Hidden damage discovered two months after purchase

[holger.laux]

Hi,

I will try to be brief and generic in describing the difficult situation I am in. Please bear with me.

Two months ago, I bought a rather expensive technical item at what seemed like a good second-hand bargain. When it arrived, I found it had a crack in the plastic casing, but checking back in the auction listing, I found the crack was also visible there. I only had not seen it at the time of my purchase or may have assumed it was just something like a pen mark. The seller had not mentioned it in their description either. It is a crack of about an inch in length but not to the extent that the item is in danger of falling apart.

I was not entirely happy but decided to accept it as cosmetic damage. After all, perhaps I should have seen it. And I did make a good saving. A casual check seemed to confirm the item worked as intended.

Now, two months later, I found that not everything works as intended, one particular function does not work. I contacted a repair shop and was instructed by a certified service engineer to open it up and check a cable connection inside. This was when I found that the external crack must have been the result of a major blow that also caused internal damage, making the equipment potentially dangerous to operate.

I contacted the private seller, explained everything and asked how we can resolve the situation. They were unable to explain what happened to the appliance while in their care. And they said it was unreasonable for me to get back two months later, especially after I had opened it up. Sorry, there was nothing they could do.

I see that under the ebay rules I would only have one month to return faulty goods. But on the other hand, this was hidden damage that only came to light because I was told to open it. Otherwise, I would never have known and this thing could have literally blown me and my family up!

What do I do in this circumstance? I am even prepared to compromise, with the seller paying for the repair or giving me a partial refund to reflect the reduced value. But they would not have it.

It is quite a lot of money at stake here. I cannot just write it off.

Many thanks for your help.

[redwick1 · Accepted solution]

There is nothing you can do on ebay as you had 30 days from the day of delivery to open a dispute.

You have180 days on paypal so could try there if you paid that way .

They may or may not accept the dispute but you can try

Sign up to their return postage if you can before opening the dispute