Purchase from the USA - Damaged item
Summary: A discussion took place regarding a purchase from the USA, specifically about a damaged item. Both tomaszglog and guangxi_hone engaged in multiple exchanges, but the specific details of the conversation were not provided.
Hello
I have a question. I bought a grinder with speed control in the USA. It turned out when it arrived that it was damaged, the speed control doesn’t work. Of course, I returned it. According to eBay, the grinder is already in the USA, it has been returned. In such a case, what about customs fees, VAT, and shipping costs? Will those also be refunded? How long does the seller have to issue a refund? They don’t really respond to messages.
I already wrote to eBay support about this. Strange, because even though I checked that a copy should come to my email, it didn’t. I sent the message 4 days ago. How long do you wait for a response from eBay support?
tomaszglog
OP1 year agoThey set a fixed date of May 6 for the return, which is 3 business days. It’s clear that later it may still take a few more days for the refund to be posted to the account. What they write in the help section, in the link above, has nothing to do with reality. There is and was absolutely no button in purchase history for asking eBay support for help. You can only write a general email with a message, but that’s no longer from the purchase history level. This return seemed to be automatic, everything including the label for the package was generated automatically. They should improve this guide on their site a bit on how to return an item or ask support for help.
guangxi_hone
·1 year agoThey also say that the refund may take longer than 2 days
tomaszglog
OP1 year agoFrom the beginning, since I received the item, I didn’t have the option to open a dispute. This is an eBay international shipment and everything here seemed to happen automatically. The refund seemed to be issued by eBay rather than the seller after it arrived at the international shipping center in the USA. Maybe that’s why there was no option to open a dispute? It’s described here:
https://www.ebay.pl/help/buying/returns-items-not-received-refunds-buyers/zwrot-przedmiotu-w-zamian-za-zwrot-pienidzy?id=4041&st=7
guangxi_hone
·1 year agoThey changed the process, but I think for the better, simpler.
There you have a link to ask eBay to intervene after 3 days but before 21 days have passed.
tomaszglog
OP1 year agoThank you for your reply. I sent the return as a damaged item. I got a shipping label automatically. Nowhere on eBay do I see the option to request eBay intervention or open a dispute. In eBay help it says that if an item arrives damaged, I should send it back with information about the damage and describe the problem in the notes, attaching photos. That’s what I did. If the seller does not refund the money within 2 days of receiving the return, then I’m supposed to ask eBay for help. How am I supposed to do that? Where is the "open dispute" option? I couldn’t find this option anywhere on the item page.
guangxi_hone
·1 year agoIt looks like you returned it without opening a dispute by using the return option. That’s why you don’t have the button to trigger eBay intervention. All that’s left is to wait for the seller to issue a refund, and if they don’t, contact eBay
guangxi_hone
·1 year agoDid the refund happen as part of a dispute opened on eBay, i.e. did you open a formal dispute on eBay?
If so, the seller has a few days to issue the refund. If they don’t do so, there should be a button on the dispute page where you can request eBay’s intervention.