@augelectcentre wrote:
I know and accept what you have written. BUT what if I had not bought and paid for insurance . Then the seller would be responsible for the Australia Warranty Conditions , which would be to refund or repair. This seller does not even acknowledge your requests for his warranty provisions.
Warranties on products are offered above and beyond basic consumer rights / protections, and they are voluntary (to offer, I mean). That is, there is nothing obliging any Australian seller to offer a warranty on anything they sell. They do need to honour any warranties that they offer, and retailers can not deny or defer claims by redirecting consumers to the manufacturer for warranty claims, either, as long as the warranty that is offered is valid (for many items sold on eBay, the warranty offered by the manufacturer is not valid, as many sellers are not authorised retailers).
Consumer protections provide buyers with the right to the seller's choice of refund, repair or replacement for minor problems, or the buyer's choice of refund, repair or replacement for major problems but there is no clearly defined period for these as it very much depends on the item itself, and how reasonable the expectation that it will be free from faults of defects within certain periods of time (for example, it's not reasonable to expect a $5 pair of headphones will be as good quality or last as long as a $500 pair of headphones, therefore the timeframe that the basic consumer protections available for these two products will be very different).
Obviously I don't know the item in question, what the seller's listing stated, whether they did offer a warranty and all that, so I am speaking generally here, but it's important to understand the distinction between warranties and Consumer Rights (in fact, consumer rights can still apply after a warranty has expired).
Re: the Virginia Surety insurance - sellers don't even get a choice over whether that is offered on their listings - if it's an electronic item and is listed as brand new, it just gets added by eBay.
