My mother purchased a swing set ( outdoor for kids) brand new from a seller on ebay. We checked his feedback and he seemed to have very good feedback 99.5 and trust worthy.
The swing set arrived 2 days after purchase , so we decided to set it up for the children , the box appeared to have been resealed and not brand new. The slide had a crack on the top where the child would sit. The holes did not match up for the slide as well as the teeter board . Parts had been put together that were not meant to be as well as parts missing. And the plastic white parts on the side did not appear to be new they looked rusty/dirty , the bag and box that had the nuts and bolts was torn open.
We took photo's of all damage and how the holes did not match and sent them to the seller that same day it had arrived.
He replied and said he would refund the postage cost $50.00 and send us the missing parts as well as replace the damaged ones , this was 4 weeks ago or more now.
We left the swing up as he had said he would send the missing parts ect. and my son who is 5 was swinging on the swing and the chain snapped, my son is very small and not heavy, and then noticed when all 3 small children are on the swing the top bar bends and wabbled..... it states that 238kgs in weight on the swing and that 5 can play on it at a time.
Since then no contact , no replaced parts , no refund and he has now put up that he is " Out of stock and will get more in on the 15/12/2012 ".
He also stated it was :Approval CE certificate and meet those safety standards , but nothing on the box , swing or instructions to say it was Safety standard of Australia. The company on the instructions is a UK company and it does not exist , the url is not there . On the box it has a picture of a Australian map with a kangaroo but where it says company name it was left blank. It also says its Made in P.R.C on the box. On the box the address it was sent from is a PO BOX.
He is now selling the same swing set on "Gum Tree" and says he has more than 10 available.
My mother put in a paypal claim twice since its happened , he again offered a refund of postage and replace damaged/missing parts and asked for photo's to be sent. My mother accepted but again no reply since photo's were sent this was over a week ago.
He has not given us a address for us to send back the swing set so its now all in its box and has not replied to our emails.
We have now had to contact our bank and send photo's to the bank as well as paypal and Australia Consumer affairs to try and get our money back.
And now others are having the same issue with the seller with swing sets as well as other items as of his feedback since we purchased it.
I now have 3 very sad little boys who were looking forward to a swing set for christmas , instead now I have no money to go buy one for them and I am concerned that we will not get our money back.
As a buyer I am angry about the drawn out wait with paypal over the issue and having now to contact our bank and consumer affairs to try and attempt to get it sorted..... He is trying to draw out the process so we cannot get our money back and its wrong.
