Bought an item, its unusable - buyer expects me to pay return postage and delivery postage

[timeforachangebaby]

which is half the cost of the item

Its a lovely light, but sadly it is broken and cannot be put together, the item was £15.99 and the postage £7.99.

So to post it back is going to be at least another £7.99.

Can they do this? Given that they have dispatched a clearly damaged item.

Might not have sent it damaged - it could have got damaged in the post.

Yes ebay works that way - you pay the return postage and the seller refunds the purchase price, you will get the original postage price back, but not the cost of sending it back.

Forgot to add, you may find using a courier cheaper to return it than the RM

Yes it was sent damaged - it cannot be assembled - am not happy about this at all.

I'll see what they come back with - I have emailed them and asked for replacement parts for the damaged bits.

Yy to courier - I'll Check out parcelmonkey.

i sold a light on ebay that arrived broken due to damage in the post. when the buyer contacted me i suggested she email me a photo of the damage and then i would refund her. couldn't see the point in sending it back to me for me to bin just a waste of money and time. would the seller of your item accept this option?

if you open a not as described case with ebay tick the box marked other and type in next to it 'refund' - once escalated ebay may refund you without the need for a return. It is a no fault refund from ebay not the seller.

a good seller would refund the return postage costs, or ask for photos and claim for loss from the courier and not ask you to return the item at all.

I'll see what they say, I expect they will get back to me tomorrow, its been sold as manufacturer refurbished and its unusable, DH says it can't even be bodged together, which at the price I would have been happy with (a bodged job).

As a fairly experienced ebayer (albeit just my own stuff), if this was me Id tell them to keep it and issue a full refund, it will only end up in tip anyway - its no use to anyone.

Was it sent by RM? And was the part that's broken made of glass?

I only ask as it wouldn't be covered by RM compensation for breakage - especially if not packaged correctly!

If send by courier you'd have to check their T&Cs too

what a shame - I hope you get a decent response.

No, there is a sort of metal base, and a weight and the 2 should screw together, only the holes dont line up - so they cant be screwed together - this is the seller sending out a "refurbed" item, they havent checked over.

The nut to screw them together is missing but that would have been minor if the holes lined up - I asked DH if we could drill a new hole - but he said no.

Maybe sometimes, when something is too cheap - there is a reason.

how heavy is it? Under 5kg you can send it for £4.99 with collect plus

but if it was never going to be usable surely you're entitled to a full refund including postage both ways?

you are entitled to a full refund including p&p - a good seller will give return postage costs too, but there is no way you can enforce this