on 18-07-201904:45 PM - last edited on 18-07-201907:55 PM by gewens
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.
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.
eBay comes under the NSW legislation and any civil case would be heard in a local court in NSW.
Legal notices must be served on eBay's registered agent (in the case of eBay) or to the email address you provide to eBay during the registration process (in your case). Notice will be deemed given 24 hours after email is sent, unless the sending party is notified that the email address is invalid or that the email has not been delivered. Alternatively, we may give you legal notice by mail to the address provided by you during the registration process. In such case, notice will be deemed given three days after the date of mailing.
Any notices to eBay's registered agent must be given by registered ordinary post (or if posted to or from a place outside Australia, by registered airmail) or by facsimile transmission to eBay Marketplaces GmbH c/- Corrs Chambers Westgarth, 8 Chifley, 8-12 Chifley Square, Sydney NSW 2000, Fax: (02) 9210 6611.
23. Legal disputes
If a dispute arises between you and eBay, our goal is to provide you with a neutral and cost effective means of resolving the dispute quickly. We strongly encourage you to first contact us to seek a resolution. If your dispute is not resolved by contacting Customer Service, all legal notices and formal disputes should be sent to eBay's registered agent in accordance with Clause 22 above. We will consider reasonable requests to resolve the dispute through alternative dispute resolution procedures, such as mediation or arbitration, as alternatives to litigation.
Law and forum for legal disputes This Agreement will be governed in all respects by the laws of New South Wales. We encourage you to try and resolve disputes using certified mediation (such as online dispute resolution processes). If a dispute cannot be resolved then you and eBay irrevocably submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales, Australia.❞
I cannot agree with you, though, that the seller explicitly agreed to pay the return postage. The seller has only said "Post the item back please". You've assumed that this meant that the seller agrees to refund you the postage.
HOWEVER... under eBay's Money Back Guarantee, you are entitled to be refunded the return postage amount for a SNAD return.
What I would do if I were you is to phone eBay using the Have us call you option, and speak very politely and courteously, not allowing any frustration to be audible in your tone. You need to have the eBay CS rep on your side, and you won't do that by launching accusations or getting upset on the phone.
If an eBay employee said to you "What are you going to do about it?", that almost certainly means you must have got up their nose. That gives you something to use to approach this from a different angle. You now know that being confrontational won't work.
I actually don't think this is an eBay Plus issue, but rather a straightforward MBG issue.
I'll quote from eBay's MBG page:
❝When an item isn't significantly as described
[...]
When an item is returned
The buyer is responsible for returning the item.
The buyer must return the item in the same condition in which it was received.
The seller is required to accept the return at their specified return address.
The cost of return postage is the seller's responsibility.
Signature confirmation is required for returns of items with a total cost of $750 or more.
The seller pays for any customs charges on the returned item.
[...]
If the seller hasn't facilitated the return – for example by providing a return postage label – we may also charge the seller any reasonable return postage costs.
We require the seller to reimburse us for the full refund amount.❞
Bolding and rubrication are mine.
Before you call eBay using the Have us call you option, have everything ready, and be prepared to record the call (with permission), and take notes, and be as friendly and courteous as possible, and have all the information to hand.
eBay's "Have us call you" option is by far the best way to get in touch with eBay. (Emails are useless, for a number of reasons, but primarily because the responses, when they are finally sent, are bot-generated.)
eBay say: We'll call you at the phone number registered to your account, or you can enter a different number.
We’re available from 8am to 10pm AET, 7 days a week.
The pattern of what to do before calling and during calling is here. Adapt it to your situation.
I cannot stress strongly enough that you cannot go in guns blazing with an audible sense of "I've been wronged". You need to do this with persistent niceness. Read the links I've given, and be prepared before you call.
You'll need to quote from eBay's MBG page (the text which I've quoted above). That should form the framework for your request of postage cost refund.
