Sellers, please advise about refunds

[jamsandwich]

Aaaarg, my first purchase goes tits up and I'm not sure what to do.

I bought a baby carrier, "very good condition", but it lacks some basic accessories that come as standard. The seller did not mention this. Buying new accessories would cost nearly as much as I spent on the carrrier!

His reponse is that I'm being overly picky - the carrier still works. He has offered to refund, but with me paying both lots of postage. I'd have spent £20 on an item I don't own. I'd prefer a partial refund and I'll put up with it. OR if I return it, where do I stand with postage refund? Is it all discretionary (private seller)?

Any thoughts welcome.

If they were not mentioned in the listing you cannot expect to receive them.

If they were not mentioned the item is as described.

if you opened a dispute with PayPal or eBay you might lose as the accessories were not listed or mentioned yet you expected them.

You can return via interparcel.com for a cost of around 12.00 maybe less and they collect from you.

It really is up to you but do not expect to win a dispute, you can either take up the sellers offer or leave it and source the accessories elsewhere.

The thing with ebay is that it's not like buying from a shop, so if you buy a product from one shop it would be the same product in another shop. What I'm saying is, you can't type in that product name on ebay and expect it to be like a shop bought product. (There are shops on ebay and private sellers selling brand new stuff too).
However, on ebay what read is what you get. If you are not sure, you must ask the seller questions before you bid.

It sounds harsh, I'm not trying to be .

If you no longer want the item, ask for a mutual withdrawal from sale (type it into the help section of ebay).

You can't expect a partial refund and get to keep the item. The principle of 'buyer beware' operates on ebay, as with other auctions. As long as the item isn't significantly different from the description, you have no basis for a claim.

If the item works as is, then it doesn't sound as if it has been mis-sold in any way. Am curious though as to what accessories come as standard with a baby carrier...

If you're really not happy then rather than pay both sets of postage you'd probably be better off reselling the item on ebay yourself and chalking it up to experience.

You do have to be very careful to do due diligence when buying on ebay, as with any transaction involving a private seller.

I think really it is a lesson learnt unfortunately!

I too am intrigued as to what comes standard with a baby carrier?

But if it doen't mention something as being there, and it's not in the picture then always ask first.

A good seller to be honest would say if something was not there that normally comes with it, but then sometimes I think people do that on purpose and only mention it if people ask. because by not saying they aren't there, they might get more bids - but they haven't done anything wrong as they haven't said they are there when they are not!! Was the ad very misleading?

Perhaps accessories was the wrong word, I don't see them as optional extras.

It's a back carrier - the child shoulder straps are just plain webbing i.e. no longer have the soft padded bits that it originally came with. They could dig into shoulders and won't feel so comfy under a sleeping child's cheek. The other thing is the sun/ rain canopy - again provided with all models and usually stored inside. I see these things as being integral to the carrier - they just happen to be detachable!

The straps weren't visible in the pic and I assumed that the canopy was inside the pack, so didn't realise I needed to check anything out. Grrrr.

Thanks for all your advice so far - I should have checked here first before I ever ventured into Ebay.

bump

If you didnt' see the items in the picture then they were not for sale. If they had been in the pic but not excluded you could have filed a dispute, however you have no grounds for a dispute.

blimey, it's harsh! But thanks for your post. How can anyone every buy anything complicated like a car on Ebay if you can't rely on the seller to be up front about anything that's missing/ broken? There must be so many bits to check for!

I'm going to really irritate sellers in future with my detailed questioning...

I don't think this so cut and dry classydiva. If an item normally comes with un-attached bits, in this case a strappy thingy and canopy it could be said that a buyer is in the right to assume all is complete unless the listing states otherwise. Examples; you would assume that a kettle comes with a plug, trainers come with laces, a door handle and lock comes with keys, a book comes with the last page - unless the listing states that these items are missing.
What I'm saying is that there 'may' be grounds for a dispute in this case. I can see what you are saying and in some cases this would apply, eg, a used train set with figures would be just the items in the listing/photo and a buyer should not assume that an extra guard/flower-pot/shed will be included.

I agree sixlostmonkeys - It's a tricky one as they could say they didn't do anything wrong as they didn't show they were there nor did they mention they were there - but at the same token the they did not mention they were missing - and as I said before - a good truthful seller would state this if it is something that normally comes with the item.

Tricky -- they're items you could reasonably remove in the course of normal use, so personally I wouldn't have assumed they were included in a used item.

I'm not sure you can really argue that the onus was on the seller to ensure that all the accessories were included -- if you've used something for a while it's easy to not remember what bits originally came with it.

I guess you'd have to see the pictures and the wording on the original listing to make a call on whether it was reasonable to assume anything -- some listings are so vague adn the pics so useless that they invite scepticism.

In fairness you can still use the item, can't you? You could put a freecycle call out for the rain cover, or might be able to get one on ebay. And the pads for the child straps are probably hardly essential.

If you really feel you can't use it, you'd probably be better off selling it on ebay yourself rather than enriching Royal Mail to get a refund.

I disagree with most of the posters above. If the carrier would have come with the proper straps, then it should also at auction if it is described as being in very good condition.

I recently had a similar situation - also a baby carrier funnily enough. Seller said it was in very good condition and it wasn't. She didn't want to give a refund so I went to ebay - I got my refund. They have recently changed their buyer protection so you pretty much have as much protection as buying in a shop.

Thanks everyone, I'm glad to have it confirmed by the variety of responses that it's obviously not cut and dried.

Great examples sixlost, I might use those to the seller!