Ebay: Rant!! :(

The seller was not a dealer and he did not put it in a tamper-proof cover (I was also not aware about this tamper-proof-cover business at that time). It was expensive for me...18K. I had to swallow the loss.[DOUBLEPOST=1375345572][/DOUBLEPOST]
Many delivery persons don't allow you to open the package before receiving. In my case all the courier delivery guys have denied this request - bluedart, dtdc, first flight, aramex, TNT to name a few.

Right, you need to receive / accept it first and then open. Sort of make him a witness.
 
I have never had any issues with Ebay and have made around 34 purchases or so, including my LED TV. Each time an item was dead on arrival or developed a fault, I would instantly raise the PaisaPay guarantee flag and get the refund. Never had any issues with the refund process either. Heck, my recent replacement was for the Galaxy S2, which also got replaced with a brand new one, as the first one had a minor defect. The person assigned to solve my case (from Ebay) followed up everyday to resolve my issue and the seller was extremely co-operative as well. I supposed the seller selection process is a bit tricky, but once you weed out the trusted ones, you're good to go.
 
Everything is fine with ebay as long as there is no disagreement between buyer and seller. Problem happens only in case of contradiction between buyer and seller. Their claim settlement process in such cases is not transparent. Even I have had few cases, on mutual agreement the seller has agreed to refund and refund happened very smoothly.
 
Everything is fine with ebay as long as there is no disagreement between buyer and seller. Problem happens only in case of contradiction between buyer and seller. Their claim settlement process in such cases is not transparent. Even I have had few cases, on mutual agreement the seller has agreed to refund and refund happened very smoothly.

Which is a delicate situation I must say.

eBay is the escrow and they should handle the disagreement amicably, and the "outside" mutual mode should never even be initiated. It clearly shows that their is a fault in the mechanism and workings of the portal. The seller calls up privately and agrees to refund, and we as buyers remove the -ve rating. That is lame, and shows that the supply-chain is being exploited at the top and end of the stream. In between "anything" can happen. How will the system evolve and propagate to deliver higher customer centrality.
 
Which is a delicate situation I must say.

eBay is the escrow and they should handle the disagreement amicably, and the "outside" mutual mode should never even be initiated. It clearly shows that their is a fault in the mechanism and workings of the portal. The seller calls up privately and agrees to refund, and we as buyers remove the -ve rating. That is lame, and shows that the supply-chain is being exploited at the top and end of the stream. In between "anything" can happen. How will the system evolve and propagate to deliver higher customer centrality.
Refund process and -ve rating are two different mechanisms and theoretically not linked to each other. Refund process happens automatically if ebay has no proof of delivery within the scheduled period( irrespective of seller privately negotiates with a buyer or not). However rating mechanism is dependent upon individual preferences. There is bound to be a flaw if human emotions start getting into any part of workflow. In my case, baring a single case in every other 6 cases I have put negative ratings.
 
Refund process and -ve rating are two different mechanisms and theoretically not linked to each other. Refund process happens automatically if ebay has no proof of delivery within the scheduled period( irrespective of seller privately negotiates with a buyer or not). However rating mechanism is dependent upon individual preferences. There is bound to be a flaw if human emotions start getting into any part of workflow. In my case, baring a single case in every other 6 cases I have put negative ratings.

I know they are separate but they are linked within eBay India. So many here have said: We talked outside to the seller (on phone); got refund, and then the ratings were changed/removed by eBay themselved. Even I know how refund works on eBay, so please do not lecture me. Thanks. There is indirect linkage, though the system never mentions it. It is how a lot of business deals are done in India. Read: shady and malpractice. Which 'we' (including me); find normal and OK'esh. Got it.

You did not even understand what I wrote, anyways.
 
Last edited:
I did not try to lecture you and you don't have to be upset about it.
It's a process in which the discussion goes ahead. I tried to put forward my understanding - may be I am right or may be I am wrong.
You have some kind of anger against something and you are trying to take it out on someone else.
Anyhow I am out of this and I am sorry that I gave you the feeling that I am trying to lecture you

It seems neither I understood what you wrote and nor you understood what I wrote.
 
