Can't return item - ebay computer system appears to have a bug

[ticonderoga1778]

I've been an eBay customer for over 20 years and I've never had this happen before.

I bought an item on Ebay.com - the item was listed as in Spain.

The item did not work so I tried to return it.  But when I tried to start the returns process, I was routed to the Ebay.es site.  I put in my login credentials but it says I don't have an eBay.es account.

I called customer serivce (13 times now + 3 supervisors) and I am told that it is my fault because I bought a product from another country.  Say what?

They initiated the return and I got an email that I should go to ebay to see my return.  I click on the return details and I'm routed to eBay.es

I get emails from eBay.es customer service and when I try to reply, I am again routed to eBay.es and asked to give a login credential that I don't have.

In the end, I call eBay, wait on hold for some time, give them a message, they email eBay.es and then I wait.

The seller supplied a 1/2 return address and the post office won't take it.

I've been going for a month and now Ebay.es says it is too long and they won't take my return.

What sort of madess is this?

My biggest mistake?  I didn't pay with Paypal so I could dispute the charge.

I'll be going out of my way to not use eBay any more and if I do, I'll be sure to use a credit card with a good chargeback policy + paypal.  I've lost all my confidence in eBay.

by the way, not a single one of the 13 folks I talked to said they would submit a ticket for the computer glitch that is  routing me to Spain.  

[emerald1830]

Your account is showing you are registered in Spain..

And my question is, did you pay with a credit card?

[lacemaker3]

What was the item number that you purchased?

I see that you are registered in Spain, so it's possible that the item was listed on eBay Spain, and not available to the USA, so that might be why the sale was recorded on eBay Spain. All cases are automatically handled on the website where the sale was recorded.

I don't know why you have trouble logging on to eBay Spain. An eBay account can be used on any eBay website, anywhere, that has an "eBay" domain name. I just logged on to eBay Spain myself, and had no trouble doing so.

[ticonderoga1778]

I have a US ebay account with a US and Spain address.  When we're here, we get things shipped here, when there, we get them shipped there.

If you do a search for eBay.co.uk and try to buy an item, you will be routed to the .co.uk login page.  Have a .com account?  You can't log in.  Substitute .co.uk for .com and if the product is available for a US account, it will appear.  If not, it says that it is not available for your country.  Been like this for years.  I've been buying and never had a problem.  Until now.

I click on any message or return details for this last item and I get routed to the Spain page.

Lets just for a moment assume I bougth the item from the .es page (I can't but lets just suppose) - when I go to initiate a return, it should be processed through my .com account or link to the .es page.  But it doesn't - the system is broken (typical for Spain) and it will probably remain broken for months or years.

The apathetic third world customer service agents don't care and are in no hurry to fix it.

I suppose I'll have to write this one off.

[ticonderoga1778]

Unfortunately we used a card from a country that doesn't have the claim possibilities of an American card.  Will NEVER make that mistake again - especially with eBay.

Just sad to say that you can't safely buy on eBay.  If you're from EU or other countries, beware.

[lacemaker3]

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@ticonderoga1778 wrote:

I have a US ebay account with a US and Spain address.  When we're here, we get things shipped here, when there, we get them shipped there.

If you do a search for eBay.co.uk and try to buy an item, you will be routed to the .co.uk login page.  Have a .com account?  You can't log in.  Substitute .co.uk for .com and if the product is available for a US account, it will appear.  If not, it says that it is not available for your country.  Been like this for years.  I've been buying and never had a problem.  Until now.

...

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I have been buying from eBay websites in the EU for years, I have always been able to login to any eBay-branded website with my eBay . com account. No issues, no problems.

What's the item number?

I asked that before, and you haven't replied. That's telling. You need to provide the item number in question, so that we can investigate for ourselves, and see what the problem might be.

[pjcdn2005]

As lacemaker mentioned, an eBay ID can be used on any eBay site. I am registered in Canada but sell on both .ca and .com.  I've also signed into other ebay sites with this ID and just now signed into .es to confirm that it would work.

