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E-bay 'buyer protection' lie
I bought an item from France, paid the asking price, plus postage and plus the 'buyer protection' fee. To cut a long story short the item was returned because of 'non payment of duty requested' and heres the thing ... the duty was not paid, NOT because I refused to pay it, but because I was UNABLE to pay it ... and that is because I did not receive any notification at all, and from anyone at all, that duty was due on the item.
The contact e-mail address on the packing label was an ... '********* @members.ebay.com' ... address and 4 e-mails were sent to that address requesting that the duty be paid ... NOT ONE of those e-mails either reached me or was forwarded to me, to repeat I received no notifications at all, if I had done I would have paid the duty and received the item, my contention being that is is a fault in e-bays system that I was not informed, it is e-bays fault this item was sent back, and in being sent back, ( and received by the sender) I am due a refund, but e-bay wont issue it, they have closed the return case and tell me it is up to me to contact the seller for a refund ... WHY ... what do we pay buyer protection for ... they keep telling me duty payment was refused ... IT WASN'T .. and they seem to be using this as an excuse to pass the ball into my court as being my fault ..
I am out of pocket right now in the amount of over £200 and e-bay refuse to do anything about it, so much for buyer protection, in essence they are guilty of breach of contract and their own rules .. ... they do not care at all about buyers or sellers and in the seller effectively, to my mind, stealing the money I paid, e-bay are complicit in that theft and are sanctioning people doing this sort of thing.
I can prove all of the above with screenshots of messages, e-mails, tracking data etc etc .. all of which has been sent to e-bay or they have seen in messages and yet they still refuse to help and in fact are now apparently ignoring me .. makes me laugh when in talking with them they say thank you for your loyalty .. LOYALTY?? ... I'm surprised they even know the concept of the word, they certainly dont understand it enough to give loyalty back.
Finally and before all the e-bay acolytes and defenders jump in to make their excuses for e-bay ... I DID NOT REFUSE OR NEGLECT TO PAY THE DUTY ... I COULD NOT PAY THE DUTY BECAUSE I WAS NEVER INFORMED THERE WAS DUTY TO PAY ... in not forwarding me or letting me know there was duty to pay e-bay are responsible for this state of affairs and buyer protection is a lie and I will make this as public as I can on social media and TrustPilot .. .
Allen Ambridge
decanus3482
OP5 months agoBy way of an 'update' on this ... I again got a call from 'Dublin' yesterday morning after requesting a call back ... I say Dublin but in fact I was talking to someone in Utah .. I kid you not .. not to belabour the point, I was assured that the case had ben closed in my favour (this time .. and I say that as despite being told last time I was to get the refund, an e-mail then told me the case was closed in the buyers favour and I would not get the refund) ... no wonder it didn't land .. as of 5 mins ago when I checked the account it was not there, but to be fair I was told it could take 24 to 48 hours to take effect ?? ... again .. watch this space.
I also apparently need to apologise, in attaching the screenshot showing the encrypted e-mail address the 'duty due' e-mails were being sent to (and I repeat not being forwarded to me) I inadvertently included the sellers name etc and have been told that post has been deleted, and fair enough at that, it was not deliberate, but more to show and prove the fact of the encrypted e-mail address, which has been the cause of this whole mess.
decanus3482
OP5 months agoFinally, all completed and refund now back into my account ... the thing being it could have all been avoided, if e-bay, in being paranoid it seems about people talking directly to each other, had forwarded those duty due mails to me, or if in fact, with the transaction complete after all, and in knowing my personal e-mail address put that on the delivery label instead of an encrypted one .. simple solutions in reality, the thing being though that most of the helpers who call back or answer the phone have no idea or can perhaps think for themselves and apply a bit of common sense instead of blindly reading from scripts, also in being given a case No , perhaps in a call back situation the original agent was to follow up every time, its called continuity and goes a long way to solving problems ... just a suggestion gentlemen .. !!
tobiasd4
Mentor5 months agodave@ebay
Can you offer any advice.
I have tagged ebay rep to see if they can help.
tobiasd4
Mentor6 months ago1 of the issues is cases are automated, so system will see that duty is not paid & close case against you.
If you can speak to Dublin, hopefully being human they can look into more detail.
Your payment provider may help, but don't contact them until ebay decide as you can't have 2 disputes open at same time.
