eBay closed my return and stopped me from contacting customer support

[sirtookie]

Hello I purchased a camera from overseas and it was dead on arrival, eBay encouraged me to return it and pay the $360 freight to send it back. I did all of this on time because we are dealing with an amount of around $5000, I tried to entre the DHL tracking into the eBay form and as I suspected it did not work. I contacted customer support and the guy said dont worry I will do it manually, I then tested the tracking myself and yes it worked so I sent a screen shot to eBay showing it worked. I also sent this to the customer all good I thought. Then eBay suddenly disconnected me from contacting customer support before the allocated time limit was up. Now today the closed the return case over the weekend. Now I have sent the $5000 camera back, eBay will not reimburs me for the freight and will not help me get my money back. I have all the copies and proof that ebay screwed up, I have no choice now but to take action to retrieve my money. I am a 100% feedback high rated buyer and seller. So if eBay treat me like this what are they doing to others.

[sirtookie]

Thanks yes my words do not adiquately explain the situation, Im not asking for anything special but just to be treated correctly by eBay, and there lies the problem eBay do not want to have any thing to do with helping me get my money back $5000 including the original postage from from Canada to Australia. eBay closed the case prematurely because their tracking number form did not work. Customer support wrote me a letter saying "dont worry about I will handle it manually". and since them I have been cut by eBay. The seller has left the package sitting at customs in Canada for three weeks now saying he was away on a trip. Now the seller is saying they need to have the camera fully tested by Mamiya before they decide to give the money back. The seller has my money and the expensive camera and EBAY will not HELP.

[springyzone]

I hope some of the regular sellers on here will have some more ideas on what you can do.

I've never faced anything like this before, all i can suggest is you write down in point form your main concerns and keep trying to ring ebay. impress on them calmly that this is about a $5000 purchase and you need to speak to a supervisor.

If you get nowhere, I do think you will have to keep trying for a chargeback but if all else fails, you might have to try to get it onto the media in some form. Don't underestimate the power of publicity.

[collect247]

OK WOW I just thought it was the postage that you were after but it's the actual $5000 plus the postage.

This isn't good at all,I'm inclined that you should keep trying to contact ebay and ask for the head honcho and demand that they look into it otherwise for that amount of money you should get the media involved,good luck with it.

[digital*ghost]

It does seem like the seller is stalling (I thought maybe they stalled on the pick-up if it was marked as something like merchandise rather than returned goods, because then they'd need to prove to customs that it wasn't a product they bought from overseas in order to not be forced to pay import charges on their own item, but if that was the case I see no reason for the seller not to mention it). I can understand a bit that they might be wary of scams and want to check the the item thoroughly for problems, but I'd think it should be pretty clear to them if the camera is the same one as they sent, so if they are on the level, the inspection may be to determine if it was manufacturer fault or consumer error (Australian businesses actually have the same legal right to do that, because they can refuse a remedy if the fault was through misuse, it's just that eBay and PayPal don't really provide that right to them in their dispute processes, usually).

The chargeback is probably the best option at this point, if available - I'd be inclined to send the seller a message along the lines of saying that I've been as patient as possible considering the kind of money that is involved, through each delay that they have made, and tried to work with them, but that I can't keep waiting for them to help me so if a resolution is not reached by a certain date, a chargeback will be initiated with the bank (I'd only make the date a few days away). 

[melbourneclearance]

Next time if something does not work, get the seller to pay for the return postage. Ebay is very generous with this. Just open a return case and say the item is dead, the seller will then have the option to either pay for the return postage or just refund. If they do not respond within a few days, you can escalate the case to ebay. You will usually win the case unless you have a habit of opening return cases on a regular basis.

[collect247]

Read the OP ebay told him to return it and pay for the return postage lol how generous is that on ebay's behalf lol

[melbourneclearance]

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@collect247 wrote:

Read the OP ebay told him to return it and pay for the return postage lol how generous is that on ebay's behalf lol

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That's the weird thing. I don't understand how that is possible. If the OP had opened an item is defective case then the seller is always required to pay for the return. To get ebay to tell the buyer to pay for the return in those cases the seller needs to have balls of steel and actually get the case escalated, hoping that the buyer has had a long history of returns and ebay would decide in the seller's favour by telling the buyer to pay for the return.

[digital*ghost]

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@melbourneclearance wrote:

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@collect247 wrote:

Read the OP ebay told him to return it and pay for the return postage lol how generous is that on ebay's behalf lol

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That's the weird thing. I don't understand how that is possible. If the OP had opened an item is defective case then the seller is always required to pay for the return. 

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The seller paying return postage is a fairly loose requirement, in that while a seller is officially obliged to pay for return postage, very rarely is it enforced if the seller doesn't do so willingly - partly because it's impossible for the seller to provide labels to international buyers, and partly because eBay's own label creation system is limited when it comes to domestic shipping. For example, my buyers don't get the option to print postage labels via eBay if they open an INAD request, while some other buyers do (I believe in these cases it can depend on what postage services the seller has used in the listing - if an item requires shipping via courier, obviously eBay won't be able to provide a label). 

Also, return shipping costs need to be approved by the seller, which prevents buyers from using unnecessarily expensive options and making the seller pay for it. 

Which puts buyers with genuine issues in a position of paying it themselves and hoping to be reimbursed, or losing the claim (quite a number of buyers have been caught out this way - they don't return the item because the seller hasn't fronted postage costs, and then lose the claim because they didn't return the item).

[melbourneclearance]

I have never accepted an international return, but in domestic return as soon as the seller clicks to accept the defective item return the seller is given a few options of how the seller wants to pay for said return. I don't remember seeing a way to get around that.

Don't international returns get the same screen?

[digital*ghost]

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@melbourneclearance wrote:

I have never accepted an international return, but in domestic return as soon as the seller clicks to accept the defective item return the seller is given a few options of how the seller wants to pay for said return. I don't remember seeing a way to get around that.

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I've never gotten that screen.

Edited to add - it looks like you've selected Australia Post services in your listings (I only checked a few) - that's probably why, ebay can calculate and accomodate return postage labels.