Ricardo1961 said:

I switched it on once, it started, but when it arrived in Cebu, it started but after a few minutes, went off and would not restart.

It's possible that it was damaged during its travels or during one of the customs inspections it may have gone through.