eBay Refusing to Honour AUS Gift Vouchers for Item Purchased from Overseas

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  scrimshaw on 20/01/2019 - 16:09

  +1

  what if there was also an ebay item that is located in Australia present in the cart at the time of purchase? you can try adding something cheap into your cart (screen protector for e.g), and then try to checkout with gift cards for both items at once.

  I've bought stuff from a Chinese seller and computer parts from an Australian ebay user at the same time, when funded with gift cards the transaction went through without any issues

  • 

    foxmulder on 20/01/2019 - 16:32

    +1

    I don't think they allow 2 different currency item to be process in the same time.

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  Ocker on 20/01/2019 - 16:14

  +5

  When eBay say they are going to escalate a case it really means they are just telling you something to get rid of you. Don't ever be fooled into believing they will call you back because it aint gonna happen!
  The call centre is based in Philippines and the (contract) staff merely read from pre scripted responses. Once none of the initial scripts are not working the final line reads tell the client you are "escalating" the case.
  Still, good luck!

  • 

    BK12 on 20/01/2019 - 22:51

    +1 their phone support I'd dreadful, they make up stories just to get you off the phone, I have been trying to sort my seller account from months Ni always get contributory answers and every escalation is just another stupid story

  • 

    thedriver on 21/01/2019 - 00:11

    So far, with this case, I haven't found that to be the case. I seem to have been relatively lucky. Each of the support staff have actually understood my point and have apparently argued on my behalf.
    Will wait and see.

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  MrHyde on 20/01/2019 - 16:15

  +9

  Doesn't shipping address mean where you are shipping the item to? It's not saying billing address or registered address.

  So, it would seem by shipping to a non-Australian address would breach Term 1

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  redforever on 20/01/2019 - 16:16

  +9

  my interpretation of term 1 would be the item purchased needs to be shipped to an australian address, not simply having an australian address in your account.

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  josetann on 20/01/2019 - 17:17

  +1

  The reason you need an Australian address is because it has to be shipped to an Australian address.

  There's an easy way to check that an item can be paid for using gift cards. Find the item you want to buy (via ebay.com.au of course). Add the item to your cart, go to checkout, select your correct shipping address, and add the gift card as a payment option (don't actually checkout). It'll tell you right away if you can't use a gift card, so you know to not bother making an offer (or buying $XXXX of gift cards).

  I think what you're trying to do is have them shipped to somewhere in the US (so they won't attract GST) and then have them shipped to Australia for a lower cost and without GST (maybe splitting up the packages, be careful of this because customs can combine the value of multiple packages that were shipped from the same place at around the same time). Sorry, you'll have to just deal with the (potentially) higher eBay shipping rate plus GST, and have it shipped directly to your Australian address.

  If this was a couple days ago, eBay US had an 8% eBay bucks promotion going on. I would have used that instead (in fact I did just that, I wanted an Apple Watch with ECG and the US versions are the only ones that can do that). Always check first, 8% (off a future purchase, look into eBay bucks before relying on it as a discount) plus lower shipping and no GST (my mom will ship it for me and it's well under the $1,000 threshold) made it a better deal than using my 15% off gift certificates and having it shipped to me directly.

  • 

    thedriver on 21/01/2019 - 00:09

    I am trying to have the item shipped to the US, but it's not to avoid GST, I'll still be paying that.
    It's to get much cheaper shipping. The shipping from USA to Australia is insane and not much of a discount for each additional item. But shipping within the US is cheap and the cost of reshipping four of them will be less than the cost of one item shipped to Australia.

    • 

      HighAndDry on 21/01/2019 - 10:23

      Unfortunately eBay has no way of knowing that you'll eventually ship it to Australia. For all their system can see - you're buying something from the US, and getting it shipped to somewhere in the US.

    • 

      psdillon on 21/01/2019 - 16:39

      Can I ask who you use for reshipping? I've investigated so many US-to-AU parcel forwarders but have never found one offering reasonable pricing.

      • 

        thedriver on 21/01/2019 - 18:27

        shipito.com

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  Strahany on 20/01/2019 - 18:02

  +2

  Term 1 could be considered as breached, from eBay’s perspective.

  The term isn’t “Australian shipping address on your account”, rather the item must be shipped to an Australian shipping address. Sure, it doesn’t explicitly say that it must be shipped to that address, but that is reasonably assumed.
  Another example would be Click and Collect terms and conditions; some explicitly say you must present a valid form of ID, but others simply say “you must have a valid form of ID”. Obviously the purpose of having a valid form of ID is to present it at pickup, and merely stating that you have a valid form of ID wouldn’t get you anywhere (despite technically meeting the T&C’s).

  I think your success comes down to how lenient eBay are willing to be. You’re right, in that you haven’t breached the terms, but only because (I’m assuming) you’re feigning ignorance to the purpose of these Terms, whereas I’m sure most people would interpret Term 1 as relating to the shipping address of the item for which the gift cards are to be used since, after all, the sole purpose of a shipping address on eBay is to receive said item.
  eBay are known for being relatively difficult to deal with, so I’m unfortunately not all that confident that you’ll get the desired outcome, but can’t offer any direct insight.

  • 

    thedriver on 21/01/2019 - 00:20

    See my [example below] (https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/6866342/redir).

    Click and collect isn't a good example because there is no way for the click and collect agent to confirm valid ID without checking it. Ebay on the other hand, can easily and readily confirm I have an Australian address at any time without me needing to use it.

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  whooah1979 on 20/01/2019 - 19:16

  +1

  I am trying to ship the item overseas

  This is the problem. You must ship the item directly to Australia.

• 

  Brendoo on 20/01/2019 - 20:25

  +2

  I doubt you would be successful. Based on the "play on words" which you are using as your argument, I think the term "1. You must have an eBay account registered in Australia and an Australian shipping address to redeem the Gift Card." would be expected to mean the shipping address of the transaction. Not merely that you have some other Aussie shipping address on your account although you are shipping the goods to another country.

  Otherwise anyone could get the best gift card deal from any region and change the URL of the eBay site (remembering it's a single global system, regardless of .com.au or .com etc) to 'influence' the rules in their favour regardless of where they live and where the item is going from/to.

  But good luck.

  • 

    thedriver on 21/01/2019 - 00:16

    Yet, their terms could have just have easily stated something like:

    Only valid for items listed on eBay.com.au where the item is located in Australia and sold by an Australia based seller where the default currency in listed in Australia dollars.
    Any items located or sold from overseas or listed in another currency (or noting an equivalent Aud currency conversion) are not valid.

    That would have been clear and without the possibility of interpretation.

    • 

      HighAndDry on 21/01/2019 - 10:24

      But that's not accurate. If people here are interpreting Term 1 correctly, you can buy something from the US, so long as it's shipped to Australia.

• 

  supercheap1 on 20/01/2019 - 21:45

  How about trying the following-
  * select your Australian address to ship when you purchase the item
  * message the seller and ask them to ship to your overseas address

  • 

    MrHyde on 20/01/2019 - 21:47

    +1

    Why would the seller do that. It would mean they won't have any protection.

  • 

    thedriver on 21/01/2019 - 00:05

    -1

    And I'd pay significantly higher shipping charges! I can get the item reshipped much cheaper than the shipping charges to Australia.

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  leeroys_dad on 21/01/2019 - 03:54

  I've had a few issues with that gift cards but what worked for me was, and you should try as well:
  * Select PayPal as the payment method and log in, however just add your gift cards so $0 comes out if the PayPal account
  * Don't pay the full amount in gift card, leave a bit and pay credit card