Seller refusing to issue Returns label for faulty goods

[JadeSeahorse]

Hi everyone, I really hope some of you selling experts can help here.

I purchased 2 matching rugs from eBay. (Not madly expensive but not cheap.)

Initially they wouldn't lay flat as they were heavily creased from being folded in transit. However, I have now left these to relax for a week and it is obvious the rugs are faulty and will not lay flat at all. (Seems as if the edging band is too tight so a manufacturing fault.)

I have this morning opened a "Return" listing reason as "Item is defective" and the seller accepted this immediately. However, he/she is flatly refusing to furnish me with a label. It sounds as if they are based in China and just keep saying that I must bear return shipping costs which I have refuted and suggested they check their terms and conditions.

I know eBay can step in and help but I have to wait until 12 April for this and I will be leaving the country for 2 weeks as from 15 April so time is of the essence as my last possible posting date of course will be 13 April as 14 April is a Sunday.

Any suggestions gratefully received. There is no reasoning with this seller at all but I honestly don't know if it is a language barrier issue.

[SunStorms]

I don’t have any advice on how best to sort this but there are a lot of scammy websites based in China where they sell poor quality goods and make returns impossible by insisting you pay for the return to China, which often costs more than the goods themselves. The return address is usually a factory in China and when the parcel arrives in China, the parcel is never accepted/signed for on tracking so you can’t get a refund as it is never received by the seller. I’ve noticed complaints about this happening in some reviews on eBay and Amazon marketplace so it looks like the scammers are using them too now. I don’t buy anything that is being shipped directly from China for the reason.

[JadeSeahorse]

Thanks for your message SunStorms but the rugs definitely came from within the UK although I quickly realised they were from China originally and not great quality. Plus I always filter out overseas sellers when looking for things on Ebay precisely for the scenarios you have mentioned. The rugs are also covered by Ebay money protection guarantee so not concerned about that.

It is just the limited amount of time I will have to return the goods that concerns me as I can’t see any way of contacting Ebay prior to Friday 12 April.