Scammed and seller won't refund - no recourse in eBay

[souraji]

Seller had advertised a product (LED light with Motion sensor), item location in Australia.

It arrived within a couple of days, however it was a basic light with no motion sensor. When I wrote to him, he asked for pics which I sent. Then he went quiet.

I opened a item not as described and return request.  So he agreed to the return, refused to pay postage and on top of that, gave an overseas return address (to which shipping is pretty expensive).

eBay does not have a place where I can return this. He is working the system.

Should I close the return and open a case on PayPal? Or what else can I do?

[tazzieterror]

Further to digi's reply above, because the seller has messaged you through eBay with the updated return address, you can ask eBay to take a look at that message and use that address when they issue you with a return label. It's not offical policy, but it's happened a few times with me where a different address has been needed, or the seller hasn't kept their details up to date.

Regarding "...I tried to contact eBay CS but still haven't been able to...", if you're using the online chat and selecting a reason to contact them that gives you "No one is available right now", just keep selecting a different reason until you find one that puts you through - it won't make any difference and they'll transfer you through if whoever does answer you isn't able to handle the particular issue.

Online chat is great because you'll be emailed a transcript afterward which can be used to later prove any advice you've been provided or hold eBay to a particular resolution promised.

[souraji]

@tazzie terror and great advice from all above. Finally managed to contact eBay custormer service -- it turned out the problem I'd been having not being able to contact them was my own stupid fault... I've got adblockers (and shutup) running that prevent any pop ups (and shutup turns off all commenting etc) and the chat wassn't popping up. I assumed that they didn't have resources. Once that was sorted out managed to get in touch with a human.

Beleive it or not, after I outlined the case, and asked the question if eBay will provide the label, her second message was Yes ebay will provide it. So things are looking bright. I am waiting for her label now and she said I'd have it within the day. Then I'll send it back.

I'll post once more after the thing has hopefully cleared. Meanwhile I visited a real light shop and got the light I needed, and a whole load of life advice from the knowledgeable (in everything but one area) salesperson.

I'd like to reiterate that coming on this community forum has been a tremendous help and I appreciate all the time you take to help a fellow. I've read many reports that there are a lot of trolls in the eBay community, but I've found that not to be the case. Good on you.

[souraji]

Just a follow up post on my last post:

So eBay sent me the return label, and I sent the item back. Item reached the seller, and I messaged him if he can issue the refund. After a couple of days he came back with: "Could you send tracking number?", when, in fact, the tracking number was right in the message that I sent him and it was in the return case as well, and it said delivered when you opened up the item. I pointed that out and he said that he had to "check asap"  after another couple of days and went quiet.

After a further few days, I figured that he wasn't going to do anything, so I contacted eBay again, via chat (yes , adblockers disabled, and shutup off) and told them the case again. They checked the case and refunded immediately.

If not for this forum I'd have lost at least my return shipping.

The seller, and numerous others, still have the same/similar deceptive ads up and running. The listings have keywords like "motion", "PIR," "sensor," "microwave" or other words, but strongly believe that you will get a plain old light with no motion detection/sensor at all. And then they will try to refund you 50 cents so you can keep the largely useless light. I guess it works on most people as they are not stupid like me to waste 2 weeks of their life on something that costs less than $50... Anyway, I'll waste a bit more of my time and post the whole thing on my blog... hoping it will be useful to someone else

Thanks again guys for your support and bless you all

[tazzieterror]

Thanks for the update, and good to hear you received your refund.

For future reference (and hopefully you never need to return a purchase again), as soon as the tracking is showing an item as being delivered, or even attempted at being delivered, eBay will issue a refund. There's no need to wait for a seller to process it or even acknowledge receipt of it - eBay will step in and refund you if you ask.

I've had the odd seller drag their feet at every step of the return process before, so have done this a couple of times.