I purchased a fully working iPhone 5S but recieved a tampered with, not working iPhone 5.

[glassr777]

Where is buyer protection? EBay only looked at the last few messages between seller and me. They made an arbitrary decision NOT based on facts. I fully inspected this phone tonite. I sent this message to seller.

Quote... do you want you 10 gigs of data back? Someone did a glass only repair, left a screw loose in the front camera which shorted out the electrics. The screen and LCD were not glued only double sided tape on ends and is separated, consequently the ribbon was damaged in the process. The screw which fell out when I opened it to replace the battery was the front camera. This is a non-working and has not worked since your repair iPhone and it is only good for parts. You told me this was a working iPhone, it is not. I will get a better sense of you when I read the texts and messages on the data. End quote.

[padi*0409]

I assume you opened a case with eBay's MBG and that failed, so try Paypal's dispute process.

But if you hadn't opened the phone up and messaged the seller to say you'd done that you would probably have won a case for "item not as described" through Paypal.

But now that you've admitted tampering with it to the seller, he could claim that the phone is not in the condition that it was when you received it.

It's still worth a try through Paypal but you must sign up for their "limited return postage offer" before opening the dispute otherwise you will have to pay for return postage.

[padi*0409]

Just to add, you should not have put this in your message to the seller:-

 "I will get a better sense of you when I read the texts and messages on the data. "

That sounds like threatening behaviour from you and could easily put the seller's back up.....

[enigmabear]

When the correct procedure is followed,ebay side with the buyer in 99.9% cases

Curious if this came from a seller based in China ?  (if so, most likely a fake phone)

[padi*0409]

Wot's this bear ????

I thought it was "The early bird catches the worms" not "The early bear catches the worms"........

I think the OP might have shot themself in the foot with the message to the seller though.............and tinkering without thinking.

[enigmabear]

I'm usually up at 3-4 most mornings but I'm having a late start today so online early 

[countessalmirena]

glassr777,

I'm not quite sure what to say. Ay, ay, ay... it seems that you said too much in the messages between you and the seller.

All you needed to say was "This phone is not working. I want a full refund."

All you needed to do was (if the seller didn't respond appropriately and resolve the issue by agreeing to your returning the item and giving you a full refund) to open a case in the Resolution Centre, stating that the item was significantly not as described. You could have said, "Phone was listed as being in working condition. The phone is not working."

You didn't need to say anything else.

In fact, anything else would have been unnecessary.

Worse still, if you said that you took the phone apart to see why it wasn't working, you shot yourself in the foot because now you've as much as admitted to tampering with the phone. If you had to take the phone apart to see what was wrong, the intelligent thing to do would have been to have said nothing (as long as you put the phone back together exactly as you'd received it); if you'd wanted to say anything about it, something like "Upon examination of the phone, I established that it was not functioning and I could see exterior evidence that a botched repair job had been done by presumably the seller."

Saying too much may have lost you your change of a refund.

HOWEVER... are you absolutely certain that the phone was listed as "working"? If it was listed in the category "For parts or not working", then you would not have had a chance for a refund.

[padi*0409]

Countessa, I get the feeling that in the previous messages to the seller, the OP might have said something along the same lines as the message they've quoted here, and that may be the reason eBay ruled in favour of the seller.

It seems very strange to me that with the way the MBG nearly always favours buyers over sellers, that they ruled against the buyer in this case.

[collect247]

I can't believe it a win for the seller,sorry OP but you must have said/done something out of this world to loose this one?

[enigmabear]

*If* I am understanding the post correctly, the person 'repairing' the screen botched it up and the phone kicked the bucket

If a repair was needed on arrival, it should have been contact seller time then, rather than someone fiddle with it, destroy it totally , send a smart message to the seller and then still expect to be refunded 

As I said in my reply, ebay side with the buyer almost every single time (even in cases where the seller has all the proof in the world that their buyer (not talking about the OP) is lying through their teeth...ebay reward said buyer)

Very very very rare indeed ebay does'nt jump as soon as a buyer says jump