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Bait and switch seller. How to get eBay involved?
I purchased a product with three functional components from an overseas seller at the end of April.
The seller sent only one of the three components, which arrived in early May. It is useless without the other two, and isn't worth what I had paid.
I immediately notified the seller of the problem, who sent a very friendly and apologetic reply promising to rectify the issue. Days later, they claimed the missing components have been sent.
For the next three months, I exchanged more than 30 messages with the seller inquiring about the whereabouts of the missing parts. The replies remained fast, extremely courteous, and ultimately, 100% lies, ranging from "dear friend, the parcel is at your local post office, please go check with them" to "dear friend, it has just clearned customs, please wait a few more days" a week later. Requests for a tracking number have been brushed off with "don't worry, we will treat you right", over and over again.
It is now beyond a doubt that this seller has behaved fraudulently, if not from the initial listing, then at least in the way they used friendly lies to keep me on the hook afterwards. They must be familiar with eBay rules to know how to circumvent them.
How do I get eBay involved to force them to be accountable?
The automatic money-back period has obviously expired, because this is an international order, and the initial wait time for the replacement shipment was not unreasonable (the tariff war was causing extended delays in international shipping and customs clearing). Once the period had lapsed, I was on the hook regardless. The seller's responsiveness and perpetual friendliness also kept me from pushing too hard. I was more interested in receiving the missing parts than forcing a refund. The seller clearly knew this and took advantage of it.
I initiated a complaint this week against the seller, my first since becoming a member in '97. Predictably, the seller filled up the response with the usual "I am so sorry my dear friend" fakery, along with the full tracking history of the initial delivery of the partial product, which was never in dispute, or the subject of my complaint, and completely ignored what I actually wrote in the complaint. This non-reply reply is good enough for the bot, but would never have fooled a real person witnessing this exchange.
eBay's answer bot seems rigidly programmed to prevent users like me from reaching a live assistant who can actually go over and understand the situation. This is not just a product issue (bait-and-switch, partial-fulfillment are not choices in the pull-down complaint menu), but also a seller behavior issue (a far worse problem, in my opinion). Is there a different way to reach customer service to talk to a real person about this?
Thanks in advance for any suggestion!
sanglier
OP11 months agoThanks for the replies! I ended up reaching out to PayPal, whose window and format for complaint resolution is far more generously set when it comes to dealing with international orders and their long waiting period. I know sellers hate having this Sword of Damocles hanging over their head, as it invites abuse in the other direction, but once in a while, this is the only way to address unscrupulous behavior by international con artists who take advantage of eBay's rigidly narrow window for issue resolution.
disneyshopper
Mentor1 year agoIf you paid with a credit card, contact the card issuer regarding a chargeback for item not as described.
myangelandmyprincess
Mentor1 year agoUnfortunately since you waited for the other parts you have no recourse through eBay. When this happens you don't wait for additional items past the time frame of protection.