I have no words to express the amount of stress this has caused me today.
I bought an old video game from an Italian seller, an old tabletop VFD Game called Fitter.
The seller claimed the game was working in their description and judging by the images it sure did seem like it so I bought it. They accepted my offer and I bought it for a total of 66 euros, with 20 euros shipping from Italy, to my country Macedonia. I've bought many games over the years from eBay, I've had an eBay account since 2015 and never experienced anything even remotely similar to this.
We picked up the unit from the post office today and when I opened it I noticed that the unit I had received had the logo sticker on it which was missing from the seller's photos. I assumed the seller was kind enough to provide me with a game unit with the sticker instead of the one they showed without but when I turned it on and got the display test without a way to actually play the game it became apparent that the unit was broken.
I immediately contacted the seller with the following message, also sent the seller photos of the game not operating as intended:
"Hello, friend
I received the Fitter I bought from you today and it's clearly a different unit than the one in your photos, this one has the sticker on it that was missing from your photos, I appreciate the inclusion of the sticker but I can't get the unit to play.
When I turn it on in the A or B position, all I get is the display test screen and nothing else. I can't start the game, pressing the red button does nothing.
I'm using brand new C Batteries that work fine on my other VFD Tabletop games.
I believe the unit is damaged, I can't get past the test screen and is unplayable.'
Their response was swift and quite rude
Seller:
"hi, the video game in the photos you sent me is not the item I sent
the item I sent does not have the sticker
and worked perfectly as you see in my photos. I don't want to argue but what you sent is not my object"
I opened a claim that the item I got wasn't as described and a return dispute, tho I got a notice the seller does not accept returns. I also sent the seller photos of the package/box the game arrived in with all the details needed on the box of course, but the seller, now in Italian keeps claiming this isn't the game they sent in both messages and in the return/refund dispute and they keep repeating the same thing no mater what I say.
I gave them negative feedback explaining the situation in my feedback
I tried to keep my feedback polite
"This morning I received a clearly different unit from the one pictured and it does not work, the seller now claims that this is not the same unit they shipped and claims I'm trying to scam them 😞 I've never had such an experience on eBay before. I politely reached out to the seller about the issue. Perhaps maybe the seller has somebody else packing and sending items for them and they made a mistake, I've been buying games and systems from eBay for years and never had an experience like this :("
but their response to that was this unprofessional and childish post which doesn't differ much from the rest of their messages:
Seller:
"Falsità!!!!!!! Tenta di truffare il venditore inviando foto di altri oggetti danneggiati!!! Acquirente scorretto!!!"
Seeing that I added a little more to my feedback
My Follow up:
"I contacted eBay support and they checked the images I submitted as proof, I also recorded a video both the pics and video show that the back of a Fitter unit in one of the seller's pictures matches the one I received this morning. It has the same blemishes on the back sticker and unit itself. So clearly the unit I got was also owned by them. The seller's conduct has been unprofessional and downright childish in regards to the situation. They resort to accusations, panicking and not cooperating."
After some back and forth with messages and my dispute claim with me explaining the situation politely and the seller constantly repeating they won't have their word questioned and that I am trying to scam them I did some more comparing between the unit I got and the one pictured in the seller's listing.
These are the seller's listing pictures
Upon further investigation I can concur that this is indeed seems like the same unit as pictured, however it seems after the seller, realized the unit was not operational anymore so instead of cancelling the sale they decided to add the logo sticker themselves maybe, make it seem old and used and ship the faulty unit to me ready to claim it's a different unit as soon as I receive it and see it's not working.
The dirt in the lower left of the display on the unit I got and the one pictured is the same, the blemishes/marks on the yellow Change and start sticker lower left of the red button are also the same as the ones in the seller's picture. The back of the unit has the same markings as the one I got this morning as well, most importantly the dirt inside the screen on the lower left angle of the screen is exactly the same in both units.
Pics I took to compare further:
I firmly believe the seller knew they were sending a faulty unit now and are trying to scam me out of 66 euros 😞 PLEASE HELP! I did contact eBay chat and opened a dispute but I feel they might not be able to handle this fully.
