Marketplace
A bit over 2 weeks ago during the "PASTA15" 15% off coupon sale, a particular seller (unsure if I should name or not), was selling the 128gb iPhone XR in red for $1209.95, less the 15% off sale ended up being $1028.46. After looking on Amazon and eBay through various sales across several months, this looked like the best deal for a while. I pulled the trigger and waited the requisite time for it to arrive. When the window for arrival came around, I received an email from the seller saying something along the lines of "we've been told from others that this shipment may have been lost in transit" and "contact for a refund". Having waited for a long time, I thought that's fine but I'd still rather a replacement given that they were still selling the item in their store, so stock wasn't an issue. I alerted them to this and said that I'd rather get what I had paid for, even if it meant going through the refund process, but as long as I could purchase the phone at the original price.
I didn't think anything from both sides was unreasonable up to this point, but they were adamant that a refund would be the only way forward. Considering I had already paid for a product that I didn't receive, I opened a case under the "item not received" section within eBay. Within about 20 minutes the seller replied saying that because I went down this path a replacement was not available anymore and a refund had to be given. I waited a day because I read that if a compromise between buyer and seller couldn't be reached, that eBay would step in to help. I wanted this because we clearly wanted separate things - I wanted the item and seller wanted to refund.
Anyway last night, the day before eBay were due to step in, I logged in to find the refund had been processed by the seller. Without any approval and pretty much against what I had asked them. No further correspondence from the seller at all. This also effectively closed the case I had with eBay. I contacted customer service last night and asked them what could be done in this situation. They pretty much told me that because the refund had been done, they could do nothing further. I explained that I thought that the seller had my money for approximately 2 weeks, I had brought other accessories based on getting this phone, and that I didn't think it was fair that a seller could do that. The customer service guy pretty much didn't have anything else to offer other than pointing me to put negative feedback against them. I asked if I could even get the same 15% coupon to purchase another item from a different seller, but this was rejected also.
Considering that this was eBay's Plus Premium customer service, I found it hard that they pretty much sided with the seller in this sort of "sharp practice", which to me seemed clearly against their policies as the seller never at any stage intended to provide the product. They are still selling the item at a higher price, so surely if I've already paid for the item they could provide me with a replacement.
I don't know, I'm just frustrated that such a large purchase can be treated by eBay with such contempt and they can't do anything. I've purchased a lot of items from different sellers before and had no such trouble, so it's my first bad experience, which is why I'm a bit salty. Whilst I'm in the process of getting my money back which is one good thing I guess, it makes me think why should I even pay for eBay Plus if this can still happen to a buyer?
Is this just a one off? Or have others had this sort of trouble?
The retailer may legally issue a refund as a remedy. This retailer did which makes the INR closed.