Taking eBay to the small claims court (and a bit about eBay plus)

[kaibacorp*]

I'm wondering if I can get any advice on this issue I have.

I bought some computer speakers from the UK.

The speakers were not as described.

I contacted seller the seller wanted the speakers back and agreed to pay return postage cost.

I posted the item back and the seller just didnt pay for the retrun postage cost.

I asked ebay to step in and ebay agreed the refund me the return postage cost of $41.90.

This was about 6 months ago and ebay still havent refunded me the money.

At first they were telling me to just wait, now ebay are telling me they are not going to refund me.

I contacted CBS (Consumer Affairs) here in SA about the issue. They tell me they have tried to contact ebay but ebay are ignoring them. 

CBS advised me to go through the small claims court.

I'm just wondering if there's any advice the community can offer me?

Another thing I would like to know, has anyone else been flagrantly and outrightly abused by ebay's so-called premium service?

I have, surrounding this issue about the refund for the speakers. One represntative said to me; "Yeah, what are you going to do about it if we don't refund you?"  As if to say, we're taking your hard earned money and there's not a damned thing you can do about it. (I have the chat transcript btw.) I've been nothing but gentlemanly to eBay's staff btw, yet their staff are acting hostile.

I'm interested in the premium services for the discounts, but I'm not interested in being abused by the staff, I'm hoping to revert to the regular chat, I think this will minimize the chance of lashed out at by a representative.

[kaibacorp*]

"I wish I could help more on the current situation - personally I would feel like raising *heck* over it purely for described attuitude from eBay service reps. I'd consider publishing the chat transcripts on social media, and / or contacting somewhere like ecommercebytes to see if they are interested in the story, since you have evidence of everything (ecommercebytes has a seller bias, so they may not be the best option, but there might be a relatively popular news site that would take it on). "

Hey thanks for the response.

I had a good look at my chat transcripts, the offending statment one of the reps made is quite old, it's older than at least 3 months old.

I might just drop the issue about some of the bad service I have recieved from the chat reps.

There's 2 reasons; a lack of evidence at hand and 95% of the time they are good.

[kaibacorp*]

"I seriously doubt that a court of law would agree that the seller agreed to pay the return postage costs if what you've got above is their actual words"

I said:
Sent:08-May-19 06:30

New message to: [seller's name here]

Hello,

Just to clarify here.
I definitely do not want a replacement.
I would also like a refund for the postage costs thanks."

The seller just didn't respond to that, and yet sat there and done nothing knowing clearly that I was posting the item back. The seller had plenty of time to intervine and say "no thanks." The seller knew.

[kaibacorp*]

"Small claims court cases can be worth it, but it depends upon which jurisdiction is in play. Different states, different fees. You should be able to recover the filing fee if your case is successful - at least, this is the case in Victoria."

I will take your advice thanks. eBay have already agreed plenty of times to refund me for the cost of the return postage. I think there is a higher than normal chance, if a phone rep agrees to refund me, I might not even see the refund. Live chat (who are usually pretty good) quoted me a matter of days to see the refund, then nothing. Then they quoted me about a week, and then nothing.

If live chat can't give me correct information about it, why would the phone people?

I'll try it anyway thanks.

[padi*0409]

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@kaibacorp* wrote:

The seller just didn't respond to that, and yet sat there and done nothing knowing clearly that I was posting the item back. The seller had plenty of time to intervine and say "no thanks." The seller knew.

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But would a small claims court see it that way, especially as the seller's in the UK. You'd be taking a big gamble that they would when it would cost you over $100.00 to start a claim with them.

Presumably you have tracking so I reckon your only option now is to try a Paypal dispute, but even with that I supect you'll be pushing the proverbial uphill to win.

[kaibacorp*]

After I reviewed all my chat transcripts with eBay about this issue something became fairly clear.

At the very point they coudn't refund me for this, something went wrong with the chat rep.