^^
I have no anger against anyone/anything.

Just the system(s); which eBay is following/allowing/encouraging/ignoring are bad. And it is apparent. Most of the cases we read about (usually with cell-phones); the end buyer is left stranded, and at the mercy of the seller. Most have agreed here, that the rating system is flawed. That does not mean, that 100% of the sellers are fake, but there are huge gaps and discrepancies in there.

I have bought a lot of stuff off eBay, but always keep a check on what I get. I get tinkering stuff (cheap) like thermometers, red LED clocks, H20 clocks, cables, screw driver sets; and my largest purchase was probably a 3G+LAN router for 3.5K or something. Which never worked the first time round, and I shipped it back, and got an upgraded (more expensive) version; for no extra charge. ekWireless was the dealer. Though it conked off after 2.5 years-3.0 years, and I rubbished it. I find that fine...!

I did understand what you wrote. What I am writing, is exterior analysis of the system, and I could be grossly incorrect, but chimed in anyways.
 
WTF @#@..

2 days ago, the seller who did not ship the product to many customers, had lots of negative reviews, because he made them wait for way past the timeline , did not communicate and in the end had to refund . And today I have a look and woosh!! all negative reviews gone. That's not good.
One of the review was mine..

Scary and shady practice !!! Because as a new customer when I will look at his profile I will see all goody goody. I will never come to know what he did in the past.
 
Scary and shady practice !!! Because as a new customer when I will look at his profile I will see all goody goody. I will never come to know what he did in the past.

Who was this dealer? eBay and Flipkart often deletes negative reviews/ratings in favor of the dealer. Not a good practice IMO - someone may have had a genuine reason for passing the negative feedback.
 
Again speaking to a customer executive, and they are telling me the same story that they have rejected the claim basing on the fact that the seller has send back the phone to me and since it was water damaged they cannot do anything about it, they are just not listening to the fact that the phone was second hand to begin with.

Note: They made me wait for almost 15 mintues on the phone and then disconnected the call.
Calling them once again...

It happened again, they disconnected the line again
 
@hmasalia: Sorry to hear that! It might be a good idea to make a mention of this incident on different consumer grievance redressal portals.

http://www.akosha.com/

http://www.consumercourt.in/

http://www.indiaconsumerforum.org/

http://www.core.nic.in/

http://www.icomplaints.in/

Draft the complaint properly and Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V on the threads. Do pay attention to the guidelines laid out by the different portal. Lastly, you can let eBay know that you have gone forth with such a move. If anything, that might force them to resolve this issue.
 
Last edited:
@Gannu: Are these sites take up the cases for free? We know akosha has a fee, but what about others? Anyone has a personal experience to share?
 
Visakhapatnam District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum
The President
III Floor, Criminal Court Complex District Court Complex, Prakashraopet
Visakhapatnam
Andhra Pradesh
Tel :- 0891-2746026



Sub: Defective/Second Hand Phone supplied by Ebay Seller sky.way

Ref: Item: WHITE Sealed Samsung I8190 Galaxy S III Mini Mobile 1Yr Dealer

Warranty S 3 Mini ( 190850541942), Ebay Claim: 237413,

PaisaPay ID 33815944844



Dear Sir,



My troublesome experience with eBay and its seller sky.way

I had purchased Samsung S3 Mini White Color phone, for my wife from EBay seller sky.way on 2nd June- Brand New for Rs.15500.00

Payment was made using paisa pay and the seller shipped the product within 2-4 days,

All was fine till then.

Opened the package, set up the phone, used it for 2 hours all was fine,

After which battery was low used the charger and when it was plugged it, realized it was not working,

Contacted the seller on phone the next day and asked him that I ship the phone back to him for replacement or will he arrange a replacement charger, he said He will replace the charger.

Waited for 4-5 days, didn’t received and then emailed him about it, he said you send back the defective charger and he will arrange replacement, I said fine and shipped it thru courier, but for unknown reason after around 7 days it came back to me saying that the address was not there.

