Lack of protection with (all) eBay trades?

Telegraph_Sam

I share the views expressed over the differences + and - between purchasing from eBay and Amazon [I ran a mini campaign against the latter to try to get them to make their cost including carriage more transparent. They are obviously not a co that takes customer feedback seriously]
I think it is useful to compare how you stand as a purchaser after 30 or 90 days post purchase, and how the odds sre stacked after the eBay / Amazon "guarantees" have expired.  My original point was that (excluding consumables and items of insignificant value) there seems to be this unwritten rule amongst UK and Far East traders alike that longer term warranties and after sales service are non-existent generally in the internet trade whatever the legal people may say to the contrary. Not least on account of the practical difficulties of enforcement. Again I would favour a system that obliges the vendor to state up front what if any consumer rights the purchaser has beyond the ubiquitous "returns accepted, buyer pays return postage". And one day pigs will fly ..

Alderbank

Telegraph_Sam said:

I share the views expressed over the differences + and - between purchasing from eBay and Amazon [I ran a mini campaign against the latter to try to get them to make their cost including carriage more transparent. They are obviously not a co that takes customer feedback seriously]
I think it is useful to compare how you stand as a purchaser after 30 or 90 days post purchase, and how the odds sre stacked after the eBay / Amazon "guarantees" have expired.  My original point was that (excluding consumables and items of insignificant value) there seems to be this unwritten rule amongst UK and Far East traders alike that longer term warranties and after sales service are non-existent generally in the internet trade whatever the legal people may say to the contrary. Not least on account of the practical difficulties of enforcement. Again I would favour a system that obliges the vendor to state up front what if any consumer rights the purchaser has beyond the ubiquitous "returns accepted, buyer pays return postage". And one day pigs will fly ..

You seem to be conflating warranty terms with consumer rights. It's a common mistake.

Telegraph_Sam

Guilty as charged. I look forward to being put right - particularly in the context under discussion (I have no legal training)

Alderbank

Excellent!
A good start would be to read the articles here in https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim-consumer-rights/.

Also read some of the recent threads in this section of the site, there are plenty to choose from!

Telegraph_Sam

Will do. Though I wonder if the distinction will in the end alter my main point re how the market works in practice.

tightauldgit

Telegraph_Sam said:

I share the views expressed over the differences + and - between purchasing from eBay and Amazon [I ran a mini campaign against the latter to try to get them to make their cost including carriage more transparent. They are obviously not a co that takes customer feedback seriously]
I think it is useful to compare how you stand as a purchaser after 30 or 90 days post purchase, and how the odds sre stacked after the eBay / Amazon "guarantees" have expired.  My original point was that (excluding consumables and items of insignificant value) there seems to be this unwritten rule amongst UK and Far East traders alike that longer term warranties and after sales service are non-existent generally in the internet trade whatever the legal people may say to the contrary. Not least on account of the practical difficulties of enforcement. Again I would favour a system that obliges the vendor to state up front what if any consumer rights the purchaser has beyond the ubiquitous "returns accepted, buyer pays return postage". And one day pigs will fly ..

I'm not quite sure what benefit you think there would be from a requirement for vendors to state that they won't honour their legal obligations to consumers or why you think that they can in the first place. 

Warranties are a completely different thing and up to the manufacturer what conditions they want to put on that. 

Telegraph_Sam

In a word : transparancy.
As a buyer I should be aware of what the terms are before making my purchase decision rather than finding out after the event that what I had assumed was incorrect. It should not be the task of every buyer on each occasion to dig out just what the vendor is and is not prepared to honour. Things which one could assume many vendors might be reluctant to shout about.
IMHO at least

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Telegraph_Sam said:

In a word : transparancy.
As a buyer I should be aware of what the terms are before making my purchase decision rather than finding out after the event that what I had assumed was incorrect. It should not be the task of every buyer on each occasion to dig out just what the vendor is and is not prepared to honour. Things which one could assume many vendors might be reluctant to shout about.
IMHO at least

Terms under Consumer Rights are implied, meaning they form part of the contract regardless of whether they are stated, so you always have them when dealing with a trader to whom they apply.

The difficulty is always enforcement. 

Looking at a different issue, traders based outside the UK with stock in the UK must be VAT registered as the threshold is zero, the marketplaces didn't seem IMO that bothered about it until they were made jointly and severally liable for VAT.

These marketplaces obviously can't be the wild west otherwise they wouldn't have buyers but equally they don't need to be a utopia in order to generate profit and the marketplaces (or any business) will always balance costs vs profits. 

There is of course the law and I'm certain they will say they are abiding by it which is correct until a higher court or authoritative body says otherwise. 

Even if you take very careful steps to pick a good seller you'll never know if the seller based in Cardiff is really based in China as there are always going to be people deliberately breaking the rules. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65205520 

Cardiff flat owner gets tax bills for 11,000 Chinese firms

Telegraph_Sam

"..careful steps to pick a good seller .." If only it was so simple. My basic point is that the terms of the contract should be known to and accepted by both sides before the deal goes through. My impression is that with eBay these are generally not specified with the result that the seller can and usually does wriggle out of after sales obligations.

Alderbank

'...that the terms of the contract should be known to and accepted by both sides before the deal goes through...'

That is not a new idea, in fact this 'meeting of minds' is and always has been an absolute essential of contract law.

Your impression that eBay sellers can wriggle out of obligations is not shared by everyone. If you browse the eBay pages you will find a common theme amongst sellers that eBay rules and practice is heavily biased towards buyers (of course you might say 'They would say that!')