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I recently bought an item on ebay, and when it arrived it wasn't what I had ordered. So what should I do?

 gianlucafiorentini123 wrote:
I recently bought an item on ebay, and when it arrived it wasn't what I had ordered. So what should I do?

1.) Send the seller a message through eBay.

2.) if you don't like the answer, or they don't answer, go here.

3.) Once you open a dispute, do not cancel it until it's resolved to your satisfaction regardless of what the seller offers you to do so - not until a refund (or whatever) is in hand.

He's got it right. Always message the seller first. Just to be clear, ALWAYS MESSAGE THE SELLER FIRST. Sometimes they'll give you free crap for the trouble. Only leave negative feedback if they refused to fix the problem.

Used to do eBay for a living and things are stacked very unfairly against the sellers IMO. We used to get negative feedback on things that were completely out of control (like UPS dropping a box and completely shattering what was inside despite having a full 1/2" of bubble wrap around it and lots of foam) and it's almost impossible to get it removed.

Thanks for the advice guys, is there anything specific that I shpuld put in the message?

The plain facts, politely, and a suggestion for the action you would like taken to rectify the situation:

"Dear XXX123, thank you for the item which I received on Xth date. Unfortunately it differs from the auction item for which I bid, in the following details:

(colour, condition, model number, etc.)

and I do not choose to accept it in that condition."

Then you can either go on to suggest what you would accept as a resolution, or wait for them to make their own suggestion. You could ask for a partial refund, or replacement or full refund, as you think best suits your case.

If the seller is a genuine seller they will usually agree to any non-abusive request, or make a fair suggestion of their own accord.

The main thing is to do everything in writing through eBay's message system, so you have verifiable copies.

Also, remember there is a time limit for starting a claim via eBay, so don't let the seller string you along until the timer runs out. A genuine seller will resolve the problem in one or two weeks at the most. If they make excuses for a longer delay, you should be suspicious.

To give an example, my wife recently won a set of Japanese ceramics, but it arrived with one piece cracked due to bad packaging. We reported this to the seller. He asked for pictures, which we sent. He then offered a full refund, which we accepted.

On the other hand, I won a clock, paid, and a week later the clock had not arrived and was not shown as despatched. I contacted the seller to report non-arrival, and ask if it had been sent. No response. A week later I started a dispute on eBay.

Yes, agree with Killkrazy and the others here, if you are unhappy firstly contact the seller for a response then progress to PayPal dispute if you're not satisfied with the answer or you do not recieve one, you can then escalate to a claim where they look at both parties and make a decision on who is in the wrong and refund etc to that end. I'm currently doing the same thing with an item I paid for (gaming related) that never turned up and I had no response from the seller, this was not acceptable to me and also pretty rude I opened a claim it went in my favor due to lack of responses from the seller.