Is it OK to miss significant details from an ad when selling

[let-it-b]

My son recently bought a laptop, brand new and unopened. As it is on ebay.co.uk and didn't say anything to the contrary, he assumed it was a UK laptop. When it turned up it was an Italian laptop with Italian keybaord. He is currently disputing this with the seller, but the seller is refusing to take the laptop back. I think my son will eventually get his money back as in the seller's ad, the EAN in the listing is for a UK laptop and not an Italian one (they are different), so he can and is claiming the article is not as described.

This question is not about the dispute. That can run its course. The question is, if the seller is fully aware that it is an Italian laptop but deliberately omits to mention it, is it against any Ebay rules and can Ebay then take any action against the seller? If it is against their rules and they can take action, how can we trigger Ebay to take the action.

Or is it just a case of buyer beware?

[let-it-b]

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Thank you for responding. Is there a reply button on the forum?



He has done that, but so far it is not totally clear in the
correspondence that it was a deliberate attempt to mislead. The case
will run its course as the seller so far isn't budging, but is what
he did against Ebay's rules? It is obvious it was deliberate if you
read between the lines and that as soon a my son opened it, the
seller said it was an Italian keyboard (we wouldn't recognise one).

[papso22]

Ebay expects sellers to describe their items accurately and makes them responsible for the content of the listing. Even if the EAN wasn't wrong, not mentioning it was in Italian would be enough for a not as described case, if the item was listed on Ebay UK. You can't prove whether it was deliberate or a mistake.

[let-it-b]

I can't prove it was deliberate, but as soon as we queried it the seller said it was Italian and because he has a no returns policy he would not accept it back.

[tsmgmd]

Ignoring eBay for a moment UK law is quite clear where distance selling is involved.

The item must be described accurately and the listing must not be designed to deliberately deceive.

Once a eBay Money Back Guarantee is opened the seller will issue a prepaid label for the item return.

Once the seller gets the item a refund should be back in the PayPal account within 3 days.

The refund is made to the original payment source.

So your son just needed to check his PayPal account.

The refund will show even though it will not be added to the current balance if your son used a debit or credit card..That info will show under the refund detail.

PayPal will then transfer the refund amount to the source, this in practice takes a few days.