Good luck.
decanus3482
OP6 months agoAs an update to this and for any member following the situation .. Dublin rang me yesterday morning at around 9:25, and, long story short, after going over it all again and after speaking with two people, I was assured that the refund would be back in to my account within 24 hours ... on checking that account this morning, (thus far anyway as its just over 24 hours after all,) there is no refund showing ..??
I will however give it a little longer .. watch this space .. !!
tobiasd4
Mentor6 months agoGood to know Dublin are looking into it.
decanus3482
OP6 months agoRudeness ..??? ... so thats how you answer and how you care ... if you dont like what you are reading then perhaps its time for you to stop being 'mentors' and defending something there is no defence for .. one question, how do I contact Dublin CS, whatever that is .. I have been on help and contact and have received phone calls, but I have no idea who they actually were, or where they were being as those agents weren't English .... or Irish for that matter .. !!
papso22
Mentor6 months agoYou can't guarantee getting Dublin. As advised you stand more chance of getting them if you use the link in message 2, first thing in the morning.
No-one has defended ebay on this issue.
red_magpie
Mentor6 months agoAs things on this thread now seem to have cooled down, can offer a couple of thoughts.
Firstly, as these emails were @members.ebay.com emails they wouldn't have reached your ordinary email address, but they might have reached your inbox in your eBay messages folder. Could you confirm that you have checked this?
Either way, eBay appears ro be in contravention of it's money back guarantee policy, as from what you have told us there is no tracking record that delivery was even attempted, and certainly none that you refused to accept it. If so, this seems to have been a failed delivery, not a successful delivery supported by tracking evidence, as eBay is supposed to require. And not a refused delivery which would have invalidated the money back guarantee.
Your problem is that athough eBay's system for handling payments is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, its money back guarantee is not. This means that there is no right of appeal to any independent authority against eBay's decisions. With the seller being in France there's no simple means of legal resolution either.
So unless you can get eBay to change its mind you could contact your payment provider e.g. credit or debit card, Apple Pay or Google Pay to see whether they can help. (But don't do this before the eBay case is definitely closed.) Or if your seller is cooperative and willing to resend it, this might be the ony realistic option.
Good luck anyway. Delivery issues have become one of the biggest risks of buying on eBay. eBay has treated attempted delivery as being successfully delivered, even though it wasn't, and we have heard from buyers who say that eBay won't even accept their word that the "proof of delivery" photo wasn't their own front door!
decanus3482
OP6 months agoHello ... Thank you .... and firstly, yes of course I did check message, I checked everything before I complained, I am not one to go off half cocked, to repeat again, I did not receive any form of notification in any way from anyone ..
I have to wonder if in being a mentor for e-bay it actually means anything, I mean no offence but in as much as you are saying, if not agreeing, that e-bay are at fault here and i contravention of their own rules, not to say duty of care to me, why then are they not acting on what in effect is a simple glitch in the e-bay system regarding notification of important issues to members .. why are they not simply instigating a straight forward refund, as they did from my account last year when I returned an item, returned or undelivered the issue is the same.
The seller ahs messaged me but given no indication that they are prepared to refund me themselves and directly, forgive me but human nature being what it is, no doubt he is hoping it will all go away, e-bay will do nothing and he then can keep my money, if not to say steal it.
I am about to contact Ireland, why I should have to do that when in being aware of the situation e-bay cant contact me about it is frustrating and annoying, but given my experience here so far, I doubt very much if they will care about the issue at all.
All I want is what is rightly fully mine, my money back for an issue that has arisen due to a fault in e-bays notification procedures, the bottom line being that in not passing e-mail requesting duty payment to me, I could not pay that duty and the item was returned, it being e-bays fault that happened, and given you're last paragraph, perhaps there are a few more things e-bay need to tighten up on ??
red_magpie
Mentor6 months agoI have to wonder if in being a mentor for e-bay it actually means anything.
Correct. It isn't a title that any of us asked for. We are not part of eBay, just members trying to help other members.
eBay invented the title of "mentors" to use us as a free, unpaid addition to its own, entirely inadequate customer support. We dont have any involvement in any of the issues referred here.
90% of what we do is help navigate members through eBay's labyrinthine user agreement, and make them better aware of the risks and responsibilities they have accepted in buying and selling here.
*vyolla*
Mentor6 months agoClearly it does because the advice offered by mentors to contact Dublin after you tried and failed to get somewhere with eBay Customer Services yourself appears to have got you a refund.
decanus3482
OP5 months agored_magpie .. not a title you asked for ... have to wonder why you accept to be honest or what agenda e-bay has in doing that ?
