Question
I purchased a Sony phone from a seller and it arrived in excellent condition ... on the exterior. The scroll bar and LED does not work at all. I bought new batteries thinking it might be the problem, but it wasn't. Contacted seller who denies any problem prior to sending. This fellow "suggested" a surge problem on my end but I have a protector. Seller told me to "take your problem to Ebay or PayPal." Seller had FB of 100% but his rude response to my request to return item has left ME feeling it was my fault. I used AX with PayPal so don't have insurance on defective item. Also .... this guy overcharged on his shipping by about $7. Where do I go with this problem. I have done nothing to the phone ... why should he not stand behind his sale?
Answer
You can file a complaint thru PayPal and if that fails you can do a charge-back thru AmEx.
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I'd skip PayPal and go straight to American Express. PayPal doesn't get involved in quality issues. All they care about is that the seller shipped you *something*. It could be a box of rocks, and PayPal wouldn't care.
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Without seeing the auction that "Edith Pilaf" (love that name!) won, we should not assume the phone in question was brand-new sealed in the box.
In fact, given the large number of returns being sold on eBay this very day and all others, one should at least inquire how the merchandise was represented. Even Ms. Pilaf does not allege it was new.
I have to admit the "overcharge" whine at the bottom pretty much eroded Ms. Pilaf's credibility for me, despite the clever name. Hard to see how you can be overcharged if you agreed to pay it.
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I would file with Paypal right now.
I would also make sure that if paypal has not provided a refund in time that I filed with AX as well.
The common thinking is that you should drain your Paypal account and make sure they can't access a bank or CC account first. Because when AX returns your money Paypal has been known to try to recover it FROM YOU.
and neg that seller!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Thanks for your quick responses. I knew I'd get prompt help on this board.
The seller has agreed to refund the money on the broken item, but NOT on his shipping $ to me ... and I have to return the item at my OWN expense. This is SOOOOO bogus !
Fluff : Of course I knew the phone was used when I bought it. Used, but in great condition was how the ad was worded. As far as the shipping whine is concerned, I agreed to pay the $12.50 shipping fee at the time I bid. I expected a handling charge of maybe $2. However throwing the phone in a box with a bunch of peanuts, then charging me $7 above the USPS rate for the same item to ship the phone is definately goudging ........ and the phone he sent doesn't even work. I didn't know, until after the item was received how much he padded his shipping. This is crazy. I've been reading all the rants about sellers padding their shipping charges .... guess I've finally been bitten.
My husband says I've been scammed but I think it's just the very first time in all my years on eBay that I've encountered such a rude and dishonest seller.
Armed with your advice I will go file my complaints with the card companies .... and I'm definately working on a scathing neg.
I
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Sellers like this give all of us a black eye. I'm a little surprised someone with 100% feedback isn't trying a little harder to keep it. Because pocketing $12.50 shipping and expecting you to pay to ship back a defective phone is certainly going to earn him/her a neg. Hopefully you bought with a buying id so you don't have to worry about retaliation.
I don't care what the auction says. If the product just doesn't work, I'd expect a full refund. Maybe I'm unreasonable but it's how we treat our buyers and I think it is how buyers should be treated.
We've had a lot of threads about how poor sales are. Maybe sales on ebay wouldn't be so sucky if sellers would clean up their acts. Or maybe it's too late.
Maryanne