<p>I would assume most of the parents have had experiences doing on line purchases. I would like to ask for your suggestions for how do deal with one situation I have just encountered. Also, I would think we could use this forum to share best practices in dealing with on line purchases.</p>
<p>I purchased a brand new P & S camera for DW as a mother’s day gift from Ebay. However, DW did not really like the camera model. So, I contacted the seller, obtained the return authorization number, and ship the whole box back as it was received w/o even open it. </p>
<p>today, I got an e-mail from the seller, stating there is a part missing from the package therefore they will not issue a refund. </p>
<p>How can that be possible? We ship back the same box it came in. Not only we did not open the camera’s box, we did not even open the box they shipped it in. </p>
<p>So it is now my words against their words. How do I deal with this situation?</p>
<p>Typically, I would take picture at each step when I open any box received as the proof. This time, I did not do that because I did not open any box!!!</p>
<p>Is the seller an individual or a commercial vendor? US or international? What kind of eBay feedback rating? I would write back again and tell the seller he is mistaken and restate the situation. Tell him you expect an immediate refund or you will elevate it through the dispute process.</p>
<p>Sorry for your frustration! I have only bought once on ebay. A friend of mine bought her car on ebay (!). I was recently frustrated with an online purchase from Theory of a dress to be found NO WHERE in NYC (petite people can be so aggressive). I’ll let you know what happens.</p>
<p>Anyway, this is what I would do: contact ebay. They are your vendor. Forget the individual who claims a part was missing – you are the customer to ebay, and you are the person they want to make happy. Get through to a live person. If this is your first time using ebay and you are a high net worth individual (i.e., you have a mortgage, you have a job, you have decent credit) you are the kind of person ebay wants as a customer.</p>
<p>If ebay can’t help you, contact your credit card company. Dispute the charge. Depending on which card you use, you will get a credit to your card for the purchase while they investigate your claim.</p>
<p>Last step – contact the seller. Tell him/her that you did not open the package at all. (Does ebay have reviews of buyers like they do of sellers? If so, point to your review – you are a trusted buyer). Convince this person that you returned the item in good faith and want a full refund and you will consider buying from him/her in the future if needs arise.</p>
<p>Use the ebay buyer protection policy to resolve your situation.
Hopefully, you took photos of the unopened items to document your claim.
Always take photos of everything you send back to the seller.</p>
<p>Carefully reading the buyer reviews can save you from shady sellers.
Call ebay and get a claim started.
I have had success with the ebay buyer protection policy acting as a mediator between the buyer and seller.
Second, call your credit card to report the seller and get them involved.
The only other recourse is a scathing, negative review in caps to scare all other buyers away.
But you are out $$$.
Keep us posted.</p>
<p>I have used Ebay so much over the past 10 years or so that I reached the $10k limit with PayPal. Most things I bought were small, but I bought some furniture, including a large dining room table and chairs and a china cabinet, and also a full set of Cast Classics aluminum patio furniture. I had only good experiences with sellers, except for once, when I bought a Pottery Barn lamp and it was defective. The seller cited her “no return” policy, but backed down immediately when I went through the dispute resolution process. Sellers do NOT want bad feedback or a record of disputes, because anything like that will severely impact their future earnings. </p>
<p>I used only sellers with large numbers of sales and overwhelmingly positive feedback.</p>
<p>I am sort of locked out of Ebay now, because I refuse to give PayPal my bank account information (they had it before, and they once withdrew $50 from my account for no reason - and did the same thing to many other people). I hate PayPal.</p>
<p>Your credit card company is the best backup if the dispute resolution process does not help. Be sure to make the claim in the time period (usually 60 days) that they specify. I would think it would be very easy to prove that you didn’t open even the shipping box!</p>
<p>MOWC, it is US commercial vendor with over 38,000 feedback at 99+% positive. I have e-mailed them and also called Ebay. We will see what is the seller’s response.</p>
<p>C2015, I have only 155 positive (100%) feedback on ebay. But this is strictly words against words situation. I will call my credit card (Visa Signature) to figure out if they could help. </p>
