How to submit a complaint or which regulator do I need to contact?

[exabytecorp]

Hi;

Hope you guys can help. I've been using eBay for years, no issues, but I encountered this issue about 5 months ago and noone seems to be able to resolve it within eBay. Its ridiculous.

In July 2021, I purchased an item with eBay gift cards. The order status was "Payment pending" after a week, so I contacted them and they said it was something at the seller's end, something to do with their email is not correct with Paypal or something. Bottom line is, the issue has nothing to do with me. eBay advised to me wait, it should either go through or be refunded. 5 months later, it has done neither. The payment is still stuck in "payment pending" and for some reason the seller is now "no longer registered", no idea what happened here.

So my funds are stuck in limbo. I have contacted eBay support numerous times and it has been "escalated", but nothing happens. It should be a pretty easy issue to fix. I paid for something, it wasn't delivered, so give me a refund, I don't understand why it is taking 5 months and counting.

Is the AFCA (formerly FOS) an appropriate ombudsman to contact regarding this issue?

Thanks advance for any assistance.

[exabytecorp]

Call it whatever you want, I got the resolution I wanted, which is what I should get anyways.

It doesn't matter how many lawyers they have, if they are in the wrong, nothing the lawyers can do.

I didn't have a legal win, it didn't get to that stage, what I have is a win for common sense. Just by threatening legal action, it put a rocket up someone's behind in eBay, so they did their job.

Hope my experience helps someone else who is getting the run around with eBay support. Be assertive. I was prepared to take it to court.

[gutterpunkz05]

Wonder what the reprisal will be, most who make legal threats, without having it forwarded via a lawyer, seem to find their accounts are suddenly restricted.

[exabytecorp]

They restrict accounts of Karen’s who have no legal basis, they just want to make noise.

This obviously do not apply to me, I’m in the right and if I took it to court, I’d win easily, it’s an open and shut case. Paid for something I didn’t receive, therefore I should get a refund, quite simple.

[jellybirddesigns]

Glad you got resolution. You don't have to justify yourself here - although I would only say that usually customer service are hopeless at solving the most basic issues, so it seems your message just got through to the right person at the right time.

[exabytecorp]

I agree, and I expected to be bounced around to a few incompetent people before having to escalate it to get it resolved.

I didn't expect the issue to drag on for more than 5 months though. Being told conflicting information which are provably false. That's just next level incompetence.

One team told me "the refund has been processed already (but the gift card still had a zero balance and I didn't use it after that transaction)", another told me it was never charged at all, the transaction didn't go through. Why would they just make up stuff? I knew those answers were incorrect. The incompetence is just mind boggling, and its all in writing, its just not like they said this to me over the phone, I specifically avoided using the phone, preferring to contact them via live chat and email so everything was in writing.

[jellybirddesigns]

Customer service are notorious for making stuff up. We get a lot of complaints in the forums about the things CS say, but often the information is unreliable or simply untrue.

Part of it, I think, is that the reps are low paid workers in developing countries who most likely have never really used Ebay themselves either as buyer or as seller. They just read from scripts or promise to "escalate" or pass on to the "technical department". Their abilities are pretty limited.

These forums are a huge wealth of knowledge, but gift card hassles are a very rare (if ever) topic of discussion, so not a lot of information/experience on what to do when things go awry.

[springyzone]

I am glad it got resolved.

I don't believe it was somehow a coincidence that the matter was resolved after 5 months, just when you were getting forceful with them and threatening to take things further.

Mind you, I think trying to go to court against ebay would be costlier than the loss of the gift cards. What has probably happened is one of their reps has decided to actually make an all out effort to sort it out instead of fobbing you off. It probably helped that you had all the facts, dates, conversations etc at your fingertips.

I suspect the other reps could have fixed things much faster if you had been able to quote voucher or card number etc. They fobbed you off as they didn't know what to do without that information.

I agree with you that it should have been sorted many months ago, but I also agree with others that you probably made things harder for yourself by not saving the gift card. I don't know if you simply mislaid it or if you got rid of it after using it but it's a lesson to always hold on to things like that till a transaction is totally completed.

[exabytecorp]

I’ve started to record all gift cards I use on eBay. I only pay with gift cards because I get them at a discount.