In the meantime the phone was having some software issues and used to hang a lot which was brought to the notice of the seller and then subsequently after around 20 days of imperfect usage, the phone just died,


Now here is where the story starts.


1. On closer examination of the phone, they had supplied me a tampered/refurburished phone

there was a red color sticker at the back with the Sr No.144, checked with a friend he said that

is normally done at the service center to mark the service sheet/phone.


2. The Seal of the box was tampered, there is another sticker stuck on top of the original do not

open seal.


3. I had ordered a White phone, which was packed in a box meant for a black phone.


4. Had received black color headset along with the while phone.


I informed the seller about the above defects and subsequently open a eBay guarantee claim,

As eBay allows paisa pay claim if dispute is opened within 30 days.


The seller contacted me and told me that he will replace the phone if I withdraw the claim, I told him I will do so, once my phone is replaced, after which he told me either you withdraw the case or I will have to go thru eBay for the entire replacement during and frankly nothing is going to come out of it. I told him I will try my luck and hung up.

I had clicked the photos, and emailed both eBay and the seller, and later eBay customer care called and asked me to ship the item back to the seller and they will refund me the courier cost of the shipment, after two days the seller emails asking me why I shipped the phone back to him, and I explained to him that eBay had asked me to do so, shortly he emails back saying that the phone is water damaged and posted a pic of the battery saying that water damage indicator had turned red, which I clearly remember I had checked before sending to him that there was no water mark on the battery and plus the phone had not come in contact with water all the period with was with my wife, when I asked him to show me picture of the battery with different angle he said that I am clearly trying to con him, and blame my mismanagement of the phone on him

The next day he messages back stating that the phone has been repaired and he will be sending it back to me, I told him I don’t need that phone back and either you replace my phone with a new one or give me a full refund, for which he replied back he will replace the internal circuit and I will need to pay him Rs.3500.00, and it was during this conversation on email I finally closed the despute with phone on conversation and reverted with ebay to solve the case,

In this meantime I had called up eBay number of times asking them to expedite the case and solve it basing on the evidence I have provided, and each time I was promised my claim adjuster will revert back to me, and in this process they called me once during which my battery was on 3% I asked the claim adjuster to call me back in 10 minutes so that I can go near a phone charger and talk to him, that also never happened, and later I again made many calls to eBay and each time I was told my claim adjuster will revert back to me and each time I had called I had specific request not to call me between 5-8 PM as being the month of Ramzan I will be in Masjid and will not be in a position to take his calls, it was during this conversation I lost my cool and posted a negative feedback on the sellers profile, and within 2 hours he calls back asking me If I remove the feedback he will replace with new phone, I told him replace my phone and I will do so and as usual he refused, stating that my 20 days of claim addressal are up and he will win the case and I will be the loser,

On 23rd July Blue Dart came with a parcel for me, I called up the seller asking him if he has send a new phone or a repaired he replied back it’s a repaired phone, I then told him I am not in a position to accept the parcel and will be returning back to him, he said it was your wish he will not be responsible for it, same day I call up ebay once again and they said they will ask the claim adjuster to get back to me and I had left instruction not to call me after 5.00 then on the same day in the evening at 6:59 PM, I receive a email stating that they had tried calling me @ 6:29 PM on993825001# and since I didn’t pick up the phone and the seller had shipped the phone back me and they could see it online that I had refused to accept the phone they are closing the case in the sellers favour.


I call up ebay the next day, to explain that the phone number they had tried to reach me didn’t belong to me and to tell them the claim adjuster gave a call to a totally different number to talk to me, and then I told them about the photos they said they havnt received it, which was brought to their notice they told me to make the file within 5 MB else it will be junked and that was then I split the files and send it to them again.

Each time I call up ebay, I have to explain to they executive the whole matter and each time I am promised that they will verify and revert back to me which they never do, now I see ebay has send me a coupon for the cost of the shipment back to the seller and they have also removed the –ve feedback and when I quested them about it this is their reply.


Hello Hussain,

Thank you for writing to ebay's Trust and Safety Team. My name is Minal and I appreciate the opportunity to assist you further with your concern.

