Warranty - dodgy tactics

[cowabunga438]

Ill try and get this right.

Some sellers are either delaying to get outside 45 days. Or after 45 days are simply refusing to honour their warranty.

This is apparently not a violation of ebays rules. So as a buyer you can't do anything. You have no recourse.

Most sellers are fine. I buy a fair bit of stuff from china and have only one issue.

[cowabunga438]

OK so after six months and 1 day on your two year warranty the seller ignores the warranty.

Also amex has about the most generous third party warranty of all credit cards here.  It also costs money to get credit cards with these privileges.  All you are suggesting is to pay more to some other provider for a third party product insurance.  That is a fairly negative way to look at this issue.

seriously, this isn't that hard.

a few sellers are no honouring their warranty.  The answer is not to find someone else to cop the charge (if you get this off your credit card company then we all just pay in the long run), but to make the sellers actually accountable.

if people know who is doing this then people can avoid the dodgy sellers rather than simply find, and in the long run fund, some other third party product protection scheme.

[cowabunga438]

Microtouchred,

that is certainly an avenue that should be considered.  The window for feedback is too short.  You could even have a second feedback rating purely for post delivery customer care.

[coast_golf]

Where a seller has failed to honour their advertised warranty (or statutory warranty as the case may be) it's usually a simple matter of lodging a claim in the appropriate state administrative tribunal/small claims court.

Most of the time the other party doesn't even appear and although the judgment does not necessarily go to you by default, in almost all cases you will be successful. It costs next to nothing and your application/filing fee (where there is one) is generally included in the judgment amount.

[foxette-in-sox]

Where a seller has failed to honour their advertised warranty (or statutory warranty as the case may be) it's usually a simple matter of lodging a claim in the appropriate state administrative tribunal/small claims court.

Most of the time the other party doesn't even appear and although the judgment does not necessarily go to you by default, in almost all cases you will be successful. It costs next to nothing and your application/filing fee (where there is one) is generally included in the judgment amount.

The seller is in China so complete waste of time & money.

Unfortunately cowabunga,you will have to just put this down to an unpleasant experience & buy from a reputable Australian seller next time or a real shop.I can't see any other option for you & you're flogging a dead horse in this case.

[phorum_junkie*]

If Amex doesn't give you the protection you need then why not get a card that does?

If you have a bank account that provides you with a Visa debit card that will cover you in much the same way as a credit card or you can purchase one of those pre paid Visa cards that you load with cash.

Buyers really have to take responsibility for checking things out properly, a minimum of research, or even asking here before buying, would have told you that you cannot rely on a warranty unless you are buying as a BIN from an Australian registered business and even then you would have to go through Fair Trade to get them to honour it if they refused.

[lyndal1838]

A Visa debit card does not cost anything and you still have Visa protection.  In the case of my bank I can do a chargeback at least up to 9 months after the transaction...have not tried any longer than that.

[the_hawk*]

I think the issue is if you want a life time warrentee go buy it from a shop where you can go pond the counter.

If you believe the guff about long warrentees from ebay sellers you are exactly the customer they want.

I have bought heaps for China based sellers and have had the odd item fail or is total junk when it arrives.

But I look at it as I am taking the risk to save in many cases 80% over buying it from a local shop and I need to accept a few duds along the way.

There are also many items I would never consider buying online like laptops or plasma TVs because the saving verses risk is just too high

[peternt2001]

I agree with you the_hawk

purchasers need to be aware of their buying enviroment . If someone or something requires a pretty strict regulated warranty period, my suggestion would be to buy from a bricks and mortar shop.

if trying to save some money, you have to weigh up the potential of not being covered by a warranty if you purchase from the internet.

it isnt just on ebay that you risk not being covered by a warranty, or from totally misleading claims, look anywhere on the internet and look at the false claims made to get people to purchase products.

even local newspapers carry advertisements for dodgy products making miraculous claims.

an advertising medium such as a television station, newspaper or the internet can not and wont investigate every product before they allow it to advertise with them, and even if problems arise after the product has been purchased the advertising medium wont investigate. if they are so directed by a government agency they may withdraw advertising of certain products.

to me your best bet is instead of spending a heap of time on here fighting a loosing battle, spend the time and contact your local department of consumer affairs and let them know of the faulty product, and if enough people do this, the product may be placed on a ban list of items entering the country 

[cowabunga438]

people seem to missing the cogent issue.

most sellers are honest.  The dodgy ones are stealing from the honest sellers as much as from the buyer.

Rather than expect a third party company to cover your loss (visa Amex etc) all of which have limits themselves, a far better option is a better and more robust feedback system within the selling environment such that these bad sellers can be weeded out.

this would make ebay better and cheaper for all of us.

yes there are risks with buying through eBay.  Should we not wish those risks to be lessened?  It would actually make shopping cheaper for everyone.  For every dollar you have to fork out through a third company protection system the total economic block loses at least another 50% on top of that (the third party protection doesn't come free, we all pay in the end).

Just saying "just get VISA to cover it" is a poor and sub optimal solution.  It's costs the person with the VISA card money to have VISA cover these dodgy sellers.  

Yes, we all understand what the system is at present.  What I find intriguing is that some here seem to be happy that this situation is costing them money.  Really the only people who are happy with the situation is eBay themselves, because as it stands it costs them nothing.

Conversely it actually costs the buyers and sellers who are saying "get VISA to cover it".  They are the ones with the most to lose here.

[cowabunga438]

Mr Hawk, I have maybe bought a 100 items through Chinese online sellers.  lights, light fittings, power tools, wood chippers, blower vacs, GPS, LED fixtures, pole pruners, etc etc.

i had had maybe 4 items requiring post delivery service of some sort.  (Pole pruner needed new starter, chipper drive belt slipping, sensor light not working, card GPS DVD failed).

so about a 4% warranty rate.

only one company didnt satisfy their warranty.  All the others were excellent in post deliver customer service.

so all in all the experience is positive.  However should we allow that one in a hundred company to rip everyone else off?  Or should we look for a better system to stop that?