Wednesday 10 July 2013

Don't Trust Warranty on eBay

If a trader on eBay claims to provide a warranty, don't take their word for granted. Because if they refused to provide a warranty or don't reply to your email after purchase,you are own your own and eBay will not help. Here is my story of what I have gone through in one such case.

I bought 10 LED lamps from "HappyHome" on eBay on 13/01/2013 and 3 of the lamps have gone burst within 6 months. I doubt if remaining 7 would leave beyond 12 months.

Issue is: The glass on top becomes concave may be due to heat and then leaves its grip with the body and pop out. Before going down the led start blinking and lamp makes little blast sound. The lamp in left picture (taken on 25/06) has burst today, the one on right is the lamp that burst earlier. It clearly indicate poor manufacturing process and quality issue.

Link to 'HappyHome' store pagehttp://stores.ebay.co.uk/happihome
Link to LED lamps from 'HappyHome' on eBay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-pcs-GU10-MR16-LED-SMD-30-60-3-High-Power-bulbs-Spot-Light-/180941147016?pt=UK_Light_Bulbs&var=&hash=item6fcd1f4c8c

See the picture below that clearly state that 'HappyHome' provide 12 months warranty on their LED lamps, that is pure lie. As after sending 3 mails in last one month or so, i have not received any reply. Also when i took up this issue with eBay customer service and their reply is even more disappointing.




eBay Response - see what eBay has to say about this, in their own words. Read it carefully and make your own decision while buying any valuable from eBay. 

Pictures like above of the complete chat with eBay is available here 
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwDWZ6lzXD51ZWJuNFA3OThqVlk&usp=sharing
(refer chat screen.docx or chat with agent.htm). The chat transcript is provided below. 

ngajjar
so u r saying ebay can't do anything about it
ngajjar
can you not ask your member to fulfil their warranty or black list them
ngajjar
hello John, r u there ?
ngajjar
i need a reply from you on above queries
John Rea (eBay Customer Rep)
Unfortunately, we cannot contact or force a member to fulfill their obligations as we have no control over what has happened. What I can advise that you do is to contact your seller or square trade about this.
...
ngajjar
I am really concerned and its big surprise for me here - ebay saying they can't control their member or ensure that the seller meets their obligation on what they saying on their page
ngajjar
in that case any seller would claim to provide a warranty and when customer demand it, they don't respond
John Rea
Yes, that is correct, but please know that we have a 45 day time frame to file a case if something has happened with the item, in this case being faulty. However, since the time allotted for this has passed, I'm afraid that the option to file one is not available any longer.
John Rea
This is because we feel that 45 days is a fair amount of time for the buyer and seller to try to resolve the problem. It also allows for difficulties with the postal service and personal circumstances.
John Rea
Also, what has indicated in the listing about warranties depend on the seller's action, as it is their decision on how to proceed. Also, Our site is a venue where anyone can offer, sell and buy just about anything, at anytime, from anywhere, in a variety of formats. At no point do we have possession of anything listed or sold through the site.
ngajjar
fine but here the seller is selling something with 12 month warranty, hope you have seen the link that i sent
John Rea
Because eBay is not involved in the actual transaction between Buyers and Sellers we have no control over the quality, safety or legality of the items or the truth or accuracy of the listings.
ngajjar
now if a customer faces an issue with the item, you must ensure that seller meet their obligation
ngajjar
if you can't ensure that or control it - a seller would say anything in their advertisement. anyone would i provide a 12 months warranty
ngajjar
i know what you are saying you have not control on the quality of the item, however you have control on the listing and the member
ngajjar
you must have provision in your system to identify the fraud seller like this and blacklist them
ngajjar
in this case if you raise my concern with a seller he might help me
John Rea
Yes, that is correct, Nilesh. You don't have to worry as this kind of report has been saved and we will review your seller's action and take action if needed.
ngajjar
you also don't provide a provision for item feedback, otherwise people can right feedback about such seller so that other buyer are informed
ngajjar
will you be taking any action against the seller in this case?
ngajjar
if so what? Will you be informing about what action have your taken?
John Rea
Occasionally these unfortunate situations do arise. We work our hardest to reduce the frequency of these events, however sometimes the situation is beyond our control. I can assure you that when these situations do arise we always work as quickly as possible to try and solve the problems. This is very important to us, as we want our community of users to enjoy the best possible trading experience.
John Rea
Rest assured that your report will be investigated thoroughly. Appropriate action will be taken immediately once a decision has been made. However, due to our compliance with our Private Policy, we are unable to provide you any information as to what action has been taken.
John Rea
To have an idea on what possible actions will be applied, it may range from a warning, restriction or may even result to a suspension of an account, depending on what type of offense they made.
ngajjar
From your words it is clear that you will not be taking any action - if you don't inform me how will i know that you have taken a action
ngajjar
you are asking me to contact a police and some third party warranty provider and not helping me directly
John Rea
I understand why you're upset and I can't blame you for that. However, please understand as I try to inform to you why I can't take any further action. I believe I have addressed all of your concerns. Please follow what has been advised. Thank you for using eBay and have a good night.
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Till date eBay has not taken any action against this trader as you can see from the link provided above. I don't think they will take any action as they earn their $$ comes from a commision they get from sellers. Also they don't provide a feedback mechanism like Amazon seems to suggest they favour sellers more than buyers.





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