Government Safety notice on product - seller disappeared and ebay impossible to reach to?

[alex69uk]

I received a message from ebay stating that a power charger has been labelled a safety risk by the uk government. Ebay recommends to contact the seller. The seller has conveniently disappeared from ebay and account has been closed. I spent hours trying to find how to ask ebay to step in but I have not found any information in terms of how to do it.

Any suggestions?

I can no longer open a return for the item as it's now a few months out but the item is a safety risk so I feel like I should get a refund.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[tobiasd4]

Ebay just pass on recall info, but will not get involved now.

Try item brands website for any help, obviously seller is not going to do anything now.

If worried, throw item in the bin.

[alex69uk]

Thanks for this.

So the business model seems to be to start selling an unsafe product on ebay, sell them all, then close the account. Seller pockets the sale,  ebay pockets the fees and customer left out of pocket with a safety risk?

Wow. Is this even legal?

[plum993]

Yo would normally get 30 days from the last estimated delivery date to raise a case with ebay for a refund,but these recall notifications are random and can arrive at any time there after.

Contact the manufacturer if you want,but nothing to be done via ebay.

[red_magpie]

So the business model seems to be to start selling an unsafe product on ebay, sell them all, then close the account

Not exactly, but not too far removed either.

For a start, remember that eBay does warn buyers in the user agreement - although I doubt if anyone actually reads it - that eBay "does not guarantee the existence, quality, safety or legality of items advertised, or the truth or accuracy of descriptions".

So when buying from unknown sellers here you accepted that what you've bought may not be safe, legal, match the description or even exist! Would you buy from a shop that stated this? And would they even be legal? I doubt it.

It isn't all bad, because eBay does give buyers what is in many respects a very strong, 30 day money back guarantee if what they receive isn't as described.

However, note the emphasis on 30 days! After 30 days, and despite possibly having paid for eBay's buyer protection, from day 31 they will not give you any help, whatever the problem. If eBay has passed on a safety recall notice after 30 days since the item was delivered, it's for information only. eBay has no further interest.

If only buyers would read the user agreement. Most have no idea what conditions they accepted. Buying from unknown sellers on eBay is NOT like buying from the shops. eBay is a jungle.

[alex69uk]

Appreciate all replies. Couple of points on my side:

The fact that the terms state anything does not mean one has no legal recourse or that the terms are even legal or enforceable.

A safety recall is not the same as someone changing his or her mind about the suitability of a product. It makes the product unusable and the owner potentially liable for accidents. Therefore anyone as a party in the commercial transaction, including collecting fees, can arguably be regarded as responsible for making it whole.

This is a trivial amount but definitely I'll pursue with the credit card and will make me rethink about using ebay for this sort of thing. More business to amazon I guess if that's how ebay chooses  to operate...

[tobiasd4]

You can't compare Ebay & Amazon.

You buy from Amazon, whereas you buy from seller who uses Ebay to advertise on.

Safety recalls are responsibility of seller (not ebay).

If you do a charge back, yes it will against ebay, but they reclaim it from seller.

[red_magpie]

Therefore anyone as a party in the commercial transaction, including collecting fees, can arguably be regarded as responsible for making it whole.

You haven't read the user agreement properly. Don't delude yourself that you know better than eBay's lawyers.

[alex69uk]

Equally don't delude yourself that lawyers would not write T&Cs that are not legally compliant or cannot be arbitrated against in any court of law up and down the land.

[alex69uk]

Hmmm, I do not believe this is correct. If you are buying from Amazon marketplace, Amazon is purely an intermediary facilitating the transaction (and collecting fees for the service). In these cases, you are technically buying from the third-party seller not Amazon.

The difference is that Amazon would on balance be a lot more consumer friendly and easily step in (and be reachable) if things go wrong. This is what provides value to the platform.

[tobiasd4]

Ebay MBG is only for 30 days.

This is in addition to your consumer rights, but ebay won't get involved any dispute beyond the 30 days.

You can argue all you want, but recall is between you & seller and maybe the manufacturer.