*vyolla* .. does it ... as you can see from what Im writign below ... means nothign at ther end of the day when the 'advice' leads no where ....
Respectfully if you read my original p[ost you will see I did ask that none of you comment, and the replies I have had, with the one exception, are examples of why I said that ... nothing actually helpful in getting me my rightful dues as a member or a refund, just defending e-bay as usual !
As I said ... watch this space ... and 48 hours later ... NOTHING ... there is no refund to my account .. despite all the 'mentors', despite 'Dublin' and despite all the empty promises from e-bay when we talk to them at the end of the day it seems it all means nothing, Im left out of pocket, something that being a pensioner hits hard, its also a credit card account and so I am also paying interest on that amount another call to Dublin then ... although it will probably be a waste of time ?
decanus3482
OP5 months agoI have just rang Dublin ... got through to the relevant department again, put me on hold .... then CUT ME OFF ..... and no call back ... This is the true face of e-bay to everyone reading this ... they dont give a damn about members at all, just want the custom and the money it generates and have no duty of care or regard for members at all ... convince my that's different given what I have gone through with this item ..
This was e-bays fault that the duty was not paid and the item returned .. screenshot below of a message from the seller detailing the e-mail address duty due notifications were sent to ... and that were NOT forwarded to me ... tell me Im wrong if you dare .. !!
tobiasd4
Mentor6 months agoMentors are here to help other ebayers.
We can only advise with ebay policy.
We agree your situation is unusual and although we may sympathise, only ebay CS can resolve it.
decanus3482
OP6 months agoExcuses excuses excuses .. that's all these 'mentors' can do ... programmed to defend e-bay no matter what ... Im 76, in the RAF for 13 years and I know B S when I hear it ... 1) dont pee down my back and tell me its raining ... 2) Im not a mushroom and dont thrive in the dark on BS .. I hope a lot of members take note of all this, as these replies just make a further joke of it all .. !! E-bay are effectively allowing this seller to rob me and in that are complicit in the robbery .. and that's the bottom line ... !!
papso22
Mentor6 months agoYour problem is with ebay, not us.
What exactly do you think we can do about your situation other than refer you back to ebay?
Your age and career history are no excuse for rudeness.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/paying-items/buyer-protection-fee?id=5594&st=3&pos=2&query=Buyer%20Protection%20fee&intent=Buyer%20protection%20&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1811
tommystrezures
Mentor6 months agoIf your age and career as are as you say then your rudeness to us all really does rather surprise me.
We are here to assist, however as fellow members like your goodself we have no access to you account etc. As previously suggested you need to speak to CS who WILL have access to your account.
Please see post two in this thread where @tobiasd4 has kindly given you the link to talk to eBay CS, and as suggested do it earlier in the morning as you will have a better chance of speaking to someone in Dublin.
tommystrezures
Mentor6 months agoIf you bought the item from France, I don't believe they have buyer protection, this applies to the UK only. ONce the item arrived in the UK as it was over £135 it would then be liable to VAT/Duty.
Edit: I suspect part of the problem here is that "Our" ebay addresses change per order. I don't think the @ebay.com addresses are fixed if you know what I mean.
tobiasd4
Mentor6 months agoBuyer protection fee is nothing to do with this.
I still think you need to speak to Dublin and calmly ( I know its not easy) explain problem.
decanus3482
OP6 months agoWhat exactly is buyer protection about then ... protect from what ... that statement of yours make an even bigger joke of it all .. !!
tobiasd4
Mentor6 months agoI suspect it was because import fee not paid, this invalidates ebay MBG,
Yes, I know you didn't receive request for it, carrier will ask for it.
You need to contact eBay CS, best to do it 1st thing I the morning, should get Dublin.
Try to be clear about the issues.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/eua?id=5190
decanus3482
OP6 months agoHello .. I cant be clearer than I have been, its cut and dried ... and again ... import duty wasn't paid because I couldn't pay it, because e-bays paranoia in not wanting people to talk directly to each other results in 'member@ ebay' e-mails that aren't passed onto the members ... The carrier did ask for it .,.. to e-bay and e-bay didn't inform me ... simples ... its e-bay that is at fault and yet they are refusing to instigate a refund from the seller as they should be on my behalf .. I have spoken on the phone twice and got nowhere, the buyer protection is a scam, a con, they are doing nothing at all to protect me in this case... 'buyer protection' fee is just in reality a substitute for sellers fees .. and as long as they get their money they dont care about anything or anyone at all ... !!