returning faulty item

[brucbern]

I posted here recently about some ugg boots that I bought and the zip broke after one wear. I asked the seller if I could return for a refund which she declined.

After a bit of two-ing and fro-ing I said I would ask ebay to step in and make the decision for us. Before I could escalate the claim, the seller herself escalated it. I didn' even know this was possible.

To my utter shock and disbelief this evening I get the message from ebay that this is not eligable for ebay money back guarantee and that they have found in the sellers favour.

How is this possible? I have paid $90.00 for boots that I have worn once for 3 hours tops. If I bought them in a shop and they broke I would be entitled to a refund.

What can I do now? Can I try a refund through Pay pal? I have only ever done it through paypal and will never go the ebay return route ever again.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[phorum_junkie*]

First I would call ebay and ask why you lost the claim as they were obviously faulty. I would also take them to an Ugg store if you can fnd one to confirm if they are the real deal (probably not).

Yes you can still claim through Paypal however it mauy be harder to prove they were faulty and you would almost certainly have to pay for the return and it would need to be fully trackable.

I would go after ebay first and would make it very clear that if they do not help you get your money back you will be reporting the seller and ebay to ACORN.  Finding out they were counterfeit would be the icing on the cake, you could report the seller to Ugg too.

[brucbern]

Unfortunately I don't think I can take the counterfeit option. I am pretty sure by my research that the name "UGG" can be used by any Australian or NZ company for their fleece or sheepskin boots. It's only other countries that it is trademarked and they can't. These boots are "Auzland" (Australian) brand.

I can appeal ebays decision through their link. Do you think this is worth doing or just a waste of time. Or should I get straight on the phone and talk to someone about it?

I have looked up ACCC and of course I am covered under Australian consumer laws for a refund for faulty goods even if I have used the boots. One of their examples is wearing a shirt and washing it for the first time and the dye runs. This apparantly only applies to businesses and not private sellers such as garage sales etc. Do you think this applies in this case because the seller isn't a store or does it because ebay definitely is?

However when I looked up ebays money back guarantee it only covers when you don't receive the item or it isn't as described in the listing.

[brucbern]

I have just tried to ring ebay to try and see why this case was found in the sellers favour and it seems they can't help me because the case was opened in ebay.com not .com.au!!! Don't know how this happened. Even tonight when I went into ebay help, the only reason I knew I was on the US site was the contact hours were strange. It's happened to me recently trying to get on the chat boards. I noticed they looked strange and it was the American chat boards.

I just keep getting bumped back to USA ebay!!

The upshot of that is I have to call them tomorrow which is a bit hard when you are at work. I am hoping that it being ebay USA will not go against me too much. Not that I am very confident about getting the decision reversed.

If they can't help me I will go through Paypal, which I should have done right from the start.

[*tippy*toes*]

If the seller isn't a registered business, then you aren't covered by consumer law. Ugg boots is pretty much a generic term for sheepskin boots, but I'm not sure you can advertise them as Ugg boots if they're not the true brand. They should be listed as sheepskin boots. Ipod has also become a generic term for MP3 players, but you don't see people listing MP3 players as iPods unless they are really an Apple iPod.

I doubt you'll have any success ringing eBay in the US, it will probably just be a waste of money. Probably more than what the boots are worth by the time you sit on hold for an hour. I'd be trying the PayPal option.

[springyzone]

 the seller isn't a registered business, then you aren't covered by consumer law. Ugg boots is pretty much a generic term for sheepskin boots, but I'm not sure you can advertise them as Ugg boots if they're not the true brand. They should be listed as sheepskin boots. Ipod has also become a generic term for MP3 players, but you don't see people listing MP3 players as iPods unless they are really an Apple iPod.

Tippy, I am pretty sure that in Australia you can. In fact there are several very good products that have Ugg boot labels on them.

NOT the same as the label on the American Ugg boot, mind you.

My understanding of it (it was in the newspapers a while back) is that the Ugg boot as we know it started off in Australia. They were slippers/boots made here from our wool.

Then along came an American company that registered the name Ugg and tried to pull the rug out from under the original players. It tried to stop a lot of our own companies from using the term that they had invented and used for decades before the American company got in on the act. The law here sided with the original companies & declared ugg was a generic term & should not belong to any one company.

The American versions of Ugg are made in China, but if you buy from some of the original & reputable ugg companies here, you'll get an Australian made product with Australian wool.

I'm not sure why the American brand should be seen as any better than our own brands, or that other brands should be considered counterfeit, but that is how the American company is trying to make it look.

[*tippy*toes*]

I used to get mine from Skinny's Hideout and there was another place around at the time too. Both high quality and made in Australia from Australian sheepskin. They both closed down unfortunately. I now get them from a local skin shop place that also sells high quality products made from locally sourced sheepskin.

My favourite pair I ever had were not the usual boots. Instead of the flat soles, they had soles more like work boots and the rubber actually came up over the sides. It meant the boot didn't flop over to the side and you could slop around outside in mud and not wreck the boots. I haven't seen them since I bought them in the mid 80's. They came from the "another place" above, which I can't remember the name. I only threw them out about 10 years ago. The only reason I did was because the moths got into them. It broke my heart to chuck them because they were such great boots.