If you are being rerouted to .es the purchase must have been made on that site. A case always has to be opened on the site that the buyer was signed into when they made the purchase so  you should be able to open a claim there.

[ticonderoga1778]

Yes indeed, I was able to log in to ebay.es with my password.  Never been in there before.  Either way, no reason why my .com purchase should be over there.

Sorry but you're wrong about buying on the .es page - I clicked on the item from my buying transaction log and it is a .com transaction.

Every time I've tried to buy on .es or .co.uk, I'm asked to log in and my credentials have never worked on those sites.  I've substituted .com for .es or .co.uk and sometimes the item comes up, sometimes not.  If it doens't I don't buy it, if it does, I do.

In this case - as in every other case for more than 20 years, I bought the item on the .com site.  There is no reason for me to be routed to .es

Either way, when I open the link for the return it takes me to an error page.

[ticonderoga1778]

You wrote:

"I asked that before, and you haven't replied. That's telling."

Yes, its telling you that I have a job and don't troll eBay every day.

Here is the link taken from my purchase history and also from the customer service emails:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Electrica-Bomba-Sumergible-Para-Agua-Sucia-de-Jardin-400W-Profundidad-220V/...

clearly not a .es page

[lacemaker3 · Accepted solution]

OK, thanks for providing the link.

That listing was posted on eBay.es, and is only available to be shipped to Spain. That means that it won't show up in a search on eBay.com or any other eBay website unless you have your shipping address set to Spain. I suppose that since you are registered in Spain, and the item was to be shipped to Spain, and the listing was on eBay.es and could only be sold to Spain, that would be why the transaction was completed on eBay Spain, even though you started out on eBay.com. This isn't a very common situation, so I don't know the details of when this will happen, but I don't think it was a glitch.

Here's the link to the listing on eBay Spain:

https://www.ebay.es/itm/Electrica-Bomba-Sumergible-Para-Agua-Sucia-de-Jardin-400W-Profundidad-220V/1...

I see that you made the purchase on Aug 11. The listing has 30 day returns, and was covered by the:

GARANTÍA AL CLIENTE DE EBAY | Ver condiciones

Reembolso si no recibes lo que habías pedido y pagas con PayPal o una tarjeta de crédito procesada con PayPal.

So you had 30 days after the item was deliverred to start a return, but it sounds like you were not able to return it during that time because of a problem with the seller's return address. The best thing would have been to get eBay CS to help with getting a return address, but I understand that you had trouble getting help from eBay CS so that did not happen, and now the return case has been closed because the item was not returned.

It says that you are covered if you pay with PayPal, or with a credit card processed by PayPal. On eBay Spain, all payments are currently processed by PayPal, so if you didn't log in to a PayPal account to do it, then it was probably processed as a PayPal Guest Payment. Here in the USA, PayPal offers up to 180 days of protection, even for guest purchases, although most people don't know how to do that. That might be true in Spain as well.

So you may be able to get help from PayPal, and it would be worth trying that if you don't have any recourse with your credit card company. I believe they  can identify the transaction from the eBay number (possibly), the exact time and date and amount of the payment, and they may need information from the payment email you received, or from the payment details in your eBay Purchase History.

This isn't a very common situation so I don't know all the details, but eBay employees have confirmed that PayPal can identify the transaction even if it was a guest payment, using information that you should be able to find for the transaction.

[ticonderoga1778]

Thanks for your input; I followed your advice and have made some progress.

I had originally (mistakenly) believed that I could not log in to ebay.es.  In mt own defense, ebay.com & ebay.es had the same belief and never shared with me that I could access the claim directly.  In the triangle communication - I call ebay.com,  they email ebay.es, .es emails me, and by the time it was all said, I had a half shipping address, a run out clock, and ebay.es closed the claim and wouldn't even look/listen to further inquiries.

I called paypal and they were able to find the transaction with my credit card and they linked it to my account and I was able to open a claim.  I explained to the paypal rep that the address was incomplete.  They will give the seller 10 days to forward a good address so that I can return the item.

All and all, I'm seriously surprised that I would get a viable answer here and I can say that it is a pleasant surprise.