Ebay allowing seller to offer unrealistic warranties and not offering any support

[maxumusmg]

I bought some Makita Ni-MH drill batteries from a seller  who had I thought a reasonable rating of 99.2% on 1700 sales back in October 2023

This seller offered a 5 year warranty. Also seller said was located in Dandenong South Vic  Australia

Come Jan 2024, one battery was not charging and I contacted the seller and got no response.  I tried again a week later and again no response. 

So I called Ebay up and they basically told me that anything after 30 days Ebay guarantee is my problem and and they could not help me but might suspend the seller if they bother to investigate (eg others complain).

So the questions are 

a) why does Ebay allow seller to offer a 5 year warranty and not provide some process to   enforce it (eg under ACL the importer/ retailer is liable for manufacturer if they fail to make good on the implied warranties) 

b) how is the seller allowed to stay on ebay if they have not responsed to a warranty request

c) why can't I revise my positive feedback given the seller has broken the contract  

d)  what the point of a 30 days Ebay warranty if Ebay are knowingly allowing a seller to offer a 5 year warranty without any reasonable basis of ensuring that the seller will in fact offer it (eg misleading and deceptive conduct under Australia Consumer Law  and Unfair  Contract Act in case EBay please they are only a platform) 

e) any process available to get the name and address of the seler to pursue a Fiar Trading claim 

Interested in views ?

[davewil1964]

Views.

eBay alleged warranties are not worth the screen they are displayed on. Unless -

The seller is a registered Australian business;

They are a registered Makita agent;

They are in Australia.

Is the seller registered in Australia (not where they said the item was, but where they are registered - it's on their feedback page; top left)? Are they an authorised Makita agent?

Do you think eBay is going to spend billions of dollars vetting every listing?

I'll bet 'no' to all three. The onus is on you as the buyer to do your due diligence.

Oh yeah, did you pay a realistic price for your batteries? ie What Makita charges.

[domino-710]

An IT lawyer - who can't read the information given in an eBay listing. LOL

[gutterpunkz05]

Just to add, the batteries you purchased, were sold as unbranded, so there is no warranty

[sandypebbles]

eBay allow these sellers because buyers like yourself chose to keep them in business

The listings say FOR and state UNBRANDED 

The seller clearly shows registered  in China

You yourself say that warranty was unrealistic

You knew all of this and made the choice to go ahead and buy anyway

There is zero warranty

Even with real warranties eBay do not enforce them

eBay do not vet listings

[gutterpunkz05]

On top of what Dave has said, you would also need to prove that your power supply, charger and manner of charging  IE: overcharging etc, did not contribute to the battery failure.

Your seller is indeed registered in china, so  ACL  will not apply and no warranty is enforceable in Australia.

[sandypebbles]

As for the comment 'nowhere does it say China'

Funny how it does if you actually really do look

[maxumusmg]

None of your answers to date have addressed the main issue of why Ebay allows this to contnue and does not allow me as a buyer to comment and revised / remove the feedback to ensure that other buyers can do due diligence on the the seller, given they are still allowing the seller to sell on their platform.

If Ebay allows the seller to say they are located in Australia, on what basis can I test that ? - eg I checked old and current ads and nowhere in the ad does it say they are in China.  Under the Australian Consuler Law, Ebay is allowing that representation to be made with any due care / recklessly  and so has to take some responsibility for its actions. (eg lots of cases where publishers of false information have been held liable for it) 

Yes, I agree that the product is cheaper than the geniuine one but I've bought thousands of products from both Ebay and Aliexpress and they have generally been okay.   In fact, most product come from the same factories that companies like Makita gets their products from but they just slap their label on it and mark it up. 

I suspect in this case one of the Ni-MH cell has died.  For the record I am using a genuine Makita charger  and the other battery works  fine. 

I have got more help from Aliexpress and Amazon with claiming under warranty issues well after the Ebay 30 day one than I get from Ebay.

Ebay (with all theirresources and  tools and profits) have the ability to vet ads / require sellers to provide evidece of say locations / warraty statement andcould charge back for breaches of contract (eg like the banks do with credit card disputes which is my next port of call) . 

I have also reported this as as Fraudulent listing practice.

Also no one has suggested the process to obtain / find the real name and address of the seller to consider my options

ps - the new ad has upped the warranty to 10 years 

ps I'm a IT lawyer plus have repaired cars, boats  and electronics for over 40 years 

[gutterpunkz05]

ps I'm a IT lawyer plus have repaired cars, boats and electronics for over 40 years ......In that case you should know the correct legal procedure for obtaining seller info from ebay and you should also be aware that Australian laws are not enforceable in china, Australia fair trading has no jurisdiction in china. You should also be able to fully comprehend the ebay UA and its full implications regarding liability. At least you won't need to hire a lawyer to be told you don't have a leg to stand on.

[sandypebbles]

All the responses address all you complain about.

You not liking factual responses is not our problem

There are many people here who say they are lawyers etc and yet display no clue of how things work .

You as a lawyer should also be responsible enough to care about who you buy from.

Not buy unbranded garbage from a seller in China and then complain about it

You could easy look at the seller's feedback to see where they are registered. One click, one second to do it, you did'nt do it, it is one of the very first things it says

You as a lawyer should also be aware eBay Australia have zero power over eBay China, nor does any ACL apply.

And nobody here is going to suggest you 'take matters into your own hands' as per your comment to find out the seller's name and address to 'consider your options', you could do that yourself 

Do your own due diligence and taking responsibility for your on poor buying choices

Alarming a lawyer does not have any idea of any of this

[sandypebbles]

And to add, you also ignored the bit in the forum rules not to name and shame, which you not only did, but even linked to the seller's page