Purchase problems

[cyrion]

I have become recently very aware of the limitations of ebay's returns and feedback policies which I believe should be reviewed and amended to enable buyers to report problems with purchases for a  longer period than is currently allowed. Having purchased an item on a 'buy now' basis we didn't immediately use the product and found that when we did we were unable to report an issue with the fitting as it was outside of its guaranteed returns period. We contacted the seller who requested a photo of the issue and who promptly agreed to send out a replacement. The replacement was never sent and the seller subsequently failed to respond to further messages. Ebay's website did not allow for any failure of the product to be reported or for feedback to be provided. This is an unacceptable policy as faults do not often develop as quickly as the returns policy allows and it would seem that sellers are afforded the priviledge of avoiding responsibility for failure of the product.  

It would be useful to know if other purchasers have experienced similar problems and what action if any ebay are proposing to address this.

[plpmr]

eBay gives a buyer 30 days from delivery to open a case which they won't change as their buyer protection is not a product guarantee and regarding feedback -

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/leaving-feedback-sellers/leaving-feedback-sellers?id=4007&st=3&po...

If you paid by PayPal they give you 180 days from payment to open a case.

[justinsmith2014]

I agree with you 100%.

As a minimum E Bay should allow feedback for as long as the guarantee of the item (30 days min).

In fact I have argued this before on here.

In my view good sellers have nothing to fear from it and, in fact, it would work to their advantage by :

1 - Exposing sellers with poor customer service to exposure.

2 - Giving E Bay buyers more confidence to buy expensive stuff where the guarantee is needed.

At the moment I assume any guarantee off E Bay is only 30 days as the customer has no "leverage" over the seller after that point. I have had it before (more than once) that a sellers customer service drops off a cliff once that time limit for feedback is passed....

That said, my confidence in buying anything of significant value off E Bay has plumeted recently when they advised me that an order delivered unsigned for to any address (regardless of if it is left in an unsafe place or not) is deemed as being "correctly" delivered and therefore the customer has no comeback on the seller or EBay......

[justinsmith2014]

>>buyer protection is not a product guarantee and regarding feedback<<

Surely the product guarantee is intimately linked to the seller's customer service. In fact you cannot have the former without the latter ! Therefore it is, to all intents and purposes, the same thing.

[plpmr]

“As a minimum E Bay should allow feedback for as long as the guarantee of the item (30 days min)”

But eBay allow much longer then 30 days for feedback to be left.

[papso22]

There is no way that eBay will change the length and terms of the money back guarantee,  or feedback timescale.

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

If I buy a computer part from a reputable dealer online I can get up to 3 years warranty on the item.

I recently had a motherboard fail after 3 months.

The reputable dealer replaced it immediately with no questions asked.

I guess you could use paypal or your payment provider to do a chargeback ?

[triple512]

I agree it's a problem and moreover a lot of buyers are purchasing items on online marketplaces believing that a manufacturers warranty for a new product is valid, when in most cases, because the product has been resold via a 3rd party, they are in fact null and void.
The only exceptions are where business sellers offer their own guarantees or if they are an authorised product outlet, in which case the manufacturer should provide the same warranty as if buying direct.

To be fair, any reputable marketplace business seller will replace/refund within 12 months if there is a genuine fault. However, there are far too many 'businesses' on eBay hiding behind private accounts who are less obligated to do so once the 30 days return period has passed.

[bennotbill]

If someone buys an item online for perhaps half the price of a high street shop, and then realises it doesn't have a guarantee with all the bells and whistles who should they blame? Maybe a mirror would help with that.

[triple512]

Agree. Was always the case that you need to get it significantly cheaper online than the high street in case something breaks.
Fortunately most product manufacturing faults occur fairly quickly so worth testing properly within the 30 day return period or be prepared to write it off if it fails further down the line.

Always some level of risk but off set that with the reduced price.

9 times out of 10 you'll win.

[*help_no_brakes*]

Save the paragraph.