Am I in the right? (ebay)

dlofnep

I bought something online through ebay. The item itself cost like 40 euro, and the shipping cost 45! I paid up - this was at the start of September.

About 10 days had passed and I had not received my item. I e-mailed them and asked them, they said it's on its way.

Another week had passed, it still had not come. I e-mailed them again and they said it was in Dublin's courier depot and that they would find out what was taking so long. They never e-mailed me back so I e-mailed them again. They said it had been returned to them and they didn't know why and said they would give me a refund.

I replied and said that a refund of 85 euro was ok. They don't respond for another week and I e-mail them again asking where my refund is and I advise them that they have 2 days to reply to me or I will open a dispute ticket on paypal. This was last week sometime.. No response so I opened a paypal dispute on saturday.

The company e-mailed me back today and said that they would refund me but would only refund me for the cost of the item and not the shipping. I'm furious. I never received my item. The shipping was 45 EURO! If I had received my item, I'd have no problem in paying for the shipping, but I never did. Surely that's their problem? From their awful customer service taking a week or two to respond to my e-mails (if they actually ever even bothered to respond) to this, I'm absolutely fuming.

I should be entitled to a refund of the 85 euro right?

delta_bravo

dlofnep wrote: »

I should be entitled to a refund of the 85 euro right?

Generally you dont get postage back in disputes. Postage is always high cos if the item price is low it will attract more views and the lower price can be countered by postage which isnt included. You got conned, next time dont buy anything that looks a little dodgy

AARRRGH

Yeah sounds like a con alright.

Get the item "returned" so you can keep the postage and packaging.

You probably won't get anywhere with your paypal dispute, so be prepared to do a chargeback.

Orange69

Paypal will probably give you a refund but will not include postage and packaging.. I had a similar experience with an ipod nano, i got a $120 refund but never saw my $10 shipping fee..

As a rule of thumb avoid items where the shipping fee is outrageously overpriced, its just a sucker trick.. even if they are legit they don't deserve the business.

Whats the users feedback like?

dlofnep

I got my refund at last! Just got off the phone with them - thery called me because I had just left a negative feedback on their account. They offered me a full refund if I agreed to remove my negative feedback on their account. Done and dusted. It's funny that they took a week to respond to my e-mails, but 10 minutes to respond to my negative feedback on ebay by phone!

dotsman

It's a con alright. If you have the time and energy you can complain to eBay and have them investigate the seller, but you are unlikely to be refunded. Have you asked the seller for proof of shipping (invoice from delivery company, tracking number etc)? The least you can do is leave negative feedback for the seller warning others. Consider it an expensive lesson...

Remember, to be safe, only buy from sellers with a high rating, lots of previous transactions and have been trading a long while. The shipping costs should realistically cover the cost of packing and shipping the item - AVOID anybody with excess shipping costs (at the very least, it is a cynical ploy to make their product look cheaper compared to their competitors - at worst... well you've just found out what the worst can be!).

Terry

Put the negative comment back up as soon as you get your refund.

empirix

Terry wrote: »

Put the negative comment back up as soon as you get your refund.

dont think you can do this Tez, ebay is very much favours the seller over the buyer as thats who they make their dosh off, they will do nothing since he got his refund. Sad but true - certainly in my experience (2 issues)

Karoma

Moved from AH.

Vikings

I know you've already got your refund but just wanted to point out that you have 45 days to file a dispute with PayPal (if you paid by PayPal) and 60 days to open a dispute with eBay.

With PayPal, contrary to the above comments, postal charges are refunded. Your claim is against the entire transaction which includes shipping.

jor el

What Mustangs says about postage is right, Paypal do refund the cost of postage if the seller either hasn't sent your item or can't show proof of delivery to the buyer. I've had full costs, including ppostage, refunded on several occasions. What they don't generally refund is the cost to the buyer of returning an item that is either defective or wrong in some way. This is usually stated in every eBay auction anyway. This isn't the case here as the buyer received nothing.

Good that you received your refund anyway, though a pity you had to remove the negative comment. Sellers that try conning buyers out of money shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. Report his behavior to eBay anyway, it might do some good, you never know.