Lack of protection with (all) eBay trades?

Telegraph_Sam

On the basis of my experience I have come to the conclusion that with eBay purchases, excluding the limited eBay moneyback option, in practice you wave goodbye to any warranty or guarantee in return for what is often a better price than what is on offer from High Street retailers. When I have asked eBay vendors about this I have rarely been given a reassuring answer, regardless of what the Consumer Rights Act may have to say on the matter. I have a vision of a typical eBay trader buying a container load or job lot of widgets which he stores in a warehouse looking to turn over the goods as quickly and cleanly as possible. To wave the Consumer Act at him expecting him to get involved in why a bought widget won't work after a few weeks' use is probably pie in the sky. I once had a manufacturer deny responsibility in such circs because I had made the purchase through "non-standard channels".
The one card one has is the negative feedback option but whilst surprisingly this does seem to count for something in the trader's armory, again this is of limited duration.
I suspect that the situation with Amazon could be a little different
I would be interested if this echoes the experience of other forum participants.

Pollycat

There is a specific eBay board.

Telegraph_Sam

Interesting. Where is it and what does it do?

Pollycat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/ebay-auctions-car-boot-jumble-sales

Telegraph_Sam

At first glance I did not see any ref to the lack of any liability / warranty / guarantee with eBay sales issue. I could perhaps repeat my query on that forum but the MSE admin might object to the duplication.

km1500

yes it has been quite a common problem in my experience that when buying something from eBay and then it fails and asking the manufacturer for a warranty claim the manufacturer comes back and says you had bought it through an unauthorized retailer and therefore no warranty.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Thread seems fine on either board, it just fits in two categories.

OP wherever you buy you typically have consumer rights or the right to any warranty that is offered. 

With warranties some do require purchase via an authorised outlet.

With consumer rights they don’t apply to (genuine) private sellers and businesses sellers outside the UK are likely bound by the laws of their location. 

There are many sellers outside the UK, even if the goods were in the UK, a lot of FBA sellers are based in China for example and there’s a lot of third party fulfilment or dropshipping on eBay.

Any good choice with a traditional UK business comes with the option to enforce your rights, whilst with a small seller they may be less inclined to either understand their obligations or abide by them the big high street retailers have, in some instances, trained staff to stick to policy which may impact on your consumer rights making life just as difficult.

The main difference is a big company is less like to want to go to small claims, or if they do and you win has the money to pay, a small seller may do so on principle and then not have any money any way.

Wherever you buy there isn’t easy access to consumer rights in all instances but there is always the avenue of small claims if the value of the claim is high enough. 

We recently needed a new washing machine and a refurbished model on eBay would have been £140 cheaper but I stuck with AO for the 5 year warranty (although that might not be worth much!) and mainly because if the machine does not conform, despite AO probably doing their best to fob you off to the manufacture, ultimately they do know their obligations 

Telegraph_Sam

I suspect that there indeed two categories
1. where you purchase direct from a manufacturer of some size and reputation
as distinct from
2. an internet trader who acts as an intermediary with a lesser or greater "association" with the goods in his warehouse. Numerically these folk seem to dominate whenever I make an eBay purchase. And I get the impression that many are domiciled outside the UK.
My point is that with the latter it seems to be an unwritten rule / be generally accepted that the purchaser has little or no recourse if the purchase develops a fault after the initial period of use. My experience of this included a domestic room dehumifier. When I tried to enforce my "rights" with the trader the situation got quite heated and it was obvious the vendor wasn't going to oblge with any guarantee at least without legal action. Nor could he offer any repair facilities himself - his knowledge of the product probably went no further than what was printed on the packaging.
As I said this seems to be the rule rather than the exception. I don't know what happens if one complains to the credit card people under their own "guarantee" in such circumstances.
I feel that this grey area could do with being made unambiguously clear on the eBay login page.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

eBay will do their best to convince you their site is a safe place to shop.

Their moneyback guarantee is pretty good for buyers but obviously limited by the 30 days. 

 To be fair to eBay over Amazon, they do note on the listing the item location and the seller's registered address, the sellers feedback profile also shows which country they are registered in.

Whilst this isn't full proof, Amazon in comparison doesn't detail where goods are located (you might be able to figure they aren't in the UK based on the ETA) and I doubt many people look at the seller profile to check the address. 

Comparing both to Etsy, well IMO they don't seem bothered bout sellers offering things such as the right to cancel and although the volume of non-UK based sellers is smaller as time goes on Etsy will likely become more and more like the other two in that regard. 

eBay did introduce Outlets several years back and there are many big companies on there from Toolstation to Walkers crisps, if you pick a smaller seller that is no different really to going into an independent DIY shop or news agents rather than Toolstation or a supermarket, just with the decline of the High Street these small traders have gathered on marketplaces instead and the barrier to enter the market is much less as you can basically set up from a spare room, which is no bad thing.

Your card provider will generally offer chargeback options or you have S75 on a credit card for over £100 (and maybe less than £30,000 IIRC) where they are equally liable. 

Paypal offers 180 days but their SNAD protection isn't a warranty so covers things not being as described upon receipt rather than a dehumidifier failing after say 3 months. 

I've cut back on ordering from Amazon, I cancelled Prime a long time ago and the £25 spend for free delivery means I order much less. Instead I buy stuff on eBay and generally don't have many issues with purchases but for anything that expensive and liable to fail (like a TV, washing machine, etc) I wouldn't buy on eBay and they are probably losing out on this in general but perhaps feel the cost of a program to offer longer protection on certain purchases doesn't justify the reward. 

I have purchased tools on eBay but from FFX who seem to be an established company, I wouldn't buy a £100 drill or whatever from a no name who might be in China for the exact reasons you are questioning  

tightauldgit

At the end of the day you have no fewer rights buying from Ebay than anywhere else but the people you are buying from on Ebay are generally not large multi-national retailers with customer service departments and procedures. Part of the problem is buyers expect everywhere to be Amazon nowadays and that's just not feasible. 

It's important on Ebay to look at who you are buying from and appreciate the difference - is it a private seller (then you can't expect aftersales support), is it a Chinese (or other overseas) seller (then you really are subject to whatever they want to do), is it someone claiming to be a UK seller who really is a Chinese seller?

But if you are buying from a UK based, commercial seller then you have the same rights as buying from any other business and they have the same responsibilities. They might not THINK they do which is sometimes part of the problem but they do. 

 

HillStreetBlues

Been using auction sites for 25 years (used Yahoo! before e-bay) and have always expected a battle after the first 30 days.
So far I've never had the need for one.

Most of what I buy is the cheaper end or private sales  that has little rights anyway.

My upright freezers both from e-bay were 40% lower price than anywhere so took the punt (paid off)
If it was only a 5% discount then I would have bought elsewhere.