Strange email from eBay seller regarding a bug inside a phone case.

[Bananareeves94]

I purchased a phone case off eBay from China, its finally come last week, but it has a bug embedded inside the plastic! Very strange.
I emailed the company, they have 19,000 feedback so they're pretty big company, I got a very strange reply...
Firstly they blamed the postman...
I sent them photos, as I thought maybe communication was a problem though their English seems pretty good.
Then I got a begging reply from a guy saying that if he has to send me out a replacement phone case it will come out his personal wages!
He literally begged me not to ask for a replacement.

I feel kinda bad, but I don't really want a bug in my phone case.

What would you do?

[Moving15]

A bug? As in an insect?!

[Bananareeves94]

Yes! It looks like a mosquito. It's embedded inside the clear plastic though. I don't really want to be walking round with a fossilised fly in my phone case

[Moving15]

That's gross. Well if you buy the story from the seller then you just have to fork out from your wages instead and order a replacement. How much was it?

[ImperialBlether]

How much did you pay for this phone case?

[Bananareeves94]

Well this is the thing, it was only £1.59 including postage. But I paid for something that's not as it should be. I do feel bad for the guy/girl if their story is true, I was going to leave it, it happened last week. I was wondering what mumnetters thought.

[Queenbean]

I think it's quite cool, sort of like Jurassic park. I'd keep it! £1.59 is not worth getting upset about :)

[Palomb]

Are we talking a 🐜 bug or a 🎙👂🏽Bug?

[ImperialBlether]

Oh for goodness sake, OP! £1.59 and you're wanting a replacement? I don't think I'd even go to the corner shop for a replacement for that amount of money.

[Bananareeves94]

A bug 🐜🐜🐜🐜

[Bananareeves94]

Well, it might not be a lot of money to you. But my budget for things other than bills/food etc isn't much unfortunately

[WhoTheFuckIsSimon]

Just order another and pay for it. The out the wages thing might be shit but they can't be making much money on stuff at that price with postage.

[Bananareeves94]

I'll probably just buy a new one, like I say, I wasn't going to request another one I just wanted to see what other mumsnetters thought.

There it is...

[Amazemedontbeacunt]

Just open a not as described case. It might not be much money but to some it's a lot of their budget they have available for things like that also no matter how much it was that's gross and I bet the feedback scores are because the begging emails also start with regards to that.

[Palomb]

Pretend you're smuggling samples for Jurassic Park 2016.

[Blueprintorange]

Yes ask for a new one! The seller should have checked before sending it, and the story about it coming out of their wages is likely to be false.

[BertieBotts]

I wouldn't request a new one. It's £1.59 for you but in all likelihood a lot of money for somebody who works in a Chinese factory.

Put it down to experience, avoid buying from those companies in future (often they exploit their workers massively too) and just buy one from somewhere else. The product likely hasn't been safety tested either, BTW, if you're handling the phone case and then eating you might be transferring nasties to your food, not to mention if you have small DC who might put fingers in their mouths.

[BoGrainger]

I can't understand how something from halfway round the world can only cost £1.59 including postage. I can't even buy a phone case and post it to my next door neighbour as cheaply as that

[G1veMeStrength]

You could probably sell it on for a profit if you describe it well!

[BertieBotts]

Considering that you can buy "car seats" like this one on ebay, which are completely illegal, come nowhere near European standards and perform as in the following , the listings usually list all of the "safety features" and though I can't find one which claims this for sale currently, I've seen them in the past where they blindly state that it "Meets European safety standards", sometimes even stating a regulation number which you can clearly see it doesn't meet at all. Bizarrely many of them seem to have copy-pasted text from car seat advice websites.

In the US people seem pretty switched on about the dangers of buying imported cheap products from Asian countries but I think we've been lulled into a false sense of security with European regulations and we're not used to checking that what we buy has gone through basic quality control and safety minimums. Don't touch them with a bargepole in future. Buy from a company directly, that way you have some legal recourse if anything is wrong.

[Bananareeves94]

I would never buy a car seat or something that needs to be safety checked from eBay, it's just a phone case. I just found it weird that he/she was begging me not to request a new one. Very strange.

[Queenbean]

Banana I think the car seat post is on the wrong thread!