Issue with reputable seller on ebay, not sure what action to take.

conti

I bought a Dell laptop from a dealer in the UK who deals with the Dell refurb store. Since Dell no longer do refurb models in Ireland, I was left with no choice only to get one from the UK. I found a seller with a good selection and a good reputation. Only thing is, when I went to purchase, Paypal had marked up the sterling conversion to their own taste, which I thought was a bit lousy. I checked against several online converters and Paypal's was ridiculous. I understand them having their fees, but this was completely separate, they just made up their own conversion.

Anyways, the seller agreed with me so made out an invoice and let me purchase directly off him with bank transfer, saving just over 80 quid.

The laptop in question turned out to have a lot of faults, right from when I took it out of the box. The seller was very reluctant to refund me and kept fobbing me off, asking that I just get dell to fix it as it had a full warranty.

He didn't seem to want to budge so I went with Dell and they were super helpful. Due to various reasons and a shoddy machine, they had to send out technicians on no less than 4 occasions! They were about to send out a 5th when they realise how much it was costing so they just said they would give a full refund on the machine as it's not fit for purpose.

The only thing is, they can't refund directly to me, because of company policy, they can only refund to the card it was purchased on, which is the UK dealer. I contacted him, and like before was reluctant to do anything. He takes days to reply, and when he does he fobs me off with 'I'm busy', or 'I'm waiting for Dell to get back to me', even though I'm in correspondence with Dell, who are simply waiting on him to give the go-ahead for collection. The thing is, he doesn't have to do anything, Dell will collect themselves from my address, then refund the money to him, which he in turn refunds to me. But he just won't do it. He's not blatantly saying he won't do it, he just keeps putting it off. This has been going on for 4 months now. Luckily my job has provided me with a laptop so I have something to work on in the meantime.

Am I protected by any laws here? Can ebay do something about it?

intheclouds

Have you contacted Ebay themselves about it?

sonny.knowles

Did the purchase go through eBay?

fearmhor18

eBay money back guarantee only covers PayPal transactions, you went outside of PayPal to save money but you lost the protection I'm afraid. eBay won't be able to do anything except advise to leave appropriate feedback. You probably are covered under law since we're in the EU so if the seller doesn't respond its the legal avenue you would go down.

A Dub in Glasgo

The buyer went outside ebay which is why ebay will not get involved as it has nothing to do with them