<p>PS, my credit score is above 800 if that makes any difference.</p>
<p>I remember now that you didn’t take a photo of the box. Your credit card company will probably take your word for it, though. You have a good record. (How did you get your credit score above 800? Mine is in the high 700s, and I have absolutely no negative information, never a late payment on anything, almost no debt, use credit cards for almost everything but always pay the balance in full. I’ve had one of the credit cards for over 30 years. I don’t know what they are marking me down for.)</p>
<p>^^NMO2, may be you are not make enough charges? IDK.</p>
<p>I have also done several refinancing lately. may be each count as a "good deed’?</p>
<p>Here is my dealing with paypal and all other on-line transactions. We set up a free checking account at a different bank with a minimum deposit and link that account to paypal. Any time we are not sure about a transaction, we use that account. Once the transaction is cleared, we move the money in/out of that account. So far so good on that front. Knock on wood.</p>
<p>If you used PayPal, then PayPal is the official merchant of record.</p>
<p>If you dispute the charge with your credit card company, they will be very familiar with chargebacks to PayPal because they happen a lot. Just do it within the allotted time.</p>
<p>FWIW, I have found that Amazon is almost always cheaper than the large commercial sellers on eBay, and you get Amazon’s customer service standing behind you.</p>
<p>
This is probably why.</p>
<p>The interesting thing is that my credit score is consistently 10-20 points higher than DW’s. Everything is joint… who knows why. It’s black magic.</p>
<p>I just recently had to return a couple of laptop computer parts I ordered on ebay because they were DOA or failed within the warranty period. </p>
<p>The merchant of the first was very proactive and ended up refunding my money after finding that was the last one in stock…and even told me not to return the defective item. The second item is in progress as I just mailed out the defective item for replacement today. </p>
<p>Similarly, Amazon was also very good about fully refunding my money when RAM ordered for a friend’s notebook turned out to be completely defective. Complete with mailing label to send it back so I’m not paying to post it back. </p>
<p>Communication and proactively being on the merchant is key.</p>
<p>I don’t buy that much from eBay anymore. Between the whole paypal thing and the fact that you are dealing with many individual sellers its not worth it. I do think that eBay will side with you in the end and you will get your money back.</p>
<p>I tend to buy from amazon now. I can even cancel a purchase if it turns out that I find it cheaper somewhere else.</p>
<p>Some of the large camera vendors on EBay are plain thieves. Do not expect much help from EBay or Paypal. Obviously, they will side with outfits that bring in lots of money. You will simply get irritated and waste time.</p>
<p>Your best bet is to get the camera back and sell it. Or better give it to one of your kids. Less headache and more joy around.</p>
<p>One additional great thing about AMEX is they automatically tack on an additional year of warranty on top of what the manufacturer offers…including warranty extensions like Applecare up to 5 years. </p>
<p>Did that for mom’s MBP so with Applecare, her machine ended up being covered for 4 full years. :)</p>
<p>Personally, I love using my credit cards. If I don’t get immediate satisfaction with the vendor and eBay, I call the credit card company and they ALWAYS immediately take my side, especially AmEx Costco. Love that card, especially for electronics. Sorry you’re having problem. Have had a few challenges with eBay and better results in general with Amazon.</p>
<p>Started with Ebay in 1996, few months after they started their web site in the garage of Pierre. Bought and sold 1000’s of items and am very experienced buying on Ebay.</p>
<p>Few suggestions:</p>
<p>First thing is that Ebay is no longer like the old days, their fees went up drastically and thus those vendors have to jack up the price on generic standard items in new or refurb conditions like cameras, computer memories, printers and such better off to check other web sites unless the item is really cheaper, shipping included.</p>
<p>Second thing is that you check the item received the minute you get it and if it is missing some thing you notify seller immediately. You need to decide whether to keep or return the item.</p>
<p>Thirdly, as a buyer check out the feedback and location of the seller carefully, before drop your money.</p>
<p>Last thing is that do not buy any items from international sellers, unless it is really only few dollars that you can afford to throw away. The returns of an item bought from international will be difficult and costly.</p>
<p>Ebay still has its place in those non-standard or rare to find collectibles or used items.</p>
IDK.</p>