Seller sold faulty hard drive

[adsl2vv0]

I took a chance on buying a high quality second hand computer hard drive after the seller gave a glowing report about its condition in his ad. The report was basically a pack of lies designed to con someone into buying the drive for $185 plus $15 postage so all up it cost me $200. After realising the drive was faulty (it wouldn't initialize no matter what I did) I took it to a local computer store & it was diagnosed as 'dead' after the technician couldn't get it to show up in order to check it. I have a report from the computer store stating that the drive is 'dead'.

If I ask for a refund should that include postage? If the seller asks me to post it back, which I'm happy to do, should I pay for this or the seller? Seeing as I'm sure that the seller knew the drive was faulty am I better off asking for a refund hoping that the seller does the right thing or opening a PayPal dispute?

[digupatin]

Using the Help & Contact link at the top of your page open an INAD (Item not as described) dispute with eBay.

The seller is responsible for paying return postage (Including tracking) fees.

You can email the seller first asking them to send you a return postage label and see what happens.

[adsl2vv0]

Thanks for the reply. It's been so long since something like this has happened I wasn't sure what to do. I've requested a refund detailing the issues I had with the drive and I told the seller that I'm prepared to post it back if he pays the postage. Hopefully he'll do the right thing. If he claims there was nothing wrong with the drive then eBay will have to decide whose right. I'm pretty knowledgable when it comes to computers and the disk was sent faulty. It never occurred to me that someone could lie the way the seller did because doing something like that would be unthinkable to me. I'd forgotten how low some people are prepared to sink for money.

[digupatin]

9 out of 10 people, I've found, are basically honest. It's number 10 you have to watch out for 🙂

Good luck with your claim, it sounds like you shouldn't have any problms with receiving a full refund for the computer and postage costs.

[adsl2vv0]

The seller replied quickly agreeing to refund me on returning the drive including the cost of postage back so he's doing the right thing. He claims he didn't know it was faulty and that he erased the drive just before sending it and maybe this damaged it. I can't see how. The main thing is that he's doing the right thing. I'll never buy another second hand hard drive again! It's too risky.

[polly.the.cat]

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@adsl2vv0 wrote:

The seller replied quickly agreeing to refund me on returning the drive including the cost of postage back so he's doing the right thing. He claims he didn't know it was faulty and that he erased the drive just before sending it and maybe this damaged it. I can't see how. The main thing is that he's doing the right thing. I'll never buy another second hand hard drive again! It's too risky.

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Er, hang on mate, don't count your chickens, till there hatched.  You claimed that the Seller "lied" to you about the true nature of the hard drive. Be careful, you are sending him back your only true evidence, plus a copy of the report from the pc shop.

You are paying the return post, with Tracking, or signature on pickup from AP, how do you know for a fact that the Seller is going to make all things right ????

Photo everything you have, and l mean everything, label address, what the hard drive came in etc, etc,   l would still take the advice given to you & call the ebay help line and run things past them. All it costs you is a local call fee, or have them call you.

Better to be safe than sorry, you sound like you have been through enough already, do not make it worse for yourself/

Pre warned, is Pre armed. (evidence).

Hope things work out for you. Get the Seller to send you a Return Label to print out attatch to the parcel, costing you nothing to send back. Did you check the Sellers Feedback & DSR Score ???

[adsl2vv0]

Thanks for the advice. I have his written communication promising to refund me on return of the drive including the cost of posting it back. I'll be sending it signature required and I'm packing it in the same boxes he sent it in so I'll take photos of that. I sent him a photo of the computer shop's diagnostic report and I have the original. If he attempts to renege & doesn't refund me presumably eBay or PayPal can get involved. He has one recent negative feedback where he auctioned the same drive and it only reached $127 so he refused to sell it. His feedback is 97.5%. Do I think he knew that the drive wasn't right? He knew. Erasing a drive wouldn't damage it. He hoped some person that didn't know much about computers would buy it and think he damaged it and then maybe claim under warranty with the manufacturer (I'm not prepared to stuff around doing that).

[treasure.coin.chest]

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@adsl2vv0 wrote:

Thanks for the advice. I have his written communication promising to refund me on return of the drive including the cost of posting it back. I'll be sending it signature required and I'm packing it in the same boxes he sent it in so I'll take photos of that. I sent him a photo of the computer shop's diagnostic report and I have the original. If he attempts to renege & doesn't refund me presumably eBay or PayPal can get involved. He has one recent negative feedback where he auctioned the same drive and it only reached $127 so he refused to sell it. His feedback is 97.5%. Do I think he knew that the drive wasn't right? He knew. Erasing a drive wouldn't damage it. He hoped some person that didn't know much about computers would buy it and think he damaged it and then maybe claim under warranty with the manufacturer (I'm not prepared to stuff around doing that).

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Well, Your Honour, Based on the facts as outlayed before the Jury, your Seller of course "knew" the status of the item in question. His pre-Sale or Pre- Sending item Bench Test, would have showed that the Hard Disk Drive had "Died"  through one form or another.

97.5%  is a very low Feedback Score to Buy from, you need 99.5% to 100% to really feel more comfortable.

The mention of the prior Auction attempt "Sale"  would have rung Huge Church Bells in my head, and l would just hit the Back Button on my keyboard.  Safest thing to do.  There will "always" be another offer or deal later on, after all this is ebay.

l would still call ebay Help & Contact, and run things through them.  They may just have some more information about your beaut Seller, than you might know, on their screen.

If it walks like a Duck, quacks like a Duck, cr*#@&'s like a Duck, then most likely it is a Duck.

If it looks like a HDD, does not turn on, refuses to work like a HDD, and accomplishes NOTHING, then it most likely is NOT  a unusable HDD.  (quack, quack.)

[treasure.coin.chest]

Sorry, it should read ...likely is NOT a USABLE HDD. (quack, quack.)

[phorum_junkie*]

For that amount of money I woukd only return the item aftyer having opened an refund request stating item not as described as the reason.

If you lay out the money for the return without being told to wait for a return postage label from the seller then you have no way of forcing the seller to pay the return cost, ebay will not help you because you did not use their process. I would also only return to an address provided through the dispute process. The seller mau be honest, they may not be, you are riskong a lot of money assuming the first.