Beware of the fine print. (long Winded)

[goodwoodrw]

A warning for those that buy on EBAY

Just before Christmas I purchased on Ebay a CPU motherboard RAM combo sadly the ASUS motherboard was faulty. The company I purchased the goods from was closed over the holiday break. Early in the new year I tried to contact the company by phone, however their listed number on their site is disconnected. by the first week after sending an email which wasn't replied to and reading a couple unfavourable postings about the company on an oldish website, I logged a complaint on Ebay. In a return email Ebay suggested that contact and try resolve the issue with reseller, and I don't get any satisfaction contact Ebay again and they will follow the matter up. Funnily enough, a day after complaint the Reseller contacted via an email and suggested i should take my rig and get it checked by a third party as 90% of the time in these circumstances the purchases damages the components in the assembly process. After several exchanges of emails and my threat to escalate the Ebay complaint, the reseller suggestI should return the board only. This is promptly done and in a few days I get an email suggesting I have damaged the board and it will cost $55 to repair, the boards initial cost was around the $100 mark. I sent another suggesting they should just replace the board with a new one and wouldn't be paying for it. They took there time answering my latest mail and i tried to call them several times, but their phone just rang out. After a week and a coupling threatening emails they finally answered my email and suggested I pay for a new board. By this time it had been a month since Made the purchase and had been without my computer for about 6 weeks, my lack of gaming was starting to show, and in a weak moment I suggested to the reseller if they could send a new board by overnight express so I could have by the coming weekend I would transfer $40 into their account, they agreed to this arrangement and emailed me their banking details. I promptly transferred the funds and eagerly waited and waited and waited. After a week of daily emails a reply finally come stating "the parcel is at my depot waiting to be picked up" of course no depot address or tracking number or name of courier. crap just added another $40 to the total. Another Ebay threat prompted an email to sent back saying return the CPU and RAM and we will refund your money Hallelujah baby we are on the right track, that day I sent the remaining items back by express post and emailed my bank details and eagerly waited for my refund. After a week no refund, so off went another email the reseller's reply was simple write a favourable comment on the Ebay sight withdraw the complaint and we will refund your money. this is done still no money. Their email asks me for a Tracking number as they haven't received the parcel. the Tracking number tells me the item was picked up at 1417 on the 4 Feb. from the reseller's Post Office in Nowra. I gave them the details and haven't heard from them since, until today.

Today my experience only got worse! I rang Ebay customer service to escalate my complaint and they said sorry can't help you, because the complaint has expired we can no longer help you.
I explained that I was doing what they told me to do resolve the issue with the reseller and if I couldn't they would. I told Ebay that a series of email have been exchanged for almost 2 months.. the woman on the other end of the phone interrupts me and says Ebay has no record of any correspondence between me and the reseller.. well all our correspondence has been through normal emails, "Oh sir you must communicate via the Ebay system so we can verify all the information." Crap a slight hipcup I thought then she further added "sorry Ebay sent you a mail (internal Ebay mail) on the 16 of Feb stating the return is closed, no further action can be taken by Ebay. BING BING BING the penny has dropped. These dirt bags from NIRV have taken me for a ride, they knew the system and used and abused it, they knew my negotiation needed to be through the Ebay system not the normal email system, they just played me for for time[:-]
Crikey how am I to know I've sent email in the ebay system, I only open ebay up when I want to buy something.
Well after some uncontrolled yelling the operator passed me on to a supervisorafter hearing the same same again, I decided to go the "still your responsibility line" and the moral approach as well that their organisation may harbour crooks and they don't want to do anything about it. My line was when i'm talking to the ACCC or Consumer Affairs or even the police I will mention this conversation, this comment prompted the supervisor to say that would personally contact the reseller and ask them to refund my money. Obviously she did, within an hour of hanging up NIRV sent me an email asking for the Aus post tracking no. again

[wings7]

Thanks for the heads-up!

[operating]

Your post was better than watching a mass murder by Isil!

[goodwoodrw]

If I don't get my refund sooon mass murder might look tame [:)]

[Josh]

Wow. This is the reason I don't do eBay. Too many frauds there. Talking about the Netherlands ofcourse, but easily many hundreds of fraudcases per year, maybe even many thousands. I have no source for that but I read it in the papers too often.

[Greyshaft]

Ebay is great for the $10 - $20 cheap stuff, but if I'm not prepared to lose the money then I don't spend it there.

[goodwoodrw]

I have purchased many items mostly books and computer parts. this the first time I have had any issue. This particular reseller is a bit difficult. appears to have hundreds sales.