Damaged in transit - seller not responding

[ejstubbs]

I bought a loco on eBay last weekend.  When it arrived the front buffer beam was cracked and broken - one buffer was completely off and rattling around inside the box, the other one fell off as I unpacked it.

 

I requested a return via eBay the same day, stating the reason as "damaged in transit" and provided some photos in evidence of the damage.  eBay acknowledged my return request but I've yet to hear from the seller.  I've checked the seller's activity and they've listed a fair few items in the last few days, so it doesn't look as if they're on holiday or anything like that.

 

Oddly, the purchase has disappeared from my purchase history.  The acknowledgement of the return request is still in my eBay Inbox, though.  I've also discovered that the listing I purchased it from has completely disappeared - even searching on the item number turns up nothing.  Is this normal with return requests?

 

eBay have said that if I haven't heard from the seller by the 27th I can ask them to intervene.  If I do that, and the seller doesn't respond to them either, then I suspect that eBay will just refund me anyway.  If that happens, what am I supposed to do with the damaged item?  If I send it back to the seller at that point I'll be out of pocket the cost of return postage.  But if I've been refunded the purchase price then surely the item doesn't belong to me so I can't keep it.  I can't recall ever having to return an eBay purchase for this reason before, so I'm unsure of how it is all supposed to work.

 

(I feel a bit bad for the seller because the loco was packed pretty well - he'd even put some extra foam inside the manufacturer's packaging.  But it clearly wasn't enough to save it when Royal Mail dropped it - though there's no obvious sign of a serious impact on the outer packaging so I assume they must have dropped it square on its end, and the loco slid forward inside the box and whacked its front end hard enough on the interior of the packaging to break the buffer beam.)

[YesTor]

If I am not mistaken once you request a return via eBay then you need to click on your "Purchase History" then the "Returns and cancelled orders" tab and your item should be listed there.

 

Secondly, if the seller isn't responding then you have little option but to pursue your claim via eBay/PayPal.  Assuming you receive a refund but still no communication from the seller then I guess there is very little you can do other than maybe try and contact the seller once more once you have received the refund.  At that point the ball is firmly in the seller's court.  If at that point he indicates that he wants the item physically returned then I would simply suggest that he/she should forward payment for return postage before you make the return.

[ejstubbs]

If I am not mistaken once you request a return via eBay then you need to click on your "Purchase History" then the "Returns and cancelled orders" tab and your item should be listed there.

 

Aah, gotcha.  It's not on a tab - I'm still on the old non-tabbed version of the page for some reason - it's way, way down at the bottom of the screen (and I can access the original listing from there, too).  They didn't move it there straight away, though, that's what confused me.  It was definitely still sitting in the main body of the purchase history, with the 'return requested' indication against it, for at least 24 hours before they moved it.  That wasn't confusing at all...

Secondly, if the seller isn't responding then you have little option but to pursue your claim via eBay/PayPal.  Assuming you receive a refund but still no communication from the seller then I guess there is very little you can do other than maybe try and contact the seller once more once you have received the refund.  At that point the ball is firmly in the seller's court.  If at that point he indicates that he wants the item physically returned then I would simply suggest that he/she should forward payment for return postage before you make the return.

 

I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens.  It's annoying, though, that they're taking so long to respond, because I've seen another item I'd like to spend the money on instead and it'll probably go while I'm waiting for this to get sorted out.  Hey ho.

 

If I get my money back the seller doesn't respond to further communication, I wonder how long I have to hang on to the item before I can legitimately treat as mine to keep or dispose of as I see fit.

Edited January 23, 2018 by ejstubbs

[chris p bacon]

If I get my money back the seller doesn't respond to further communication, I wonder how long I have to hang on to the item before I can legitimately treat as mine to keep or dispose of as I see fit.

 

Because the communication is via a third party I don't think you can ever call it yours if you've been refunded the monies.

 

The refund is by Ebay/Paypal not the seller. There could be a legitimate reason they are unable to respond but your refund will happen automatically.

 

The seller may well look like they've been active and listed items, but they could easily have been set for automatic listing some days previous.

[ejstubbs]

The refund is by Ebay/Paypal not the seller. There could be a legitimate reason they are unable to respond but your refund will happen automatically.

 

The seller may well look like they've been active and listed items, but they could easily have been set for automatic listing some days previous.

