Can't find a way to return a defective item or request a replacement

[stevehortonperth]

A call out for a little help, which would be much appreciated as I'm getting very frustrated.

I bought some ear buds in April which arrived, were working and were fine for a few months. Then the left ear bud failed leaving sound only coming from the right ear bud.

When I tried to contact the seller to request an exchange or refund, the item number does not register despite my copying and pasting it from my eBay purchase history, giving the message "Oops, that isn't quite right. Please correct the item number." So instead I click "This is not about an item" and proceed to leave a message from there.

So far, I have had no response from the seller, after multiple attempts to contact them.

The item, as listed in my Purchase History, no longer has a 'Return This Item' button, and I can find nowhere in the eBay system that offers the ability to return a defective item, although under Australian consumer law (where I am based) I am entitled to a repair, refund or replacement. I can't even find anywhere that I can contact eBay to alert them that an item number is no longer valid. Consequently, there is no option to ask eBay to step in, because I can't get to the first part of the process.

Any ideas? 

[fern*wood]

The key word here is "April".  

[elferg_1997]

Buy another set and move on.

[rebell45]

Read eBay's MBG policy, you're way past any actionable return/refund date with eBay.  As far as the Australian consumer laws, there are exceptions to the repair, refund, or replacement rules, but you can try pursuing it there. Just remember that eBay is not the seller and the law excludes auctioneers acting as agents for the owner/seller.

[stevehortonperth]

Could you elaborate for me on how your response is helpful? I would expect that any product that I purchase, and treat with care and respect, would function as expected for more than five months, and I have consumer guarantees of at least one year under Australian law. My request for help, and for other readers in this community both now and in the future, who may have the same issue, was for advice on how I may proceed to obtain a refund, replacement or repair for my item as this is not obvious within the eBay system, and there is no way to elicit a response from the original vendor. I also have protections under credit card law which I can turn to, but I primarily should be able to rectify this issue within the eBay system, and that is what I am trying to do here. If you could give any specific advice that is genuinely helpful that would be appreciated and beneficial to not just myself, but to everyone reading this. 

[stevehortonperth]

Ebay operates within Australia as an Australian entity, so I assume that means that the Australian entity is subject to Australian consumer laws, given the vendor also purports to be within Australia. In which case the product has proved faulty well within the acceptable timeframe. Can you elaborate on what the "MBG" policy is or reply with a link to that? I am asking for help to be able to contact eBay as I am unable to contact or get a response from the vendor, and the system is opaque as to how one goes about progressing a complaint over a faulty product.

[stevehortonperth]

Could you elaborate for me on how your response is helpful? I would expect that any product that I purchase, and treat with care and respect, would function as expected for more than five months, and I have consumer guarantees of at least one year under Australian law. My request for help, and for other readers in this community both now and in the future, who may have the same issue, was for advice on how I may proceed to obtain a refund, replacement or repair for my item as this is not obvious within the eBay system, and there is no way to elicit a response from the original vendor. I also have protections under credit card law which I can turn to, but I primarily should be able to rectify this issue within the eBay system, and that is what I am trying to do here. If you could give any specific advice that is genuinely helpful that would be appreciated and beneficial to not just myself, but to everyone reading this.  

[dryophelia]

@stevehortonperth 

eBay dot com protection is for 30 days. Credit cards and PayPal offer 180 days of protection. 

If Australia has different laws, it would be best you ask your question on that site. 

April was 7 months ago. 

[eburtonlab]

You are posting on the US ebay.com discussion boards, so most of the folks reading and responding are in the US.

In the US, eBay provides a Money Back Guarantee, but it must be exercised within thirty days of the last estimated shipping date.

eBay's Money Back Guarantee in Australia:

https://pages.ebay.com.au/ebay-money-back-guarantee/

For details of the way things work in Australia, you may want to post on the ebay.com.au discussion boards here:

https://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Discussion-Boards/ct-p/11002

Beyond six months, you have likely exceeded the time to invoke the protections of your payment source. Some manufacturers provide additional warranties on their items, but that may not apply if you did not purchase from an approved dealer.

[stevehortonperth]

Thanks for your genuinely helpful response, and same to @dryophelia. I hadn't noticed that I had ended up in the US eBay site (it is not immediately obvious) as I had somehow reached it from within the Australian website. I will try and get a response over in that community. 

[rebell45]

The Money Back Guarantee (MBG) can be found here:  https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy...

for the US site. Since you live in and bought from an Australia seller, you may want to check it out on the Australian site. In the US the buyer only has 30 days to exercise the MBG.

As I said though, certain parties are exempt from the consumer laws you are talking about.  An auctioneer is one of those, as they are only acting as an agent for the vendor. You can read about that here: https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees/consumer-guarantees#what-products-and-s...

I guess since you have tried to contact the seller and they haven't responded, you try either a charge back with your payment provider or file a complaint here: https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/complaints-problems/make-a-consumer-complaint

[stevehortonperth]

Good stuff, thank you for your help. I do appreciate it. I think my problem is that somehow in my attempts to find help in the Australian version of the eBay website, I ended up over in the US website without any obvious notification.