EBAY – WORRY FREE SHOPPING – NOT!
I have just been ripped off for 72 euros on ebay. The merchandise I ordered never arrived.
Hearing about other people’s rip off stories can be boring so I will make it as short as possible.
On the 15th July I ordered some Sonoff switch modules from richelectronicsale-4 (things for switching things on and off over internet) The cost was 72 euros and as the merchandise was coming from China, the estimated arrival time is quite long. The ETA is between 19 days and 67 days in the future. I believed the assurances given by ebay about worry free shopping and money back guarantees made me stop worrying about the risks of being ripped off. Alarm bells should have rang because the guarantee given by ebay only lasts 30 days, but that is not a problem because if the purchase is made by paypal then it is guaranteed for 180 days.
After about 30 days I contacted the seller to ask when the goods would arrive. He was very reassuring and told me not to worry, the merchandise was on its way. Don’t complain to ebay etc. When the merchandise did not arrive after 65 days I entered into the ebay non arrival system and spoke again to richelectronicsale-4 He again apologized and assured me that there was no problem he would sort it. By this time I was very busy with other things . 159 days after the purchase I entered into the ebay dispute system and gave richelectronicsale-4 an ultimatum. I said that I would enact the ebay money back guarantee if he did not sort it out after 5 days. To this I received no reply.
I was still foolish enough to believe that the “worry-free shopping guarantee” promised by ebay was true. So I entered the ebay system and got into a chat with representatives from ebay. They explained that because more than 30 days had passed since the purchase date I would have to use the 180 guarantee offered by paypal. So I went to paypal (this was after about 165 days) and filled in their dispute system. I wasted about 30 minutes writing down all the details of the claim and I submitted the form. About 35 seconds after submitting the form I received an email saying that they had assessed my claim and had rejected it. Obviously no human had read what I had written, it had been automatically rejected. Information about the pack of lies buyer protection offered by paypal is here https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/paypal-safety-and-security
The last thing I thought of doing was to give the seller a bad review. It would not let me vote and gave a error message every time I tried to vote. Game set and match to ebay.
CONCLUSION
I have successfully bought things on ebay but when anything goes wrong you will find out that the “Worry-free shopping” is a lie. They say ” If you can’t resolve the issue with the seller, you can ask eBay to step in and help. ” What actually happens is that they give no help whatsoever and tell you to get the money off paypal who also have no intention of making any investigation and automatically rule against the buyer in any dispute.
ADVICE
Don’t buy anything on ebay. The ebay-money-back-guarantee is a pack of lies.
The same goes for the Paypal buyer protection. EBAY sucks!!!! Use Amazon or some other online shop.
Thank you for reading.
English
Like most programs on eBay the money back guarantee is BS. For example ebay has hundreds of illegal IPTV sellers with listings. Many sell one year subscriptions cheap, but cut your service off in weeks and steal your payment. Ebay wont cover these crooks with MBG, but if you report their listings ebay wont remove them. Apparently ebay is too greedy to grasp that $20.00 per year is guaranteed to be illegal IPTV and gullible users jump right on these deals. Ebay swears they take integrity seriously as they watch users get ripped off and run to the bank. Ebay has all the integrity of Al Capone.