In late Sept, I bought a marble fireplace surround on EBay. It is a quite distinct marble and was a good price - also, according to the measurements given in the "Item Description", the hearth section would fit exactly into an existing alcove in my wall.
I paid just over £3,000 inc. £54 EBay Buyers Protection. The advert stated "Collection only in person."
The seller was only about 3 miles from where I live and contacted me to say the fireplace still needed to be safely removed from the wall, but he would contact me as soon as it was ready. Fine.
He contacted me in late October, advising that the fireplace was now deconstructed into 4 sections, and that 3 men would be needed to move it. He said they would need Correx (protective materials), plus blankets to protect the marble.
Some of the builders working in my house agreed to go. But on arrival, they called me from the apartment ( a luxury Chelsea penthouse with lift access) to say no way could they move any of the pieces.
I called Chesneys (where the fireplace was originally bought years ago) to ask for recommendations for professional fireplace removers. They put me in contact with a team who said they could do the job.
On arrival, the main guy in this team called me to say no way could this marble be moved manually. By coincidence, he was the one who had actually fitted it in the penthouse, 8 years ago! He said back then, it was craned in! This was possible then because the apartments were still under construction. But now there is high spec marble floor finish in the lobby area which, even if the fire surround pieces could be moved onto the skate trolleys they had brought, could crack under the weight. He said the marble couod not be moved manually. It would need mechanical aid, but this would be tricky due to the limited size of lift and who wants to risk bringing machinery through an apartment complex where all the finishes are high end luxury.
I called the seller and told him all this (well, he was on site and had been told as much himself). I said it was unreasonable to expect me to hire commercial machinery, etc and this has not been made clear in the collection info. In fact, there was nothing about unusual weight requiring industrial moving arrangements.
The seller said he had a contact who could do it. When I rang the number it just turned out to be AnyVan. I paid over £1200 to have a team if 4 show up with heavy duty lifting braces, heavy duty skates and a van with a mechanical lift on the back. They showed up and called me to say they could not even lift it an inch off the ground.
The seller is still refusing to give me a refund, even though it is now clear that it is effectively impossible to move the marble onto a skate - let alone out of his apartment! It has also emerged that he stated the wrong measurement in the item description, so the hearth section would not even fit into my alcove, even if I was able to get it here.
I managed ti call EBay customer services who say my EBay Buyer Protection expired in late October. But the seller only took the fireplace if the wall then! EBay are looking into it but can make no guarantees. The seller is ignoring my messages via the EBay chat and WhatsApp.
If you are still. With me - thank you! WWYD?