Seller required to honor a promotional offer in item description?

[dubious.dan]

I purchased an item that had a buy one get one free offer attached to the item description.  I went ahead and ordered 2 items expecting the second one to be refunded (I have both items in hand currently). However the seller is saying they made a mistake and are refusing to honor the buy one get one terms laid out in the auction (attached photo was taken from item descrption).  They are offering a very small partial refund or are willing to accept a return.

I have contacted ebay customer support as I couldn't figure out a way to open a dispute that the seller wasn't honoring the terms of the auction.  It appears that ebay opened a return for me, which was not the issue at hand, and said to wait 3 business days (after which I am unclear what happens, the lady on the phone was not super helpful).  Isn't this just going to consume my opportunity to make a return?

Basically, my question is:  Is this seller required to honor this buy one get one agreement?  Can ebay force them to honor this or will they just tell me to return it?  I always thought the terms in an auction were a legally binding agreement...It would be good to figure this out before the return window closes.

[disneyshopper]

ebay cannot force a buyer to pay, nor can ebay force a seller to ship. The best that is going to happen is a full refund.

If CSR opened a Returns Request for you, the seller needs to supply a prepaid return shipping label.  If no response in 3 days, click the link to Ask ebay to step in.  But since the seller did state she would accept a return, I don't understand why she wouldn't provide the label.  Once tracking shows DELIVERED back to the seller, the seller has 2 days to refund you.

[mudshark61369]

@dubious.dan,

Since the offer was to buy one get one free, and you ordered 2 you should have received 4 packs of 10 for the price of 2.  The dispute you should have filed was Not As Described if you only received 2 packs.  Then ebay would have forced the seller to refund for the second purchase.

In the future when a seller offers buy one get one free, you only need to buy the one, not two and expect a refund. Since ebay opened a return request, call customer service back, explain you should have received 4 packs, as part of the BOGO offer, but received 2, and want a refund for the 2nd purchase.

[missjen831]

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@mudshark61369 wrote:

@dubious.dan,

Since the offer was to buy one get one free, and you ordered 2 you should have received 4 packs of 10 for the price of 2.  The dispute you should have filed was Not As Described if you only received 2 packs.  Then ebay would have forced the seller to refund for the second purchase.

In the future when a seller offers buy one get one free, you only need to buy the one, not two and expect a refund. Since ebay opened a return request, call customer service back, explain you should have received 4 packs, as part of the BOGO offer, but received 2, and want a refund for the 2nd purchase.

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There is no reason to call eBay to get a refund for the 2nd purchase if they’ve already opened a return request for him. Nothing can be changed. They filed a return request for him which IS the correct case to have opened. 

[missjen831]

No eBay cannot force the seller to honor the promotion. Either the seller doesn’t have the listing set up correctly or it’s an eBay glitch with promotions. Normally on a buy 1 get 1 promotion, you would add 2 to your cart and the discounted would be taken off during checkout. I am inclined to believe that there is yet another issue involving eBay stores because I tested this with a seller I’ve bought from before who does the buy 1 get 1 promo and the amount of the 2nd item is not being removed during checkout. eBay cannot force the seller to send you the additional quantity or give a partial refund. If the seller responds by accepting the return then that’s all eBay can force—a return for a full refund. 

[ed8108]

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@dubious.dan wrote:

Basically, my question is:  Is this seller required to honor this buy one get one agreement? 

 I always thought the terms in an auction were a legally binding agreement...

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It appears that ebay does not require a seller to honor a promotion that the seller offers within their listing.

Example: Buy any 4 items and receive one free. 

You buy 5 items and go to checkout, but are asked to pay full price on all five, nothing free here !

You contact seller & request a revised invoice . You receive a reply that the listing was drafted by a new employee, the offering of a free item was in error.

You request the seller to either cancel the purchase, or to honor the promotion.

You receive a  reply, seller agrees to honor the promotion.

Despite sending several polite requests over an extended period of time, seller does absolutely nothing.

You now receive 5 unpaid item strikes, you contact ebay support,

messages are reviewed and strikes are then removed.

You allow more than two months to go by, & check this seller's listings which still continue to offer the same promotion which your seller did not honor.

A less than happy buying experience.