Your Rights as an eBay Buyer.
When you buy things on eBay, you pay the seller before they send you anything.
This means that you, as a buyer, are vulnerable to all sorts of problems. You
might not get the items you have paid for, or they might be damaged or faulty.
Luckily, you have two very important rights when you buy on eBay.
The Right to Receive Your Item.
Maybe the seller never sent the item, or maybe it got lost in the post. Whatever
happened, you paid for the item. If it doesn't arrive in the post as described,
you have the right to a replacement or a refund, whether it's the seller's fault
or not.
The fact that you bought something on eBay doesn't mean that you don't have the
exact same rights that you would have if you bought it in a shop (these rights
are pretty much the same all over the world). Plus, under eBay's rules, the
seller isn't allowed to change their mind about selling you the item: once the
auction ends, it becomes a contract - you must buy and they must sell, or face
eBay's penalties.
The Right for Your Item to Be as Described in the Auction.
Sometimes sellers don't wrap items properly, and so they get broken.
Occasionally they write descriptions that are misleading or just plain wrong to
begin with, leaving out vital details that would have caused you to change your
mind about buying. If this happens to you, you again have the right to a
replacement or a refund.
So How Do I Use My Rights?
First, you should take it up with the seller - most will be responsive, as do
not want to have their reputation damaged when an upset buyer leaves negative
feedback for all their future buyers to see. If that doesn't work, report them
to eBay.
While eBay don't have many people handling complaints, they do have a relatively
effective set of automatic process to handle common problems buyers and sellers
have with one another.
Finally, if that doesn't work, then you should seek advice from consumer groups
in your country, and as a last resort from the police. You should never have to
get this far, though: problems on eBay that can't be resolved easily are
extremely rare.
Don't Be Too Quick.
Remember not to get too annoyed and be unfair to the seller: nice sellers have
agreed to give me refunds for undelivered items, only for me to find out a few
weeks later that they were being held for me at the post office! Always try your
best to communicate and think of everything that might have gone wrong: eBay
works best when buyers and sellers sort out their problems together, instead of
reporting each other to the authorities straight away.
More often that not receiving what they paid for, buyers have an altogether
different problem: they knew what they were paying for, but didn't realise that
what they were paying for was overpriced, low quality or a scam. The next email
will give you a list of tips on how to avoid being ripped off on eBay.
