I bought an iphone advertised as new, its used, they wont respond or respect my warranty

[fran_schof]

I bought an iphone off a large seller REMOVED about 4 months ago. It was advertised as brand new bla bla, with 12 months warranty. i have had massive problems with it, and recently took it into a store to be looked at as the seller would not respond to me. i was told my iphone is not new, has heaps of dodgy parts, has had its screen replaced before etc. The phones battery home button and power button stopped working due to the shody repairs they did. i have essaged them but they wont respond. is there anything i can do???

[countessalmirena]

fran_schof, if you focus on trying to bring the seller to justice, you're almost certainly going to get nowhere. There are so many of these sorts of sellers, and they tend to have multiple selling accounts. They sell fakes, refurbished phones dressed up like new phones, and so on, yet unless the buyer discovers the fraud within the eBay Money Back Guarantee period, eBay will receive no report about them.

eBay's reporting & complaints resolution system are automated. Make a complaint within the MBG period and the automated system works in your favour. But... even had you complained within that MBG period, your seller would only have had one account/username flagged as a problem. These sorts of fraudsters take that risk into account, and have many other accounts and usernames ready to go. They also take into account that a certain percentage of their buyers will discover that the item is not as described within the timeframe, and they know how to calculate the risk and be ready to move to their next accounts.

It's like fighting a Hydra.

That's why I would advise you to focus on getting your money back. Make sure you open a claim in PayPal, and you'd probably be best off to phone them as well, giving them the specifics. Have ready the store name where it was identified as a "dodgy refurbished unit"; have a report by the store on letterhead if you can get it. You can phone PayPal and explain the situation in specific detail, complete with offering to send the store's report as a PDF to their email if they wish:

Call Customer Service

PayPal Customer Service

1800 073 263 (toll free)

+61 2 8223 9500

One-off passcode
[You'll be asked to enter this unique code on the phone)
 

Customer Service hours

     6am to 10pm AEST Monday to Friday
     8am to 7pm AEST Saturday and Sunday

You can also contact eBay directly if you want - using the Have us call you option (during business hours - 8 am to 10 pm, 7 days a week) . That would be purely to pursue justice in respect of the seller, but be prepared for nothing to be done... However, if it will make you feel better to have taken every possible step, there's no harm in trying.