You should have waited until the seller paid you the return postage cost rather than pay for it yourself. You've ended in a predicament. Is it worth pursuing really!
on 18-07-201905:25 PM - last edited on 18-07-201907:35 PM by gewens
For the sake of being precise with a somewhat important topic I will add some informaiton to the above post. The editing time has ended, so I couldn't do it to the original post sorry.
The return of the speakers was not a steriotypical return. The speakers were so low quality that I think it could be fairly classified as being not as described. For example, there was a buzzing sound in the background when the speakers were on.
ebay themselves considered this as a valid reason for a return.
The seller did agree on paying the return postage.
eBay much later claimed that the seller did not agree to pay for the return postage.
Here's what happened.
I contacted the seller and told him/her, I'll post the item, but I expect to be refunded for the postage cost.
The seller replied to this "Post the item back please." And gave me the return postal address.
Context wise, the refund for the postage was agreed upon. eBay for some amazing reason, deny that the seller agreed on paying the postage cost. Although, they still agreed to refund me.
The whole event happned close to 4 months ago, not 6.
The eBay Plus represntive said verbatim "What are you going to do about it if we don't refund you?"
It's not the first time a rep has said something like that to me and there's no misunderstanding on my end what that means.
Those are the fine details.
Just to be clear, I added them because this may be an important topic and it's best to be accurate.
"You should have waited until the seller paid you the return postage cost rather than pay for it yourself. You've ended in a predicament. Is it worth pursuing really!"
I asked eBay before I posted the item back if I should pay for the postage and would I be entitled for a refund of the return postage cost.
They assured me that it was alright and asked me to post the item back.
Much later, when it became clear that the refund was not happening, eBay went back on what they said and then told me I should have held onto the item until the seller paid for the return cost. (I have the chat transcripts to prove it.)
I said something like "If things get too bad I'll take my busness elsewhere" and mentioned the A word.
An admin deleted my post. The reason listed was something like "Working for an eBay competitor."
It's a false reason, I think forum amins should at least be honest about the reasons why they are deleting people's posts.
If they don't like people saying that they might shop elsewhere, then there should be a forum rule: don't badmouth eBay. That should have been the reason why the post was deleted, not that nonsense about working for a competitor.
The eBay Plus represntive said verbatim "What are you going to do about it if we don't refund you?"
It's not the first time a rep has said something like that to me and there's no misunderstanding on my end what that means.
There has always been a forum rule that you are not allowed to badmouth ebay or it's subsidiaries.
It goes under various guises such as not starting petitions etc.
You are also not supposed to mention ebay's competitors as you have done.
Although the Moderators remove such posts they have usually been reported by other members.
As for the CS people being rude to you....that is a new one on me.....they usually just hang up on you.
As someone else asked.....are you sure it is worth all the angst for less than $50.....just remember that ebay has deeper pockets tha you do.
How incredibly frustrating - somehow even moreso because I've heard so many stories from sellers about how buyers were given full discretionary refunds without having to return an item, and without it costing the seller, and in such cases the buyers were definitely suspect, and yet here we have a case of (from all appearances) genuine INAD and eBay failing to uphold their policies to the buyer's detriment. In other words, eBay is paying out to suspected scamming buyers, and yet behaving like this over $40 on a case they agreed was genuine. What the frotch, eBay?
I mean, the seller is supposed to be responsible for return postage, and ebay is supposed to pay the buyer and charge the cost to the seller if the seller doesn't provide a label. Yes, there are certain (pretty much unwritten) rules that the seller needs to approve the postage service being used (to prevent aunathorised and expensive services being used at their expense) but you would think by now in the absence of explicit approval of specific services / costs, the policies would kick in and ebay would simply follow through on the policies of the MBG.
My advice for buyers who want to ensure they get explicit approval of return postage costs, is to contact the seller and provide at least two postage service options you might use (making sure they are all tracked services, eg standard parcel service at $x or express parcel service at $x), then say something like as you will be responsible for the return postage costs, please advise which one of these services you would like me to use. If a seller ignores that question, they may be deliberately trying to avoid it and at that point I would call eBay and ask them how to proceed.
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).
