Ebuyer holding my payment for goods they haven't delivered

kailsar

Hi, I have the following issue with an order I made from Ebuyer, I hope this is the correct place and format to ask, if not, I apologise. I ordered an item (value £350) from them on the 21st December for delivery 24th of December for a friend's birthday. The item was not delivered, and no tracking information was given, just the message 'Consignment information for this part of your order is currently unavailable, but is expected to reach you by the agreed date.' By the time I realised it wasn't going to arrive on time it was too late to contact them, so after Christmas I called up on the 29th and asked where it was. They told me that the consignment had the status of 'returned' but they didn't know why. They said they would email me later that day once they had investigated, which they didn't.

I messaged them again the next day, asking that they confirm they would be able to deliver before New Year, and if not, could they please cancel and refund the order. They sent me a reply ignoring my request that just said they were looking in to it. It was not delivered for New Year, so i called back on January 4th and was told the person handling my request would be there at 11am and she would email me with an update then, which she didn't, so at 3pm I sent another message requesting that the order be cancelled. I got a message an hour later saying again that the package was being returned by the courier and my order would be cancelled and a refund issued once it arrived. Four days later, still no refund, so I asked for an immediate refund since the item had never been delivered, and any issue between them and the courier was not my concern, and they did not have a basis for retaining my payment. Again I was told they were waiting for the product to be returned and I would get a refund once it is returned by the courier. So, my questions:

- Am I overreacting and should I just wait?

- If not, what should I do?

- Do they have any right to withold my payment when nothing has ever been delivered, and I haven't even been given a tracking number, and the order is now cancelled?

- What on earth do you think happened? I get the feeling they're hiding something, not sure what could have gone on to cause all this. Is it possible it got stolen at the couriers?

bris

They are making sure they get it back to them and not delivered to you after the refund. Ebuyer are usually pretty good but they won't want a situation where they refund you only to discover it was delivered to you after this. 

You will need to be patient to see where the item ends up, it will get to a point where it's either delivered to you, them or lost, then you will get your refund. 

MattMattMattUK

You need to give them a bit of time, with all the bank holidays I would say probably give them a little longer, up to ten working days from the expected delivery would be reasonable, which would be next week. After that I would be starting a charge back through my bank.

Whether the item is returned to them, or gets delivered to you from where they can collect it is not your issue, they do however need to be given a reasonable amount of time to solve the issue, ten working days would be reasonable. 

kailsar

OK, thanks for the advice, I'm not in any desperate rush for the money, it's just that it's been three weeks since I ordered (admittedly over the holiday period) and at no point have they had any idea where the item is. I'll give it another week and if no progress I'll raise a chargeback on the item.

preables

I would contact your bank and open a chargeback with them