How long for eBay to make a decision on a case??

[cucumbers789]

I purchased a small item of jewellery on the 7/03/2016, and what I recieved in the mail the following week was an empty letter envelope with a tear in the bottom where the item had fallen out. I suspect it was forced out during letter machine processing, either way, sending the item through letter post in a flimsy paper envelope was not suitable at all!
I contacted the seller with a photo of the torn envelope and they simply refused to see fault, and I did not hear back from them again.

SO, I open an official request for a refund on 19/03/16, seller ignores, I escalated the case on the 25th, get a message from eBay on the 28th saying they need more time to review the case. 

So now it's been two weeks since then and I still have heard absolutely nothing. I understand eBay probably has tons of these cases to sort through, but I am getting a little impatient. 

Anyone had eBay say they need more time for a case before? How long did you have to wait? How long SHOULD I wait before I have to contact them to ask what's going on??

[cucumbers789]

Thank you for all of your responses 🙂
I had a feeling that item not recieved probably wasnt the best route to go but I just wasn't sure. If all fails I'll try again with PayPal, but for now I'll be giving eBay a call. 

[cucumbers789]

Okay just got off the phone to customer support and had them re-open the case as Item Not as Described. I hope this finally fixes the problem once and for all

[fixnwear]

kerrynina, that is good news for you - BUT - all the same, it is appaling that Ebay changed the reason for claim - after telling us that is normally not allowed. I suppose that would be for the reason that if someone makes a claim and bombs out - they can't say "well, this one didn't work, let's try something else!"

Not only that - but it's also open to abuse, very easily.

You wait til heaps of people read this and run off to do the same thing:

Make a hole in the envelope and claim the item fell out.

That is NOT to say you are lying or trying to cheat anyone - but you could be. No one knows you  -  nor any of us, for that matter - and anything is possible. Same as it's equally possible that your trinket did fall out due to flimsy packaging.

The only problem here is that the PO wouldn't have delivered an obviously damaged and empty envelope without a sticker - I know I was advised but forget the wording they used - long time ago, when one of our parcels got damaged and stuff fell out.

Then we had proof as well as confirmation in writing to make a claim.

That is why I am very surprised to hear that Ebay  "just changed the nature of the claim" and re opened the case.

[amber-eyed-girl]

In the dim dark days when I did not know any better I received parcels with nothing in them.

I gave the seller the benefit of the doubt and chased AP, with zero return.

In terms of being open to abuse, it works both ways. To buyers who do not know that it should be a not as described claim when mere packaging is received, the seller (possibly fraudulently) wins in that scenario...

I am glad that the OP is able to change the claim, as it is ridiculous to accept that packaging alone is an item in any way

In Paypal cases, the very few times I used their resolution service, there was the option to change item not received to item not as described; which makes sense. A slow parcel might well be received after a claim is opened, then not be as purchased.

Common sense prevailed here.

[pennyforum14]

A lesson for the future, if the postage on an item you are considering purchasing is under $7.45, it is an indication that the seller is intending to send it as a large letter.  They are not necessarily being cheap, they are attempting to do the right thing by their buyers by keeping postage costs down.  However, large letter postage means minimal padding to protect the item as large letters cannot exceed 20mm in height.  If the nature of the item is such that it could be damaged by this postage method, it would be in your best interests to contact the seller before buying and request that the item be sent by parcel post,  This would mean that it can be packed with sufficient padding to prevent damage and would also provide tracking as protection for both of you.  It is well worth you paying the extra postage for the piece of mind, particularly for fragile or expensive items.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@pennyforum14 wrote:

A lesson for the future, if the postage on an item you are considering purchasing is under $7.45, it is an indication that the seller is intending to send it as a large letter.  They are not necessarily being cheap, they are attempting to do the right thing by their buyers by keeping postage costs down.  However, large letter postage means minimal padding to protect the item as large letters cannot exceed 20mm in height.  If the nature of the item is such that it could be damaged by this postage method, it would be in your best interests to contact the seller before buying and request that the item be sent by parcel post,  This would mean that it can be packed with sufficient padding to prevent damage and would also provide tracking as protection for both of you.  It is well worth you paying the extra postage for the piece of mind, particularly for fragile or expensive items.

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Or at the very least ask if it will be posted in a padded bag or an envelope. If it was sent in a regular paper envelope, it would have gone through the automatic letter sorter machine, where as padded bags are hand sorted. The silly thing from the sellers side of things is, it would have cost the same to go in a padded bag (apart from the cost of the bag). Instead, they have tried to go pov, risked losing the item, risked having the item arrive broken and risked breaking the auto letter sorter.

[phorum_junkie*]

A lesson for the future, if the postage on an item you are considering purchasing is under $7.45, it is an indication that the seller is intending to send it as a large letter. 

Not so in my case. On my store id I used to have free postage but I now have a standard charge of $5 which means that I can give buyers a discount for multiple purchases and that for change of mind returns I don't have to refund the full payment so am only out $2.15 rather than $7.15.

[cucumbers789]

fixnwear, you raise some very good points and I probably should have thought about that before posting that here! At the time of posting I was in a very irritated mood about the whole situation and after being on the phone to customer support, I was just glad to be finally getting somewhere, so posted without really thinking.

You are correct in that unfortuantely my situtation is extremely open to abuse, and relies on trust and good faith that I am telling the truth. Of course I know I am telling the truth, but understandly others will be sceptical. 
At the same time, if I were a seller, I would never even consider sending anything other than paper in a letter envelope. Last time I sold something online, I actually ended up over-paying for postage because I packaged so securely as I was so worried about loss or damage along the way and having to deal with an unhappy buyer! So I really think sellers need to look out for themselves too, don't create situations that are easy for fraudulent buyers to take advantage of. If the seller had just poacked properly, this probably never would have happened *sigh*

As for your point about Aus Post not delivering an obviously damaged package, it wasn't obvious. You see the envelope wasn't torn right open, the tear was very precise, in the bottom corner of the envelope, which leads me to believe that it was forced out. Whether by letter machines, or a person, it doesnt matter, but either way you wouldn't notice the tear unless you were looking for it. So of course the postie would have just placed the envelope in my letterbox without a second thought. 

So unfortuantely all these points together I am left in a really bad position here with little to no evidence of what happened, even though it is genuine, nobody else knows that. All because of a foolish packaging choice. ahhh 

[cucumbers789]

Oh believe me, if I ever am to buy another one of these items off eBay, (it was a Pandora charm btw) I will absolutely be avoiding sellers who are charging $2.00 for postage because that clearly means letter post.
Otherwise, I will also send the seller a message to insist on sending it as a parcel, just in case they weren't going to already. 
In my case the seller had listed postage as free. I've bought plenty of items before listed with free postage and they've always been packaged appropriately, so I had no reason to believe this time wouldn't be the same. I would have been happy to pay extra in postage if I had known!
But for now, I won't be buying such small items off eBay for a while now I think...

[lyndal1838]

You have certainly shed a lot of light on the situation by mentioning what the item was.

There is a very good chance that the seller never sent you anything in the envelope, or if they did it may well have been a fake.

As I understand it there is only one seller on ebay who is authorised to sell Pandora charms.   If your seller was selling just one odd charm it may have been genuine but if she had a number of them listed I think you can safely say you dodged a bullet by not having it arrive.   It is far easier to prove non arrival in this case than that the item was a fake.

And to be honest, no reputable Pandora seller would just stick it in an envelope.