Firstly we apologise for the delay in replying this mail. We would like to inform you that feedback forum is independent for the buyers and sellers and we don't normally interfere unless the feedback meets the feedback removal policy's found at: http://pages.ebay.ph/help/policies/feedback-abuse-withdrawal.html

After reviewing the feedback in concern, which you have left for the member 'sky.way' we see that the feedback was eligible for removal under feedback removal policies. Hence the feedback left by you was removed from the seller's account. We would also like to inform you that, once the feedback is removed it cannot be reinstated.

We trust the information provided is useful. Do let us know, if you have any questions.

We hope that we have been able to answer your query up to your satisfaction. If you need any more assistance, please feel free to contact us again by simply replying to this email.

Regards,
Minal N.
ebay India Trust and Safety Team.


So I am the loser at the end of the day, I have taken up the matter further at ebay, but looking at the current state of things I doubt I will get a positive action from their side, request you to kindly escalate the matter from your end, I have already posted the above claim on ebay-facebook page. And I am yet to hear from them.

Picture of the phone attached for your reference.

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/519p8p8f1rgd77o/zck-cOVOpF

Points to Note:

1. Seller sending 2nd hand S3 Mini White Phone, packed in a box meant for black colour phone,

Red Colour Sticket with the Number 144 stuck being the phone, suggest it has gone for servicing before being repacked, sealed and send back to me.


2.An eBay Guarantee claim has been resolved

Dear Hussain,

We thank you for your precious time in helping us investigate the issue you faced with your purchase. We regret to inform you that after investigating the claim we are rejecting your eBay Guarantee* claim request. For more information check http://pages.ebay.in/help/ebay-guarantee.html#buyereligibility.

Please find the details here

Action : Buyer Claim request rejected by eBay

Remarks : We tried contacting you on at 2013-07-23 at 6:29 pm, however could not get through you as the number # 9938250011 was constantly Ringing. We wish to inform you that your seller has reshipped the recetified product to you, below please find the tracking details: Courier name: Blue Dart Docket number: 13841111686 As your seller has reshipped the item which is traceable online and shows Consignee Refused To Accept Shipment.Hence, we are closing this claim from our end.

NOTE: The above number is not my ebay registered number its xxxx, had you tried calling me up for 100th time and I had not picked up the call I would'nt have been put to blame, leave along the fact that I had specific instruction not to call me between 5-8 PM, as being the month of Ramzan I wouldnt have been in a position to pick up the call.

3. For all the number of times I had called up ebay to speak to the claim adjuster, Ebay reverted back only twice and once was when I had tell them to call me later as my battery was low.





Thanking you, we remain.

Yours Faithfully,





Hussain Masalia



Address of Party Concerned,


Ebay Address:

eBay India Private Limited,
14th Floor, North Block,
R-TECH Park,
Western Express Highway,
Goregaon (East),
Mumbai 400063,
Maharashtra(India)



Seller Address:

eDeal India
Lilly View
Shop No 12
Behind Meena International Hotel
SV Road, Jogeshwari (W)
Mumbai – 400102

Ph: 9773777377



My Address (Complainant)

Hussain Masalia




Matter taken up in other community forum.

http://www.techenclave.com/community/threads/ebay-rant.151201/

https://www.facebook.com/ebaydotin/...fset=0&total_comments=16&notif_t=feed_comment

Marked a copy to ebay and to the seller sky.way@hot mail.com
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ebay is just refusing to relook at the case, says the case has been closed from there end and once that is done nothing can be done to open it, and have asked me to just live with it. Have posted the TE link to ebay and facebook both to the seller. Will be submitting the above letter the cosumer forum on monday, lets see what they have to say about it and if I have any more patience to follow up.

These people just wait till they wear you down but their endless loops.
Just avoid this seller, I may ask ebay to ask the seller just to send back the defective second hand phone, and the sell it locally, my worst nightmare would be that he sends me an empty or a worst case senarior a totally broken phone, plan to film the entire process of signing the docket and opening the box in front of the courier guy this time.
 
Back
Top