ebay and sellers collude to scam postage costs...

[user25253]

I asked a seller to confirm the part number of an item they were selling, which they did..
I ordered based on that, yet they still sent wrong item. Not one close enough that I could just use it regardless, it wont fit ever.
The seller and eBay instruct me to pay return postage and state I will be refunded.

I paid return postage which was $12.30 in total, post, packaging, signature. He gets the item back. The seller then says he needs me to tell him my paypal account and the total so he can refund postage, he then sends a message back stating the sticker on the package only says $8.30, which is only the postage cost part of it but I had to send it signature required ($2.95), and provide a new postage pack ($1.05) to protect the item. Total cost is $12 30.

To rub salt into the wound, they then send a message saying OK, Ill refund $3. Then I only get 2.76 in my paypal.

Postage was pretty much the same cost as the part, only now I dont even have the part to sell. Options to contact ebay, or paypal have vanished... now what?

They sent the wrong part, ebay can see all messages, how hard is it to insist the seller provide the means to return, or refund without return if they refuse?. Its 100% sellers fault.

<Removed> are the theives in question. Auto parts allegedly in Sydney.

[user25253]

The problem is, now the seller has made trinket offerings, all points of contact seem to vanish from the site. I have a link in a message from ebay asking me to start the return, and that the seller is responsible for return costs and I will be refunded. It has a link with the option to ask ebay to intervene, but as a refund has been made on the part itself that link now goes to a page that tells me the matter is closed and no longer provides a point of contact. In the earlier stages when the seller had not provided a return label, that link it went to a page that said I can not initiate a dispute yet.

I made the return based in ebays instruction to pay the return fees and then I would be refunded. Now no one an be contacted, and the transaction isnt on my activity page any more either. I cant even leave feedback for the transaction.

Way to go ebay, youve made sure the system is dishonest.

[lyndal1838]

**bleep** happens as they say.

Instead of getting up in arms you should appeal the decision.  Most of the ebay system is automated and it does make mistakes.

Get all your details together and contact ebay.  Use the Help link at the bottom of the page and then have ebay call you.....you get a better class of CS reps than going through the call centre in the Philippines.

Be calm and polite and you will probably get a good hearing

[bimberiretrosystems]

the $2.75 you got back instead of  $3 is paypall fee for using their service i think-nothing is free with paypal just like any service

[shoppingbag*]

I disagree, when I have given a refund, the buyer gets the total refund you have nominated, as the Paypal component is also refunded. I have given partial refunds for overpayment of postage many times, and this has always been the case.

[kopenhagen5]

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@bimberiretrosystems wrote:

the $2.75 you got back instead of  $3 is paypall fee for using their service i think-nothing is free with paypal just like any service

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That's incorrect.

When a seller part refunds, the PayPal fee of that refund is credited back and besides PayPal fee is 2.6%.

I will hazard a guess here that the seller has refunded part postage but was charged the 10.9% eBay fee on the postage hence has deducted that from the refund.

[user25253]

Whats actually happened is eBay informed me the seller was unable to provide a return label for me and that I needed to contact them. eBay then harassed me by auto messages I assume that I still handt initiated the return and if I didnt provide proof of postage the dispute may be cancelled and my refund forfeit. Or words to that effect.

So I paid Aus Post to return the item. Paypal had no part in the return postage portion of the transaction. That proivides the seller with a loophole.

So, when I provided the receipt with the trackingnumber, the seller messaged me stating that the postage sticker on the parcel said $8.30. Which was true enough. But thats postage alone, not the padded bag I protected his item with, or signature delivery that would be required to prove it was delivered.

$8.30

$1.05

$2.95

The sellers response was, "Ok, I will refund another $3". 'Another' being a reference to the item price refund.

Ebay is covering ot for him, but even that was difficult. The transaction vanished from my activity page, and all links to contact ebay seemed to loop back to the page looking for the transaction. When i finally fluked my way to it, it said it was closed and wouldnt provide menas for contact.

So eventually I found a call me link, gave a number, got a friendly call person, and Ill be ggettinga  frefund in the next month or so. Something to do with processed in batches. He offered a coupon instead, with some small bonus on it, but 30 days to use it so i opted for the refund instead.

Its not the money, its the principle. Im still not happy that the seller can skate, and IMO is gaming the system. But Kudos to ebay otherwise for the return refund, once i get it..

[digital*ghost]

Just in case it helps in the future, you do not need to add signature on delivery to a parcel service, unless the combined total (item price plus postage) is $750 or more.

Parcels are tracked, and will show whether it's delivered or not, regardless - signature on delivery just prevents the parcel from being safe-dropped, most of the time, anyway (safe-dropped is when it is left at the premises if no one is there to receive). If a tracked parcel never gets to the delivery stage, having signature on delivery won't do much good, unfortunately. 

[gutterpunkz05]

Why did you have to get the seller to confirm the part number before purchase, when it is provided twice in the listing details, item specifics  MPN etc.  Plus the listing also included  a schemantic  style pic, with all dimensions.  If indeed the wrong part was sent, then why didn't you ask the seller to exchange for the correct part.

As you would have had the original packaging for the item, why couldnt you  repack and send the item in a 500g satchel, cost 25c plus the $8.30 postage.

Do you honestly believe that ebay  and the seller  have been secretly conspiring against you, a very serious allegation, with not a shred of proof.

Perhaps you would like to thank the mods, for editing your defamatory post alledging the seller is a thief.

Alledgedly the seller is in Sydney - your words - surely as you returned the item, you actually know where the seller is.

[user25253]

You read oddly. Ebay made it hard to follow up the sisue, I had to realy hunt for the outcome. Most people, wouldnt find it. Thats ebay, no one else.

Capisce? I shoudnt have to work that hard, I should be able to just click the item, and state my issue, not find it looping stating its been closed as if its a dead end. I should find the item in my list of transactions, easily but I couldnt. And it shoudnt shut down just because some auto system says its solved. Its a flawed system and Im betting it wouldnt be striuctly legal to create a system that facilitates sellers to shaft buyers.. Certainly not for a business the size of ebay, with so many Australians finding it hard to exercise their rights.

I asked, because I already have the more common rating that most part shops interchange as being the same (its not, for many it doenst matter, to me it did). I ordered online because I wanted the specific rating and this seller stated thats what it was. But see they describe the model of car in the listing, not the part number, and state use the model in the title as a guide too. The part number is additional information. Not to mention the car in question has both part numbers listed for the model. So I did my due diligence.

Its easy, I ordered a CA18125, and got a CB16110, wrong physical size, and wrong pressure.

People drop ship. Item may come from Sydeny, seller could be anywhere.

I dint have their packaging as it was taped and I had to cut it to open it, and it went in the bin at the post office I collected it from.

The seller still hasnt refunded the postage amount, thats dishonesty. I paid the day I ordered. I should get a speedy return.

I decided not to wait for delivery again, and ordered the part from Autobarn, had it the next morning, for about $1 less.

What was your purpose here again? Stop wasting my time, scoll on.