Return after three months from Australia

[bran8535]

I purchased an iPhone over three months ago and it has now developed a fault which will cost over $300AUD to repair.

The seller in China has requested the phone be returned. As it is outside of eBay’s return policy how do I go about returning the phone and for it be monitored by eBay?

[countessalmirena]

Take the iPhone to an Apple store for assessment to ask if it can be fixed. I’ll bet you ducks to eels that it’s refurbished or had its innards plundered or a fake - in short, that it’s not as described. Get the Apple tech to state this on letterhead (assuming I’m correct).

If you paid by PayPal, you’re covered for 180 days if the item is not as described. You can open a case under PayPal’s Buyer Protection. Bear in mind that PayPal do not cover you for the return postage cost, only for the item - so it’s worth contacting PayPal by phone to see whether the requirement to return the phone for refund can be waived as the cost of tracked postage to China is not commensurate with the item cost - and even better, if it IS a fake iPhone, you would argue with great politeness that the fake shouldn’t be sent through the post and that you intend to destroy the phone upon being refunded.

This is all contingent upon the phone genuinely being not as described. (Neither eBay’s Money Back Guarantee nor PayPal’s Buyer Protection are a product warranty. For that, you need to buy from an authorised Australian seller.

If you paid a price that was less that RRP minus, say, 15%, you probably bought a fake or one that has been gutted of genuine components.

There’s no warranty - zero, zilch - on items bought direct from China, no matter what the listing says. Your seller will try to string you along by any means, to make even a PayPal or chargeback remedy impossible. Get that assessment done by Apple; you can’t do anything until you have evidence that the iPhone is not genuine or otherwise not as described.

Once you have that, we can talk you through your options.