eBay Plus - Dodgy Price Beat Guarantee Warning

poppingtags on 04/01/2022 - 21:44

eBay has a price beat guarantee on a number of retailers, where they beat the price of an equivalent product by 5% and issue a price beat voucher of the value beaten to be used on eBay. The easiest way of accessing this eBay price beat guarantee is via their chat.

What is really cunning is the price beat voucher is shown at checkout, alongside multi-use giftcards and coupons, despite the price beat voucher being single use - a helpful fact that the chat agent didn't mention. As a result of this, I ended up accidentally using a $120 single use price beat voucher, on a $24 item - and despite being an eBay Plus member since day one and an active eBay user for 10 years - eBay's customer service, which seems to have been recently off-shored, acknowledged their mistake, promissed it would be resolved in three days - kept delaying the resolution for a month, always promising that it would be resolved by a manager - only to finally tell me that they would not be resolving the matter.

Even more frustratingly, even if I returned both the item I purchased via price beat, and the item I purchased using the resulting voucher - they would STILL not refund the $95 lost.

Easily the worst customer service experience I've ever had with an online retailer - definitely be weary if you buy through their price beat policy. Will be cancelling my eBay Plus subscription and sticking to Amazon Prime - what's the use of paying for such pathetic service.

I'd be interested to hear if this is something I could take to the ACCC.

General Discussion

Related Stores

eBay Australia
eBay Australia
Marketplace

Comments

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 04/01/2022 - 22:12
    +1

    As far as ACCC are concerned they’ve (ebay )fulfilled their end of the bargain but hey people have taken up claims with ACCC for stuff that has less basis for claim than yours so I guess doesn’t hurt to try, at least makes for good reading on the forums.

  • Iluvfreebies on 04/01/2022 - 22:28
    +3

    Shopping online has become more complicated with ebayplus, prime, discounted gift cards, cashback etc.

  • lgacb08 on 04/01/2022 - 22:34
    +2

    you probably not familiar with the giftcard and voucher game very long and can't tell the different between the two, many retailers has been playing this game long time ago and a voucher is generally considered one-time use only and you'll forfeit any unused amount if you don't use all of it in a single transaction. It probably got buried along the bunch of T&C somewhere.
    You might be lucky to to bring eBay to someone like Fair Trading or Financial Ombudsman or threatening to go there. ACCC won't help you because they're set up to act in the interest of general public, not a place to resolve individual complaint. They might take your along side with others in similar situation to build a case against eBay if the amount of complaints add up but till that moment they won't do anything to your case.

    • HairyChickens on 04/01/2022 - 22:50
      +1

      Yeh agreed.

      It really depends on the agent because when I price matched they did tell me. Even though I already knew about this dodgy condition I appreciated the fact that he mentioned it.

    • poppingtags on 05/01/2022 - 12:09

      Thanks for the info - good to know!

  • adam on 04/01/2022 - 23:13

    If I remember correctly (I've claimed and used many of these vouchers) the terms and conditions of the voucher specify that it is single use. So whilst this is frustrating for you you may just have to learn from it and don't make the same mistake next time.

    • poppingtags on 05/01/2022 - 12:08

      It is indeed stated in the terms and conditions, which you need to dig through to find - it would have been nice if they had just told me during the chat. Dragging out the issue for a month, promising that it would resolved only to not resolve it was also just a very frustrating experience.

  • pharkurnell on 04/01/2022 - 23:18
    +1

    which seems to have been recently off-shored

    Define recent… you mean years and years ago dont you?

    • poppingtags on 05/01/2022 - 12:06

      You're right - it might have actually been a few years ago.

  • lint on 05/01/2022 - 11:56

    That definitely sounds like the sort of experience you'd typically expect from ebay, which is why I barely use them anymore.

    • poppingtags on 05/01/2022 - 12:06

      Yeah, unfortunately the quality of service has been dropping every year to pretty pathetic levels and prices aren't really competitive anymore either. Amazon beats them for price + speed of delivery + customer service, and Prime gives you so much more than just free delivery.

      • pharkurnell on 05/01/2022 - 12:07
        +2

        Well said and agree 100% spot on.

      • ozmel on 09/01/2022 - 15:03
        +1

        100% agreed. Pretty much stopped using it

      • King Tightarse on 10/01/2022 - 17:52

        Hey poppingtags,
        do you remember the validity length of the voucher? I am thinking of trying it myself (maybe)

        • poppingtags on 10/01/2022 - 23:47
          +1

          I believe it was a couple of weeks

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join