EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: JohnPen on December 15, 2016, 09:36:05 am
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There seems to be a lack of any interest within Ebay customer service to remove any supplier who falsely advertises a warranty on their product. If it is outside ebay's 30 day period they are not interested. My recent experience with an albeit cheap 2 in 1 soldering station has highlighted the problem. In my case the failure of an 'element' in the soldering iron after 6 months use and the clearly advertised 1 year warranty. Repeated emails to the supplier have not been replied too and yet the product is currently advertised with a 1 year warranty. Yes I know I can purchase a new 'element' quite easily and what should I expect from a cheap soldering station! However I do object to ebay continuing to allow false advertising claims on the product. If there was no mention of a 1year warranty I take the risk and I am to blame if it all backfires which is fair enough. Ebay should have procedures to remove falsely claiming adverts and not just follow a rote saying it is outside the 30 day period.
Have others had this experience with trying to get ebay to remove adverts which breach trade descriptions?
John
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The reponsibility of eBay w.r.t. the description should be clearly defined, IMHO. Did you read their terms and conditions? Are they responsible for the description?
Not sure what happens when a seller guarantees eternal warranty.. Can you expect ebay to interfere?
I do not have huge experience but I did return eBay product once - it failed to meet the specification (http://www.avrfreaks.net/forum/rantquestionable-quality-ebay-electronic-parts). Seller returned the money.
I suggest you/we should give the feedback after the stated warranty period.
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On ebay, there's no warranty. If the product malfunction, just throw it away and buy a new one. So far, I've adopted the policy that if a seller sell me something that don't work, I won't buy anything from it again. Also, if something arrives and don't meets it's specification the seller is on my blacklist and he gets a negative feedback.Period.
And, if the thing is imported outside the EU, forget it: there's no law harmonization outside the EU, as a result the warranty policy will change and if you fill papers you end up wasting your time.
I know that it sucks, but on soldering (and welding in general) equipment, you shouldn't invest on cheap things because you won't surprises after a certain amount of time!
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eBay is getting worst every day.
I have just received a complain of item not received from a customer through Paypal. Paypal enforces you to make a full refund (cheap shipping not registered). It was pay/sent more than two months ago, so eBay will not reimburse the fees they took.
So I'm now with no item, no payment, shipping costs loses and I have give for free fee to eBay.
I'm very happy.
So I have to send always registered mail.
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In my case the failure of an 'element' in the soldering iron after 6 months use and the clearly advertised 1 year warranty.
If it's still less than 180 days since you bought it, you can still open a dispute through paypal.
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eBay won't do anything about this. The seller isn't selling counterfeits or illegal stuff.
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eBay is getting worst every day.
EBay has its issues - but your following experience is hardly eBay's fault.
I have just received a complain of item not received from a customer through Paypal. Paypal enforces you to make a full refund (cheap shipping not registered). It was pay/sent more than two months ago, so eBay will not reimburse the fees they took.
So I'm now with no item, no payment, shipping costs loses and I have give for free fee to eBay.
Your issue is with the carrier who was meant to deliver the item.
Because of their failure - then it should be them who suffers the loss, but that's not always going to fly. As a result, either the Buyer or the Seller is going to have to suffer a loss - and eBay are very well versed in where the greatest risk lays. That risk is with Buyers.
Buyers are what both eBay and Sellers want. They bring the money both want. Sellers have made an effort and commitment to be on eBay ... so they're not going to bail easily.
Buyers, on the other hand, are the most mobile in regards to their decision making. They can be sitting in front of half a dozen websites selling a product and their decision to purchase is subject to a whim. EBay wants them to think positively about eBay - so guess what...
Bottom line - that is part of the cost of doing business.
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I have no problem making a refund. I assume losses like that.
I was criticizing eBay policies about times to cancel a sale. I know eBay and Paypal are two different subjects (hohoho), but the could agree in time constrains so such cases can´t be possible, but they don't.
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Following on from my initial message I have looked through the ebay rules! See quote below!
'You agree that you are making use of our Services at your own risk, and that they are being provided to you on an "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" basis. Accordingly, to the extent permitted by applicable law, we exclude all express or implied warranties, terms and conditions including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.'