I thought the chat rep was either stoned or perhaps he/she was overworked and was suffering from disorientation.

At the time I just asked to be put over to a different chat rep, which he/she agreed to.

(The specific issue with the chat rep was he/she took 30 minutes to answer a yes/no question and the delays in his/her chat were about 3 minutes each, and they just kept on avoiding answering a straight yes/no question.)

From that, I think the problem is to do with the refund itself, nothing kind-of on the peripheral.

[countessalmirena]

kaibacorp*, I really have to stress this, because it's important.

eBay CS reps available in eBay chat are the lowest rung. They don't have decision-making powers. They can't promise you anything with authority. Whatever they say is based on the pre-written scripts given to them after minimum training. Their main function is to quote policy, and type whatever will get the complaining member off the chat with the feeling that something is being done IF whatever is being requested is not clearly covered by eBay policy in an extremely straightforward way.

They are not like car salesmen who go away and make calls and come back to tell you that yes, your offer for $xx,xxx has been accepted.

They are not sitting in a large room for reps with offices for higher-ranking CS reps or supervisors standing by to be asked "Can we give this eBay member this requested solution?", and the IT / Tech Support department just down the corridor. They are sitting in a large room with other lowest-rung customer service reps, all with chat screens open, all using pre-written snippets which are selected based on the keywords of your opening sentences in the chat. Any supervisor present is there to ensure that staff clock on and clock off, and that there's no sneaking off to throw a party, not to give higher-level eBay decisions.

eBay chat is fine if you want a fairly straightforward situation seen to. These staff can do simple things which eBay has authorised them to do.  But what they cannot do is override an automatic process.

In any situation where you need that sort of action taken by a human being with the authority and power to do more than the simplest tasks, or quote the appropriate policy to you, you need a CS rep who is on a higher rung.

To get such a CS rep, the overwhelming anecdotal evidence is that you need to use the Have us call you option.

I hope that the situation is resolved for you. Truly, wishing you the best of luck.

[gutterpunkz05]

Did you initially use the official return request process,  or did you just send a message to the seller and then open a dispute when it went pear shaped.

[janeababe]

@kaibacorp

I’m sorry you are going through this. 

And you know what, it shouldn’t matter which seller in the world you bought the item from, eBay is international and if the seller in UK sells to Australia, then they should also refund as well! 

I’m just wondering.... did you use tracking to return the item? Is it at all possible that the item has not yet been received, or has gone awol? Hence why the seller has not yet refunded the postage because they have not received the item back?  Also curious, what did you originally pay in postage to receive the purchase in the first place? 

Did you get a refund for that? 

I know  this is frustrating, annoying, and it feels like you are dealing with the uneducated on the other end of the line, (ANNNNNNNNDDDDDDDD..... you might be right............ ) however, I don’t think going through the small claims court will make you feel vindicated.  Sorry.

I think Ebay has a fb page. Perhaps you could try your luck with them! I’d even bring up the transcript about the rep stating “what are you going to do if we don’t refund you” ..... or what ever it was..... That’s just disrespectful, unprofessional and shouldn’t be happening. I certainly wouldn’t stand for that type of treatment from anyone! Customer service indeed! 

Anyway...  good luck.  

xxj

[kaibacorp*]

OK people the problem has been solved.

Turned out that countessalmirena in the first page had the solution which was contact eBay via phone.

I brought it to their attention that I was told by the live chat reps (they said I will get refunded, and they said some other things as well that didnt happen) and the phone reps said that they will investigate the problem.

About 1-2 weeks later, I saw the refund for the postage in my PayPal account.

I agree now, the phone reps are on a higher level than the people in live chat.

Thanks a lot guys 🙂 one more eBay problem solved through the help of the forum. 🙂 🙂

[countessalmirena]

I'm glad that it was sorted out for you!

It's always good to hear the tail end or dénouement of a buyer's situation, and to be able to confirm that the Have us call you option is still the best way forward for many issues.