Child friendly product filled and weighted with broken glass

[rgil2750rita]

I recently purchased a Reborn Orangutan from a top rated eBay seller that stated that it was child friendly. I bought it for my 12 year old autistic daughter, it seemed ideal as the weight was specified as 1Kg (approx) and she gains comfort from weighted blankets etc. When the product arrived I was quite dissappointed, I received a different one from the pictured orangutan I purchased and it's clothing was far too big exposing a great deal of the body fabric. The shirt it was wearing was a $4.00 shirt from K-mart. I left feedback saying I was dissappointed with the product.

I immediately received numerous angry and offensive messages from this seller banning me from being a customer of hers again, banning me from contacting her etc and culminating in a demand that I return the product and she would issue a refund. Well given her attitude in the messages I didn't think I could rely on getting that refund so I decided to fix the doll myself.

1Kg (approx) in weight turned out to be 385g, so I took the doll apart to re-weight it only to discover it had been weighted with chunks of broken glass, not the tumbled glass, or even poly pellets normally used but sharp chunks about the size of gravel (4-8mm).

This seller continues to sell this product as "child friendly". What can I do about this ? Can I report it and have it removed? How do I do that? Or do I just ignore it and hope someone else's child is not injured?

[kopenhagen5]

If you feel the item is reportable, I suggest you do so.

Also report any mesages that are abusive, even if no direct action occurs on the account, maybe a slap from ebay will lower their tone. (Doubt it, but worth reporting in case others also report and the culmination may result in action)

[motherbear2003]

I'm at a loss to understand why you left the seller positive feedback:O  Selling a product that appears to be totally unsafe for anyone; poly pellets are definitely the filler that should have been used.

[***super_nova***]

The thing you can do now is to put follow up to your FB saying something like:

"should have been NEG - filled with sharp glass shards"

that is just not on.

You can also open PP dispute, however to get a refund you need to return it in the condition you got it; since you looked inside it may not be possible?  She needs to be reported for selling hazardous toys, which would not comply with the guidelines for selling things for kids.

BUT for the price you paid you could not possibly expected it to be hand painted and rooted.

[***super_nova***]

To report to eBay click on the report item link in her listing > in the first field 'prohibited restricted items' > second field - hazardous materials > other hazardous materials

That should do it.

[rgil2750rita]

Thankyou for your advice. I left the positive feedback before I opened the body up to re-weight it so wasn't aware at that time that it contained such dangerous materials. Although I was originally just dissappointed with the product I felt that I could salvage it without having to go through the hassels of having to get a refund from paypal. I am a new member to eBay and did not know how to report this kind of thing. Thanks to the help from other members I was able to do so. Thankyou again to all the kind members who replied with advice 😄

[***super_nova***]

To leave follow up to the FB you left this seller go to

http://feedback.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedbackLeft

and find the particular feedback, on the right of it is a link to FOLLOW UP

Please do it, hopefully it will be noticed by potential buyers who might be buying the toy for children.

[i-once-was-bump]

I opened the body up to re-weight it

What do you mean?

Surely the weight is whole toy not just the filling? (I hope so)

I thought if I sold a teddy bear at 300 grams then I just weighed the finished bear so have I been doing the wrong thing?

I have only made one porcelain doll and I worked out the weight by adjusting the fill of the finished item.

[rgil2750rita]

On a reborn the vinyl parts (limbs and head) are attached to the body with either cable ties or string ties. It is merely a matter of cutting these and then replacing with new ones when you put it back together. When a reborn is finished you then weigh the finished doll to determine it's weight. If you want a specific weight you would weight all the parts and calculate the amount of glass bead or poly pellets needed to acheive this.

You did the right thing with your teddy bear. When I mentioned that the doll I purchased was supposed to weigh 1Kg and only weighed 385g (I weighed it) I was told that she had said 1Kg(approx) and therefore it met it's description. Before I could reply to this she sent several more messages banning me from contacting her further and from being a future customer. But yes weight given whether approx or not should be the weight of the finished product (not that I would have wanted more broken glass!!!)

[rgil2750rita]

Thanks for the link, I have done it. I will probably get another stream of abusive messages now but at least it might prevent other parents from buying this for their child.