Misleading toilet roll add. People fall for this, but apparently i may not win the case if escalated

[from_mum_2_mum]

I refused to panic buy & stack up rolls and now pay the hefty price because of my duty of care.

Some shameless toilet paper seller is advertising rolls misleadingly. I called ebay to see if they can do anything to stop this before more people fall victim like myself, but it seems like they can't do much due to the cleverly placed ad. On top of that, the customer representative thinks i may not get a refund if escalated. 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/254538369953

First of all the seller put a pic of a whole pack and put a price that resembles the price of a whole pack like other honest sellers. At a glance once would naturally think $16.95 is a price of a pack (where in Australia would you sell 1 roll for that much it just doesn't make sense). She described it as 1 roll in the description and added a picture of the 1 roll but cleverly cropped it in an angle and put it in certain way so it looks like an 'australian made' label or some sort of 'Australian made' parcel pack (you wouldn't notice this is a toilet paper if you don't zoom - well so many victims didn't notice it - including myself. The ebay representative had to tell me few times & made me zoom before i realised that's a picture of a roll). Seller also  cunningly opted for a no refund policy.

30% review apparently doesn't do anything to stop this seller. If only she puts a decent 1 roll picture with no label covering it or in an angle as the main picture, i bet $100, not one single person in their right mind will click and buy. Yet ebay thinks this is okay. I'm just in disbelief.

[from_mum_2_mum]

I think i might have a chance to argue this with seller & Ebay -  thank you for your clever spotting! I replied to seller this morning and stated it's not BRAND NEW unopened in its original packaging. She should have picked 'NEW' rather than Brand new. Fingers crossed.. waiting game now. Can't thank you enough  (regardless of what the outcome might be).

[from_mum_2_mum]

Um, it's $22 including postage. As of this morning i have spent $18 just on postage alone (return costs $9). What a bummer...

Agreeing with you springy, imho Ebay needs to assess whether buyers feel they have been rorted & tricked. if the answer for a $22 roll (inc. postage) is unanimously yes, then EBAY should look twice. At the end of the day a good shopping experience should be where both sellers and buyers are happy with the price paid. I pointed this out to the customer representative - to check at all the reviews but it didn't seem to matter.

Happy social distancing day(s)

[imastawka]

What's this return postage cost?

Did you open a case for item not as described?

If so, the seller has to pay that postage if they want their item back.

Otherwise they just refund you and you get to keep it.

[lyndal1838]

Did you open a dispute before sending it back?

Did you send it to the address given to you by ebay?

Did you get a return postage label from the seller?

I am guessing not or you would have mentioned it here.

If you have already posted it back you have probably spent all that money and will not even have the very expensive dunny roll.

[imastawka]

Which the seller can then re-sell to another unsuspecting silly buyer.

Talk about just throwing money in the gutter.

[padi*0409]

Stawks and lyndal, if it is the case that the OP has returned the bog-roll off their own bat (and expense) to the seller, then I'm sorry but the MBG process is not hard to follow at all, and for the life of me I can't understand why so many members coming to the boards make the same darned mistake and lose everything.

[springyzone]

I had another look and feedback is now down around 25%.

I think there are 2 possible problems with the ads.

First is some buyers were obviously under the impression they were buying a pack.

But with others, it is possible they knew it was one roll but bought out of, I don't know, maybe panic,maybe they had genuinely run out of TP, but they felt it was price gouging. Which it clearly was in my opinion.

As the others have said though, if you open an ebay claim for item not as described (Not new in original packaging etc), you don't post the item back, you wait to find out the outcome of your claim and if it is upheld, you are refunded your money. If the item is to be sent back, the seller would need to supply a shipping label and at $9, might not bother. If you have sent it back off your own bat, without following ebay procedure, you may have done your dough, I am sorry to say. Keep your post office receipts though and go ahead and open an item not as described claim now if you haven't done so yet.  Worth a try. You may at least get your original money back.

One thought that may cheer you-and the sellers here may be able to clarify-but I seem to recall reading that if a seller's rating fell below a certain level, they might have trouble with their ebay account. I would imagine this seller will have a few claims made against them in a short time. Not every buyer will open a claim but some may.

[imastawka]

I get the impression it's a hacked account.

No activity for a year, then this.

[from_mum_2_mum]

 I did open a dispute and called Ebay customer service representative named Melanie. She thinks i will not have a chance in disputing this and suggested that i return the item (myself) as soon as possible before the case is escalated. Once it's escalated and concluded that i am at fault then there is no chance in getting my money back at all. So i opt for the $9 returning item myself - per Ebay's call centre suggestion (sighs)...

I also used the address shown by Ebay when i opened a dispute & requested refund. Customer service said this is okay (eventhough seller said no refund - hence to return label etc), apparently as soon as i lodged a refund request, the address is shown at the bottom,,

[from_mum_2_mum]

It is not hard to follow, I did the procedure and called a customer service to notify her regarding this (to prevent other victims). She suggested i return item myself voluntarily before the case is escalated.