Not able to leave feedback

[deadking75]

Purchased a rather expensive fiberglass reproduction bumper, instead of 3-4 weeks it took over 2 months, i waited patiently and it finally shows up and its junk, it too thin and fragile where the mounting points are, they trimmed it back too far, to the point where i wont even be able to drill a complete mounting hole, it needs strengthening and modifying, i couldn't even resell it locally fot 1/2 what i paid for it.

As it is, if a bumper like this WAS put on someone's car , it would break to bits in a short amount of time and could ultimately go UNDER the person car while driving and  causing an accident.

So its taken so long i can no longer do any proper Ebay dispute or leave any bad feedback to warn other people that this item is of poor quality not suitable for road driving cars.

I have only left bad feedback once ever, over a decade ago,i feel leaving honest feedback for this item is very important and i dont have the option.

What can i do?

[papermoon.lady · Accepted solution]

If you used PayPal to pay, you can still open a dispute in PayPal (you have 180 days since the date of purchase).

[springyzone · Accepted solution]

Feedback is well and good but getting your money back is even better. Do as papermoon lady suggests and open a paypal claim on the basis the item was not as described/fit for purpose.

Just for the future-if you order something where the estimated due date is eg 3-4 weeks away and it does not arrive in that time, don't continue to wait and wait till your opportunity to open ab ebay claim has expired. You can give it a week's grace on the basis the post isn't always 100% on time but after that, just open an item not received claim with ebay.

[chameleon54]

The OP reads like they purchased the item OS. With COVID a lot of items ( especially large ones ) are being sent by sea instead of air mail, resulting in major delays. The OP was being reasonable waiting awhile for the item under current COVID conditions. 

Personally I wouldnt buy a fibreglass bumper. It would never save anyone or anything in an accident, but I suppose if its for a rare or classic car, sometimes you have to just make do with whatever you can find.

Maybe ebay should be extending the time buyers have to leave feedback in the current COVID postal delay environment.

[springyzone]

You are perfectly right and postage may be delayed in the current situation.

I think the trouble though is that buyers really need to work within ebay guidelines, so if an item is listed with an ETA of a certain date, then buyers just cannot afford to wait around for too long. If they do, they will miss the boat as far as making an ebay claim if an item is not received and they won't be able to give feedback either.

So the ETA really needs to be in the ball park or else, ebay could perhaps extend the claim time from 30 to 60 days and the feedback time to 3 months. That would definitely give a bit more leeway.

But if ebay doesn't do that, I can't see any way around the fact that buyers can't afford to wait too long after the ETA. A week or two perhaps, but not months. When they wait much longer, some of them come on the boards to tell us about missing out eg on being able to make a claim, give feedback etc, and they are usually told they should have followed the ebay guidelines.

[gutterpunkz05]

Hi there,  is it a bumper, or a replacement front panel/foil,  the fibreglass type used on racing cars etc, and if so is it supposed to be fitted using additional body clips.

[papermoon.lady]

I thought the item was from OS too, chamaleon54. but the seller seems to be based (and registered) in Australia - with 95.2% positive fb (not including the fb the OP cannot give any more, or it would be even worse). Other buyers complain about delays and cheap quality.

I would not exclude (I actually suspect) that he gets the items from OS and that he had possibly run out of the item the OP had bought, so he had to wait for it to be in stock again.

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@chameleon54 wrote:

The OP reads like they purchased the item OS. With COVID a lot of items ( especially large ones ) are being sent by sea instead of air mail, resulting in major delays. The OP was being reasonable waiting awhile for the item under current COVID conditions. 

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[davewil1964]

You are correct. A bumper bar hasn't been made of steel since the mid-80s. Any claim that a fibreglass bumper bar is not fit for purpose would be a claim that no bumper bars manufactured in the last 35 years are fit for purpose.

Chamo - a bumper bar is designed to protect the car from damage in (very) relatively low impacts. Nothing to do with the occupants, except that modern (fibreglass or similar) ones contain airbag sensors.

[deadking75]

no it came from sydney, and postage isnt the issue it showed up  earlier than the courier company said by 4 days, this issue is its poorly made.

[deadking75]

its for a commodore, its hasnt been drilled or test fitted and its very fragile, im not even sure how you are supposed to drill the blind holes that attach to the fenders