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??

[collect247]

I'm at the stage where I will only purchase items from sellers that I have bought from in the past,

because there's a few sellers out there that are now sending the wrong items or no items.

[imastawka]

edit:  replying to  kerrynina     

Just as an aside.....$2 postage gets you a bubble envelope.

It's quite safe to send small items, like charms, in a bubble envelope.

They don't go through the sorting machine

[mbselections00]

Just following on from the last post as I have only just read this thread and would like to add a couple of comments for what they're worth.

Sorry to disagree, but not all sellers who charge less than $7 send in flimsy paper envelopes.  There are many including myself who post Large Letter in well padded bubble lined envelopes or small posting boxes that are less than 20mm.  Ordinary post for my items is $2 (plus handling & fees) and Registered still comes in under $7.  And yes I sell jewellery, including European beads and charm beads similar to the one the OP has described and they fit as large letter.  In my view, any seller who values their customers and their business would not jeopardize their reputation by posting such items as a letter for 70 cents instead of $2.

I have never had one arrive empty to a buyer.  I did have a buyer once return a bracelet because she ordered the wrong size and instead of using a padded envelope to return it, she sent it in a paper envelope, which of course did tear, and although the bracelet did not fall out completely, it may as well have because it was broken.

Sorry to rave on, but it does upset me a little when sellers suddenly get tarnished with the one brush.  That said, I do my utmost to keep postage prices to a minimum on low value items while at the same time ensuring items are well packed.

tippy edit and stawks, according to my local PO, Large Letters are not sorted by hand, that is why they MUST fit through the slot & cannot be over 20mm thick - they jam the machine and/or the machine can force the item out of the envelope.

I have had parcels delivered that have broken open & have been placed in a clip lock bag with a note from Aust. Post, but similar to OP, I have also had two paper envelopes that have clearly split open (because contents were too thick & paper too flimsy) and yet they have still been delivered empty.  One even had what looked like a tyre mark across it

[digital*ghost]

For anyone who's interested - it's a little dated now (2008) and aimed at primary schoolers.... but still sheds some light on letter-sorting (note, they mentioned padded envelopes are hand-sorted, and only show plain paper envelopes going through machines. For what it's worth, I've had a number of padded envelopes received, some RTS items that I sent out etc, and AFAIK they've never had the orange barcode on them, which as you can see indicates they would have gone through a machine).

[mbselections00]

Thanks, it was interesting.  Well, I don't know now - all I can think from what the PO staff have said and described, is that if items are posted as letters when they are not because they are too thick, they gum up the works somewhere, somehow , because they described how the pressure of the machine could easily force the item out of a paper envelope (this was all described when I took one of my 'empty' envelopes to the PO)

[digital*ghost]

Some of their processes may have changed since this video was made - I had one padded envelope returned to me marked as an incomplete address, because I put CR (as in for example 100 Made-Up CR, [Suburb]) when I wrote the address. Everything else about the address was 100% accurate, but somehow either a person or the system couldn't determine if it was court or corner so it was rejected. A person shoud have been able to determine that it was indeed corner by the rest of the address, a (badly programmed) machine probably wouldn't, so it could well have been machine sorted in some way. 

[*tippy*toes*]

I was always told paper only in regular envelopes due to the sorting machine. Solid objects can damage the machine (and/or the contents). Hard objects, like a pen, should go in a padded bag as they are hand sorted. Who would know these days!!!

[mbselections00]

True, and I wouldn't dream of posting any of my items in a plain envelope.

I guess the main point I was trying to make anyway, was that you can still post safely and efficiently in a padded envelope for less than $7 and not be a bad seller.  Perhaps the ones who post for $1 might be different, but let's not all be lumped together because we don't charge over $7 for postage

Edit  :  I think in a previous post I inadvertantly referred to 70 cent postage - my mistake should have been $1

[cucumbers789]

Thank you to you and imastawka for clearing this up. I don't send/receive items very often so I'm not really familiar with the different prices of different packaging so I was unaware that padded bubble bags were only $2. Knowing this now, I take back my comment about avoiding sellers charging $2 postage,  my apologies, it was a bit of a silly generalisation to make 🙂 

[amber-eyed-girl]

I just bought a piece of jewellery here, was expensive, was listed as free postage. It arrived in a bubblewrap small envelope and was fine (registered post...had to show ID when I picked it up). When I had torn envelopes arrive they were ripped slightly in the corner, normal unpadded paper envelopes...meant to contain small pieces of jewellery. No note/sticker from AP. As with your case, hard to tell until you looked to see what on earth had happened to the (supposed) contents. Happened twice from memory, two different sellers. Many years ago now.

I was a bit surprised to receive an expensive item in a little padded envelope this time around but it was a perfectly acceptable method. If I had lost it through a seller deciding that a standard envelope would do I would have been very annoyed too.