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Item not as described
Summary: steadyed16 shared their experience about purchasing a laptop that was misleadingly listed as 'New' when it was actually refurbished. They discovered that this practice was common among larger sellers and criticized it as unfair to buyers and individual sellers who list items accurately. **peaseblossom** suggested avenues for returning the misleadingly described item, including a "not as described" return and contacting the payment provider for a refund or chargeback.
I recently purchased a laptop which was listed as 'New' only to find when it was delivered that it was a few years old and had been refurbished.
When I looked more closely at the listing, I found buried, in the blurb, more tha n 6 pages down, under 'General' it mentioned that the condition was refurbished.
I found other similar listings from the same seller with the incorrect information.
I contacted the Seller, a Business, who apologised and messaged me to say :-
"I wanted to let you know that we have already contacted the relevant team to review the listing and make any necessary corrections to ensure the product information is accurate and clearly displayed going forward."
I thought this may be a genuine mistake by one Seller but have since found many other laptop machines listed, quite clearly, as 'New' but after trolling through the pages of blurb found that they were, in fact, not new but refurbished.
This makes me think that this is a general practice by the larger 'Business' sellers, perhaps, in the hope that when the Buyer receives the item and complains they will agree to purchase it after given a small discount. As the machine that I purchased, at the very top of the blurb, stated that it came with 12 months warranty, I had no inkling that it was not a 'New' machine.
To me, this seems sharp practice and all buyers, as a matter of course, should examine the pages of blurb and if it mentions refurbished, look elsewhere. It is also not fair to the hundreds of private sellers who list items accurately, clearly indicating whether 'New'; 'Opened Unused'; Refurbished with condition rating or used.
I really believe that this is a case of "Buyer Beware!"
**peaseblossom**
MentorAug 17, 2026 at 9:38 PMAs it was misleading if it's still within 30 days of purchase you can still try a "not as described" return, escalate after 3 working days. Or if more than 30 days but less that 120 days you could contact your payment provider and ask about a refund or chargeback.
steadyed16
OPAug 17, 2026 at 9:48 PMThank you. I have done this and the Seller has been very co-operative and the machine is on the way back to them. I posted purely because I wanted to warn other eBayers of what seems to be general practice, in the computers/laptops section, by the larger Business sellers. My particular gripe in this instance was that I purchased it as a birthday present and I was only looking for 'New' items. If it had been listed at the top as refurbished, or even 'Opened unused', I would have looked through the blurb to find out more. I now have to find a shop to purchase one for the birthday present which I wish to deliver on Wednesday or, of course, there is Amazon.
**peaseblossom**
MentorAug 17, 2026 at 10:05 PMAt least the seller is willing to refund without a fuss but obviously their listing should have been more upfront.