What do I do if item I bought as new is actually very used when I got it?

[solomonseal]

I bought an item as a gift for a friend and it was advertised as Brand New, however when I received it it was actually clearly very used and unsuitable as a gift. I contacted the seller and said I was happy to keep the item for myself but wanted a partial refund. She said "accidents happen" and she must have acidentally listed it as new and to send it back for a refund. What should I do?

Thanks for any advice:)

[thecatspjs]

Oh dear... OP has left further nasty follow up comment for seller

.. I suppose it only reflects the tone of the irresponsible advice received from some of the posters on this thread X-(

All over such a low price item too  😞

[patchoo78]

would immediately offer a full refund including return postage.

The seller had already offered a refund upon return of the item.. The buyer has refused and is insisting on a partial refund and wants to keep the item.

Sellers may chose to offer a partial refund but in no way they are obliged to, especially if the buyer demands one... Even if they did there would be nothing stopping the OP from leaving a Neg anyway

The OP has said that the item is unsuitable to be used for what they want, so why would they want to keep it?

Seller did not deserve that Neg.. IMO

[koalablue12]

Patchoo - some people just seem to WANT to be put on a sellers BBL .. definitely on all of mine, and I asume also on the BBL's of the many many viewers of this post.

[lyndal1838]

patch, the OP bought the item as new, intending to use it as a gift.  Because it is not new she will keep it to use herself.

A partial refund would have been the best solution all round but the way the OP demanded it was a bit unfortunate.

[pandora_z_box_123]

Looking at the original listing .. and it doesn't look like a mistake to me...

The seller has actually gone to the trouble and typed out NEW in the desciption.. How can you make a mistake like this and then continue to send a USED  item to the buyer and still not realise a mistake?

OP request of being HAPPY with a partial refund doesn't sound demanding to me?

A good seller would have offered to pay return postage  or accepted  the buyers "reasonable" request for a partial refund .

[jensmanchester-australia]

I have spoken to the seller involved as they phoned me.

Firstly they were willing to pay the return postage which would have been only a couple of dollars.

According to the seller the buyer kept changing their story and was point blank refusing to send the item back giving a whole range of reasons why they wouldn't including that they were unable to go to a Post Office. This seems strange considering the buyer is currently selling items on eBay.

As the story kept changing the seller wanted the item back as they were not convinced that the buyer was being totally truthful about the situation. A full refund was offered on return of the item but the buyer just refused to return it.

There are always two sides to a story and it was very interesting to hear what the seller had to say.

[lyndal1838]

As you say Jen, it is always interesting when we get both sides of the story.  So often they are so totally different that it could be two different transactions.

[thecatspjs]

Thats all good and well, yes there are always two sides, but it does not change that the carp advice given by some posters on this thread was based on nothing  ... the OP never mentioned return post costs or otherwise, they wanted to keep the item.