eBay does not honour their Money Back Guarantee

[philmax-ibrvtv]

On the 17SEP2021 I made a significant purchase on eBay of over 1000 USD. (CL060861285RU) I made sure to use PayPal as I was aware of the MBG policy that requires this to be used. Long story short my item arrived In country (Australia) on the 6th of October, where it was retained by customs which is in accordance with our customs policy as any item over 1000 dollars requires customs fees to be payed.

However I first became aware of an issue when I reached out to customs myself on the 19th of October asking to pay my required import duties. The customs officer notified me that they didn't have the parcel yet so he couldn't proceed and I should contact AusPost. I raised an inquiry for a missing item and  contacted Auspost on the 22nd of October, I was notified that they also didn't have the parcel and closed my inquiry, also informing me that I would be required to contact the seller to launch an investigation Via Russian Post.

I attempted to contact the Seller who I had not heard from since the 17th of September to no avail, unable to proceed I launched a claim as required via eBay on the 01 of November.  On the 06th of November I received an email back from eBay stating they had closed the case in my favour and pending approval from the High Value items team. 

Two Weeks passed and I had not received any contact from eBay or a refund so on the 21NOV2021 I reached out again to eBay asking what had happened, I was notified that I had been denied a refund because I was refusing to pay customs fees. This was perplexing has I had already made clear  that I had tried to pay these fees but I couldn't because the parcel cannot be located. 

I appealed this decision soon after stating I could show them Evidence of my contact with Customs and AusPost, however I was reassured this would not be needed. On the 24NOV2021 Ebay Closed my case in the sellers favour notifying me again that I should pay the customs duty or the item will be shipped back to the seller and on top of that I should contact the seller resolve my issue. 

In conclusion, when one is buying from eBay you are at high risk of losing money even if you follow all of eBays guidelines and policy. eBays customer service does not read what you send them and will just look at the tracking information and conclude that is good enough for their investigation. 

[jellybirddesigns]

I really hope this item turns up 😞 It could be that there is such a huge backlog of items that they just haven't gotten to it yet. 

I think there definitely seems to be risks when buying over the $1000 threshold, mainly because because of all the additional layers of handling that's required once it reaches our shores.

It's so incredibly frustrating that cases are closed in this manner and are simply looked at in black and white terms.

[gutterpunkz05]

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@philmax-ibrvtv wrote:

I agree, I've worked my way up to senior customs officers so far. Just upsetting that eBay didn't honor their money back guarentee when I'm within their policy if they just read my evidence they would  understand.

Also I feel like this is the responsibility of the sender to do further investigations? 

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Normally the exporter/seller is responsible for the item clearing customs for export, in this case Russia, which has been done.  It is the importers/buyers  responsibility for the item clearing customs import for country of receival.

Hopefully the customs unspecifed reason,  only relates to  covid delays in processing, but the wording of tracking is concerning.

[philmax-ibrvtv]

It's rather concerning, this is frustrating for all those involved. I'm out of pocket and so is the sender potientally. If the item is lost its no longer a customs clearance issue and that's when Russian Post needs to launch an investigation. At this point its confirmed by all regulatory bodies in Australia  that it's not a customs clearance issue no matter what the tracking states. 

[jellybirddesigns]

I'm wondering if a "camera" was really sent in the first place.

OP - can you give us the item number so we can take a look at the seller.

OP/gutterpunkz - when the wording of ebay tells the seller that the buyer is "refusing" to pay duties, there's nothing the seller is obliged to do. I know this is not the case in this situation, but this is what the seller is reading on their side and there's nothing the seller can actually do about it.

OP - I wouldn't necessarily be communicating the situation with Paypal. Let this play out first before you get to that stage. And if PP fails, then approach your CC company if that's how you funded the whole thing.

[philmax-ibrvtv]

Are you after the item number or the order number? 

This is the order number 03-07614-71990. 

[twyngwyn]

we can't see the orders, so we need the item # please

[papermoon.lady]

I think she meant the item number because with the item number we can find the seller if we search for sold listings (advanced search).

[philmax-ibrvtv]

403136063069 This should be the item number, sorry for the confusion. 

[philmax-ibrvtv]

Looks Like the items page is no longer available 

[jellybirddesigns]

I couldn't get into the sold listing information itself, and can't see anything out of the ordinary on the surface but.......my concern would be that this is a seller with very low feedback (7), who suddenly comes onto Ebay to sell one single $4500+ camera. From Russia.

Personally, that would have raised some red flags. Don't know how the other forum members feel, but that's why I was wondering in my earlier post if they had even sent the "camera", or something else, which is why it had gone into a Customs black hole.