Ebay gives refund because item was late

[pmk_comp]

I'm at a loss here.

Ebay has just refunded in full (without asking for the item to be returned) because the item was "LATE" acording to ebay's schedule "Get it Free & Fast by ???"

Despite the attached note saying delivery might take longer in peak periods, a buyer complained that it was "late" according to ebay's schedule and demanded a full refund.

Ebay obliged without asking for the buyer to send it back. I appealed but ebay dismissed my appeal.

What gives? So I can order an item on ebay, say it's late, get a full refund and get away with fraud?

I can't afford to give away my products.

What can I do?

[tall_bearded01]

I know.

Was a first draft only, put together so people can get an idea as to how to fomulate a complaint.

Because I'm not really good with written communication, would have taken at least another day of tweeking to get it right

[found-in-australia]

Antonios7529 claims "When a buyer buy a product from a local seller logicaly he expects it with 8 days, if he was waiting for 2-3 weeks then it is clear that the seller was not ok."

I get the impression that your expression "local" means buying from an Australian buyer buying from a seller within Australia. If so, on what basis do you come up with 8 days as being a "logical" expectation for Australia Post to have delivered a parcel to an Australian address. The majority of parcels are delivered within that time. I post all parcels within one business day of payment, but I get a small precentage of parcels that take 10 to 14 days to get to Australian buyers, and very occasionally something will travel slower than that.

I am based in Albury and used to get a percentage of South Australian parcels take up to 14 days to arrive with buyers. Since Australia Post took the time to close the Albury sorting and send local mail to Canberra foir sorting, the percentage of slow deliveries into South Australia has dropped, but quite a number of parcels / large letters into Central Victoria now take 8 to 12 days, when that region used to usually take 1 to 2 business days for delivery for the majority of mail.

My average delivery into Western Australia would take 7 to 8 days, which means that a decent percentage of Western Australia mail would take longer than your "logical" 8 day expectation. I can not guarantee that even the majority of mail would arrive within your so called logical delivery time, I can guarantee that all parcels will be in the post within one business day of payment, as that is the only part of the shipping process that I actually have control over. If I am either penalised or made responsible for the speed of Australia Post's delivery of parcels after they have been lodged, then my business model goes to hell in a handbasket, and more remote regional sellers may as well be banned from the site, because they can have a substantially higher percentage of parcels that take 14 plus days to get delivered than I do (particularly into Queensland for some reason).

[appletreeaaa]

Under Australian business law when an item is delivered to Australia Post or to a carrier the ownership of the item changes from the seller to the buyer so if the item is delivered late ,  it is actually the buyer who is the owner of the item and they should be trying to find out exactly why the item is lost or delayed in transit .

In the past   many Australian firms would not give the buyers a refund if they could prove they sent the item and the buyer never insured or registered the item .

Buyers have no legal right to receive a refund if they receive their item  late  because under Australian business law , the item in transit is actually  legally the buyers  and the seller has no control if Australia Post is running late with deliveries or a courier doesn't deliver on time .

Buyers who don't buy on  protected sites like Ebay should always make sure that their purchase is  fully insured and and registered because if the item is lost in transit the item does belong to the buyer and not the seller .

[pmk_comp]

Thank you one and all for your input into this issue. I'm reassured that I'm not losing my mind and that it was the wrong thing for ebay to do.

There have been some very good suggestions and ideas which I will take onboard.

UPDATE:

I've called eBay twice to complain about the issue. The first phone call said that I would receive a response in 24-48 hours. A week later I made the second phone call. I mentioned that while I was on hold (for the 45 minutes) that I had just completed a complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman and made a complaint to ACORN.

I received an email a few hours later saying "I've escalated your report to our upper management and i'm glad to inform you that your appeal has been granted. Please allow 7 - 10 business days for us to process the refund in to your account."

So I don't know if upper management has any common sense or it was the threat of the FSO that turned it around. But either way, it appears as though it might be sorted.

Again, I would like to thank you all for your input. It was most valuable and it highlighted how little I know about this omnivorous beast called eBay.

[cq_tech]

I'll bet my left one that it was the threat of involving the FOS that caused eBay to back down.

Seems we finally have an Australian regulatory body which actually has teeth (and uses them).

[aps1080]

I think you might be right.

A couple,of stories where mention of the FOS has achieved results.

[designers*n*more]

That is extremely harsh. It' was posted the next "business day". Ebay is becoming a joke with their ridiculous policies. I sell mostly second hand items, some are new things that were just never worn or used, but I'm dreading the 180 days to return stuff. Ebay claims it's to bring it in line with retailers who allow 6 month returns (not sure where they get that from as most retailers like Target, Kmart,Dick Smith, JB HiFi etc mainly offer a 30 day return policy). This stupid policy of theirs is going to be a nightmare. Ie person buyers a second hand item, where's it a few times, decide they don't like, or worse spill something on it and try to return a few months down the track. What a joke!

[duck---dodgers]

I can just see it now, the item description field will be clogged with T&C's to protect sellers against stupidity.