ebay closed a return too early and refusing to reopen it

whalemoney

Hi I bought a console sold as fully working.  It arrived and was not only defective but was also loaded with a lot of 'jailbreak' firmware and pirated software.  

I opened a return.  Seller ignored it so ebay stepped in after a few days and gave me to the 20th January to return it, I got the royal mail QR code as per usual and made plans to return it before the 20th

On 19th January I received an email from ebay informing me that as I'd not sent it back by the deadline date then they'd closed the return.  It therefore states I wont get a refund and I'll have to keep the item.  I hadn't received any emails from ebay prior to this chasing the return or notifying me they'd changed the return date.  To me, if I'm given a deadline date of 20th January, then I'm allowed until that date to return it.  I'd even argue that the deadline is inclusive of the deadline date.  So my interpretation would have been the return ought to have remained open until 23:59 on 20th Jan.

I'm fuming.  They've closed the return a day early with no explanation.  I'm now in an endless loop with their overseas 'help' email address where they won't even engage with what I'm saying.  They just keep sending copy and pasted responses stating it wasn't returned within 7 working days.  I was never given any kind of warning about working days.  It was very clear that I had until 20th Jan to return.  The likes of "Shiva" and "Paranjeet" at ebay either don't understand how dates work, or they just have no autonomy whatsoever to make any kind of acknowledgement that "oh ok so I can see we changed the date of your return and then prematurely closed it".  Ebay wont even confirm if the QR code will still work if I tried to return it.

Over the past few months I've returned two other things and both times, returning them on the deadline day itself.  The items went back, got delivered to the respective sellers no problem and I got my refunds.  So I'm just baffled why ebay closed the return a day early.

Does anybody have any experience in resolving something like this?  Any contact details or what you'd do next legally.  I'd be open to small claims action but some other threads on the MSE forums strongly discourage taking ebay to Court as the UK company is just a few pieces of paper in a drawer.

I paid on debit card.  I've opened a chargeback but I suspect that at best, my card provider will insist I now post it back at my own expense.  It's a £270 console.  I can't risk posting it to the seller, a piracy touting liar, as he's obviously not got the credibility to go to ebay and tell them to refund me.  I can't risk sending it back as I'd be throwing out something that would still have a 'repairs/ faulty' value of about £100.

soolin

What time of day did they close the return window? I always think wording like ‘return by’ can be misleading as I would be tempted to say that would mean it would need to be returned before that day, ie on the 19th. However if they closed the return on the morning of the 19th I would go back and argue but if they closed it after last posting time on the 19th I would think they were correct. 

RFW

I had something similar, although not actually to do with return date, just before Christmas and they ended up giving me a refund without return, it was a bit less though, about £40.

Try various ways to contact Ebay, live chat, phone, or on their social media channels. You really need to be engaging with someone rather than sending emails.

On legal issues, Ebay haven't got your money, the seller has, albeit possibly EBay's fault that they do, so if you sued Ebay you may not get anywhere on that anyway.

GabbaGabbaHey

whalemoney said:

The likes of "Shiva" and "Paranjeet" at ebay either don't understand how dates work, or they just have no autonomy whatsoever to make any kind of acknowledgement that "oh ok so I can see we changed the date of your return and then prematurely closed it". 

Be aware that "Shiva" and "Paranjeet" are more likely to be (AI) bots than actual human beings...

GadgetGuru

Why are you waiting until the very last day to return things in the first instance? Getting as much use out of it as possible before sending back??!

Spoonie_Turtle

GadgetGuru said:

Why are you waiting until the very last day to return things in the first instance? Getting as much use out of it as possible before sending back??!

Or perhaps life being busy and juggling deadlines and prioritising things in order of urgency, y'know like a lot of people do …

Hoenir

As the 19th of January was a Sunday. Be difficult for the return to arrive back by the 20th using the Royal Mail. 

whalemoney

GabbaGabbaHey said:

whalemoney said:

The likes of "Shiva" and "Paranjeet" at ebay either don't understand how dates work, or they just have no autonomy whatsoever to make any kind of acknowledgement that "oh ok so I can see we changed the date of your return and then prematurely closed it". 

Be aware that "Shiva" and "Paranjeet" are more likely to be (AI) bots than actual human beings...

Either that or very poorly paid workers with no authority to make any decisions, operating out of a call centre style customer service centre in bangalore.

whalemoney

Anybody have any examples of how they've pursued this legally or with any impact?

Telling me to "go back to them" and contact them over the phone isn't the sort of assistance I need.  Do you not think I've already done those things.