@itsjohnny1wrote:
I recenty bought a product thst lasted 20 seconds before it broke...ebay did not honour australian consumer law which states that a item must be fit for purpose...it clesrly wasnt..... how are they getting away with this? Has this happened to anybody else? Anybody taken ebay to consumer affairs? What was the outcome?
There's a lot of legal stuff like that that is virtually unenforceable unless you care to start legal proceedings.
You're right, items must be fit for the purpose. What about other regulations-neighbours share half the cost of fencing, people who pay for goods should get those goods, those doing certain work on building sites should be qualified, people who drive on the road should have a licence, and so on.
If you buy from a reputable store or go with a reputable company, usually they will follow the law. But every single day, and not just on ebay, you'll read of people being defrauded or striking big problems where they lose out, not through their own fault but because someone else has done the wrong thing by them.
And there is nothing much they can do because to pursue the law would result in more legal costs than they are likely to win back.
What you're talking about is probably a cheap product (relatively speaking) and I agree, you should theoretically be able to get money back. Maybe you would if you bought from BigW or KMart and took it in to show them. But the company responsible here is not ebay, they didn't sell you a thing. The oens you would need to legally pursue are the sellers.
Now, if they ripped off enough people or there were enough complaints about them, eventually those sellers might get kicked off ebay, but I imagine that's the extent of ebay's liability, because they already have procedures in place to deal with problems.
Have you thought of maybe opening a 'Not as described' case? Depending on the problem, that may result in you getting your money back if the seller won't help.