 

This is precisely my concern, and I can't immediately think of an elegant way to resolve it.  Perhaps a registered letter to the seller stating that if they don't contact me within x days of receipt of the letter to arrange return of the item at their cost, I shall consider them to have renounced any claim to it and will treat it as my own property to dispose of as I choose.

Edited January 23, 2018 by ejstubbs

[chris p bacon]

This is precisely my concern, and I can't think of an elegant way to resolve it.  Perhaps a registered letter to the seller stating that if they don't contact me within x days of receipt of the letter to arrange return of the item at their cost, I shall consider them to have renounced any claim to it and will treat it as my own property to dispose of as I choose.

 

In the long run you may be able to do that, although I don't know whether claiming ownership in such a way is legal. For instance if you said X = 14 days you might it too short a timescale and find that 30 or 90 days would be more likely. 

 

You would in any case have to wait until the Ebay/Paypal refund has run it's course.

Edited January 23, 2018 by chris p bacon

[royaloak]

This is precisely my concern, and I can't immediately think of an elegant way to resolve it.  Perhaps a registered letter to the seller stating that if they don't contact me within x days of receipt of the letter to arrange return of the item at their cost, I shall consider them to have renounced any claim to it and will treat it as my own property to dispose of as I choose.

Or state you will charge them £x per week storage (it has to be reasonable) until such time as they arrange the return of the item, then once the storage charges reach the price of the item legally the item will automatically become yours in lieu of payment of the storage fees.

[rdr]

if the seller is an ebay power seller be prepared or a bit of a battle. I bought a pallet full of dell small form computers and they did not arrive with power supplies, so i contacted the supplier and asked where they were and they said there aren't any. You can't actually use the machine without the specific dell psu which is only supplied with the machine.

After a few weeks of farting around with the seller i gave him an ultimatum to give me a refund or i would put in a claim through ebay. Needless to say nothing came from the seller so i opened the case with ebay and within 5 minutes i got a call from him trying to give me crap because i opened a case against him. Anyway i had a really hard job to get ebay to take this further, with ebay fighting me every chance they could. After they were returned ebay asked me for a delivery signature even though this wasn't requested by them initially and said no signature no refund, a last ditched attempt by ebay to get out of this. Luckily the courier was a company i use pretty regularly so one phone call sorted it out and a copy of the signature was emailed to me. The company actually denied having the delivery even though i had a signature to prove they had it.

There are some dodgy people out there and a fair few in ebay.

[Steven B]

I once received more than I'd ordered from an eBay seller. They didn't respond to messages so I went through the eBay procedures. eBay provided a pre-paid postage label to go on the return parcel so it didn't cost me anything. Presumably the same will apply in your case.

 

Steven B.

[Darius43]

Had a similar issue with an item that arrived broken and with missing bits. Requested a return through the eBay process. Seller stated that Royal Mail tracking stated the item not yet delivered. I sent photos of the item as delivered and his packing slip that was in the box. He said that his staff were filmed packing the item and it was brand new when packed. I re-confirmed how it had arrived. He then said he had packed it himself and that he was going to report the matter to the police - this for a £15 item so the police would have dropped everything and rushed over... Raised it with eBay and they sent me a return label and the promise of a refund once it had been delivered back to the seller.

 

I think it was the seller’s belligerence that encouraged me to push through the whole eBay return process.

 

EBay will probably send you a label to print off and return the item.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[ejstubbs]

Well, the process has finally reached its tortuous conclusion.  The seller failed to respond within the initial deadline so I escalated the case to eBay and they immediately found in my favour.  The process was actually very straightforward: eBay provided a prepaid mailing label so all I had to do was to re-package the damaged item and drop it in at a PO.  It was delivered to the seller today and eBay have issued my refund, one day short of two weeks after the item was originally delivered to me in its damaged state.

 

I am a tad miffed with the seller, for two reasons:

1) If they had replied promptly to my original refund request, we could perhaps have agreed a partial refund to cover the damage and I could have kept the loco as a repair job.  As it is, they now have a damaged item that they'll have to try to sell in that state, and I have to look for another.

2) In the time it took for the process to be completed, another example of the same loco was listed, at a very similar price, but got snapped up before my refund was issued

 

(I also note that the seller still has the item - even using the same photo as their eBay listing - showing as available to purchase in its non-damaged state from their standalone online shop!)

Edited January 31, 2018 by ejstubbs