I have always accepted that as something that applies to ebay BUT it seems unreasonable that they will make no effort to remove reported adverts that are quoting effectively lies. Principally I am not really complaining about the lack of a replacement 'element ' but the false advertising of a warranty. I can sort the 'element' easily enough and it is not really an unusual problem. It is the fact that ebay do not appear to take any responsibility for false statements made by suppliers that are reported to them. It is understood that many descriptions could be misleading in various ways but a well defined statement of a 1 year warranty on a product should be clear cut.
Sadly take this email as a warning. Do not believe any warranty quote by a seller on ebay as there seems to be no ebay procedure to prevent a seller offering a non-existent warranty on an indefinite basis despite reporting this fact to ebay.
John
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Even if the UK would have the German liability for disturbance (Störerhaftung), eBay would just disable the sellers account and the seller would create a new one. eBay makes money by fees, not by hiring staff for playing cat and mouse with some dubious sellers.
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eBay is getting worst every day.
I have just received a complain of item not received from a customer through Paypal. Paypal enforces you to make a full refund (cheap shipping not registered). It was pay/sent more than two months ago, so eBay will not reimburse the fees they took.
So I'm now with no item, no payment, shipping costs loses and I have give for free fee to eBay.
I'm very happy.
So I have to send always registered mail.
Really? They don't refund the fees on gone wrong transactions? This is a scam.
My first experience with ebay as a seller was poor...It's just math: First of all, the insertion itself is not free. After that, there's a 10% fee on the items price and sometimes the packaging and shipment costs more than the object itself....
This added to the facts:
-you can get a negative feedback and you can't evaluate the buyer
-if something goes wrong the buyer pretend full refund and there is the risk that he won't even ship back the item
-Ebay and Paypal ALWAYS side with the buyer
-feedback on transaction is not mandatory
I ended up selling on kijiji, much more simple, easier, I have to deal with the seller and it's better even if I don't have that extra visibility that ebay offer, and, more importantly: more money for me :)
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... eBay makes money by fees, not by hiring staff for playing cat and mouse with some dubious sellers.
This is exactly why they always side with buyers. Their view is that there is plenty of junk on ebay to be bought, so they need more people to buy things, not more people to list things for sale.
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There are lots of markets you can use. Kjiji, newsprint classifieds and their associated online classifieds, Craiglist .. the list goes on and on. As an occasional seller and more frequent buyer Ebay offers me advantages that are worth the very real disadvantages. A much larger market than most. A concentration of folks who can communicate well in English. A market that is largely filled with people who generally follow western world business practices.
The trick, both as a buyer and seller is to understand the risks, and don't take any that you can't deal with. You will get burned occasionally, on both sides of the deal. That is the unfortunate reality of dealing with people you don't know well.
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Just a follow up on my original complaint. To my surprise E-bay have obviously communicated with the supplier of my Solder station with regard to the latter's advertised 1 year warranty (current when I made the complaint). The advertisement has now been replaced and no longer states that there is a 1 year warranty. At least this avoids future customers being mislead by an obvious false promise. In my case I would still have purchased the Solder station, even without a stated 1 year warranty, but for newcomers it could be very upsetting. The main failure for Solder stations is usually the 'elements' in other words take the risk as replacement elements are easily available. Also it is rather useful to have more than one soldering iron!
So if you have problems with a very obvious misleading advert on Ebay, as this one was, it is worth reporting it to them. However you do have to push them as they keep referring to their 30 day response and tend to be resistant to anything outside that period even if the advert is proved to be stating obvious untruths.
John
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I found a decent seller to did the right thing recently. I bought a used replacement low profile dual video card-same brand/model as I had in the computer but without the cables. The card needed replaced due to a physical issue with the connector and not the cables. The picture showed the same connector as mine had so I bought it. When it arrived, it had a different connector. I emailed a picture of what I received and asked for either a replacement or refund. 24 hours later, the response was "very sorry, not sure where that card came from. A replacement card is on the way and don't bother sending the wrong card back."
I just wanted to share a positive story.
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... eBay makes money by fees, not by hiring staff for playing cat and mouse with some dubious sellers.
This is exactly why they always side with buyers. Their view is that there is plenty of junk on ebay to be bought, so they need more people to buy things, not more people to list things for sale.
A bit of a simplification - but pretty close to the truth.
Sellers have invested time and effort to establish a presence on a site - eBay being one. They aren't going to move easily.
Buyers have the money and are very mobile with it. They can have half a dozen windows open on their computer to buy the same item - and a simple whim is all that it will take to decide which one.
EBay is going to do whatever it takes to encourage buyers to bring their money with them ... including shafting Sellers.