hello, i bought an item that was not fit for purpose, seller non responsive..anything i can do

[nigel8708]

i bought a pair of motorcycle boots, these were new...after a couple weeks and only the second time of wearing them, the securing strap fell off and was lost..seller asked me to supply pictures, which i did, but has not responded to any of my messages...this has now been dragging on for 2 months as they were " out of the office "...i want a refund as these boots are not fit for purpose and possibly even dangerous to whom ever is wearing them...any help gratefully received

[m25jet]

If you've let the seller drag the case out for two months then it's too late to do anything about it via the eBay Resolution Centre.  However, you do have another option open to you in order to get your money back.  Open an Item Not Received case against the seller via PayPal, making sure that you escalate the case after two days but before the twenty day cut-off point.

Don't be suckered by the seller into waiting too long for an amicable solution to the matter and don't let him talk you into closing the case on false promises that he'll resolve the matter on the condition that you close the case.  This is your last chance to get your money back, so if you don't escalate the matter to PayPal in time and the case times out then the seller will get to keep your money and you will have ended up paying for a pair of motorcycle boots that are of absolutely no use at all.  If you let that happen then you might just as well have taken the money that you spent on these motorcycle boots and set fire to it.

So long as you handle the case correctly, making sure that you escalate the matter to PayPal after two days and don't allow the case to get to the twenty day cut-off point before you escalate it, then you ought to receive a 100% refund of the money that you paid to the seller for the defective motorcycle boots.

[nigel8708]

thanks for that, i will get on it now...i didnt let the seller drag out anything, they responded to my first message but subsequent messages got an automated out of office reply...i had no other way to contact them

[m25jet]

So that you know for the future, if you ever find yourself in the situation where you've opened a case in the eBay Resolution Centre but the seller has just put up an Out Of Office autoreply, then just escalate the case to eBay after eight days for them to review and make a decision upon. If you have to escalate a case to eBay then once they realise that the seller has failed to resolve the matter within the given timeframe eBay will just force the refund and you would get total refund of the money that you paid for the goods.

With regards to the Out Of Office autoreply, the seller more than likely put that up as a stalling tactic so that you couldn't get through to him in the hope that the case would time out, which it did, thus making it too late for you to pursue the matter via eBay. The seller may well try to pull that trick again via PayPal, so if he does just escalate the case regardless and you'll get your money back in full.

[nigel8708]

thank you for the advice...most helpful....ive done the paypal thing and will escalate on monday, unless i get my money back, of course :)....i wish there was a way to change the feedback i left