Help with refund or PayPal Dispute

[nwear85]

I bought a brand new iPhone in April from e<Removed> which worked for a while and then the volume button broke. They agreed to send a replacement phone. Got new phone only to notice the battery life was terrible. Was draining 30% overnight on standby. I decided to check the serial number on the Apple website where I got a message saying the serial number was for an item that has been replaced.

I contacted the seller who agreed to refund (I have 2 emails where they said it was fine to return the item for a refund). I sent the phone back in August and they acknowledged receipt of it, however now only offering a refund of 60% of the original price.

Lodged a PayPal dispute within the timeframe but they’ve knocked it back saying the item was as described.

What’s my next step?? Can I dispute their decision on my original claim? Is chargeback and option given it was a faulty item and they promised a refund and now won’t give me one?

Worse case is I make them return the phone to me. But not really happy with that as Apple told me it wasn’t really theirs to sell to begin with and it won’t be supported.

Oh and in hindsight we should’ve checked the feedback because they have loads of complaints about selling replaced Apple items.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I’m a bit bummed about this and have lost $780 in the process.

[lyndal1838]

I hope you funded the payment with a credit or Visa debit card as a chargeback is your only option now.

There was never an ebay dispute option as it was too late and paypal has decided that it was as described.  It is hard to dispute that as a paypal claim is supposed to be the condition of the item when received.....and it was working then by your own admission.

If you cannot do a chargeback  would sugget you take the 60% discount offered by the seller.  It is not ideal but it is better than nothing.

[nwear85]

Yeah it’s just very disappointing, especially reading multiple complaints about the same thing happening to others. I never questioned returning it for a refund as they replaced the first phone with no issues. And they said on two separate emails that they were sorry the phone was faulty and would issue a refund.

We paid via Visa card through PayPal. I will appeal the PayPal decision and hopefully be able to speak to someone from PayPal before I try the chargeback option.

Otherwise I will ask the seller to send the phone back to me and I will pay the postage. At least I’ll have something for all the money I paid. Hard lesson learned but still a hard pill to swallow. I’m just annoyed they admitted they would refund it and now they won’t.

[lyndal1838]

I don't undertand why you would want a faulty phone back when you could accept the 60% refund if a chargeback fails?

[nwear85]

Either way I’ll still have to fork out more money for a new phone so it’d cost me less this way. More in electricity maybe because I’ll have to charge the phone twice as much haha. I could always ask them for a replacement phone given they admitted it was faulty and originally promised a refund. I’m just really annoyed. Just trying to look for suggestions on how to successfully get the refund they agreed to give me.

[nwear85]

Ended up getting my refund through PayPal. Finally spoke to someone on the phone who realised we had actually already returned the iPhone on the promise of a full refund. Screen shots of that conversation helped for sure. Apparently choosing ‘item not as described’ was the issue with PayPal rejecting the claim. Oh well. Shame to see this seller is still doing the same and exact same feedback is being left on a weekly basis.

[rich.law]

You have no protection as a buyer. My recommendation is never to buy anything worth more than $50 on ebay.

I bought some usb sticks that never arrived and the seller just said too bad. I raised with the resolution centre and they said as the seller had a tracking number I was out of luck and just closed it.

It won't take sellers too long to figure out all they need to do is send empty parcels with tracking numbers and that will be it.

[tazzieterror]

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@rich.law wrote:

You have no protection as a buyer. My recommendation is never to buy anything worth more than $50 on ebay.

I bought some usb sticks that never arrived and the seller just said too bad. I raised with the resolution centre and they said as the seller had a tracking number I was out of luck and just closed it.

It won't take sellers too long to figure out all they need to do is send empty parcels with tracking numbers and that will be it.

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No, that's not correct. eBay's MBG is oriented toward protecting the buyer, so if eBay closed your case in the seller's favour there are more details to it than you have shared here. What you've described sounds more like a PayPal case as the seller doesn't need to prove delivery in those.

eBay would quite literally implode if sellers could get away with sending empty boxes — they cannot.