Replacement catalyitic converters failed 1 month after install, cats were different than item photos

[ace134blue]

Hey Guys,

So I bought some replacement catalytic converters for my car(two) as my originals were throwing a check engine light.

I bought them in October and had them installed a couple weeks later by an exhaust shop.

I handed them the boxes to install the cats.

Upon install, the cats rattled on the first startup, I drove home thinking it was just the exhaust shops poor work and planned on looking under the car later.

The rattle stopped the next day.

But not even 1000 miles later they have failed, the catalyst broke up and clogged up my exhaust causing extremely poor performance and lots of rattling noises.

I had to take it to another exhaust shop and they had to dissemble the exhaust and cut out of the bad cats.

When I saw the replacement cats they were clearly a different part number and did not match the images of the item page.

The cats were clearly a cheaper design, the description says spun-formed catalyst whereas the cat i got were just sheets of corrugated metal.

Spun formed cats are much sturdier in design and the cats they sent are clearly the wrong ones.

My return window has passed and of course I tried contacting the seller to resolve this.

They have basically given me the middle finger saying the cats are not for my car despite them sending me the wrong ones.

The seller sending me the wrong cats has costed me near a thousand dollars.

400 for original install, 200 something for the cats and another 300 to have an exhaust shop remove the failed cats.

It is not my fault the seller decided to substitute the cats with a different part.

Of course the seller is trying to argue that the cats they sent are just as quality as the description photos when they clearly aren't.

Where do I go from here?

Can't click return an item.

Do I need to take this to small claims court?

Below are pictures of what I got vs what I was supposed to get and how the cats failed.

[bonjourami]

Because you have had the cats installed, then a thousand miles later, had them removed, they are not in the original condition.That voids any buyer protection with Ebay(too late anyway), and Paypal.

[fuzzface50]

"I handed them the boxes to install the cats."

Did you even look in the box first at them?    If you didn't then maybe the shop swap them out and kept the ones in the box for their own use.

okay enough playing devil's advocate here but already mentioned above, sorry, you don't have a claim because they were installed. time to do something was when they arrived and you actually opened the box and verified at that time that they were different then described.  

[ace134blue]

That does not matter.

There would be no point in the manufacturer listing a warranty if they could argue "they are not in the original condition" after welding them to the car.

The issue is the seller sent substitute cats that were knockoffs of what I paid for.

The replacement cats had a manufacturing defect causing the catalyst to break out.

Is ebay going to overlook the fact they sent the wrong item which caused damage to my car?

If not, I will have to take this to small claims court.

Do I need to make a claim against ebay and the seller, or just the seller?

[a_c_green]

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@ace134blue wrote:

Do I need to take this to small claims court?

If you can, yes. Unfortunately the time to check them was after you received them and before they were installed, but at least you have photos of the parts to show that their construction does not match the ones in the listing photo (or their description). Small Claims might be worth a shot, although (I think) you need to file in the seller's state if it's different from yours. (I have to say, though, that those views of the damaged interior look as if the layers were actually struck and shredded by something blasted into them via the exhaust stream. Weird.)

One other possibility: if your original purchase was funded by your credit card, you could try a chargeback for the original purchase price, although I don't think you can recover your installation/removal costs, as those were service projects done at your request.

[ace134blue]

I did look at them upon handing them off to the exhaust shop. The exhaust shop did not swap them.

I contacted the ebay seller about them not matching the description photos and they said they are just as good "quality".

So they substituted the cats with one that had the same dimensions.

It's not my fault they made that call and they should be the ones who are at fault for making that decision.

[ace134blue]

Good info.

As I said in the post above, I did mention to the seller and they argued that the cats they sent are just as good quality.

Any logical person can see that they are not as good quality though.

As for the cats, nothing was blasted into the exhaust.

The corrugated sheets of metal are very flimsy and you can easily move them round with your fingers so the pressure of the exhaust gases can easily move them.

Spun-form cats are literally formed as part of the shell of the piping so they cannot move around.

The ones i got are just inserted into the pipe with those metal rings holding them in.

There was a manufacturing defect which cause the ring to fall out which let loose the catalyst.

This whole situation is morally wrong and it's real sad that ebay nor the seller will do anything.

As for the charge back, is that against the seller or ebay?

[a_c_green]

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@ace134blue wrote:

As for the charge back, is that against the seller or ebay?

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Ultimately, it would be against the seller, and it would go through PayPal rather than eBay. You should probably just talk directly to your card provider about how to do it and what your options are.

Note that you do have to have the purchase on your credit card record to begin with. If you paid from your PayPal balance, or a PayPal payment that was funded from your bank account rather than from your credit card, then unfortunately a chargeback would not be an option for you, since your credit card company would not have been involved in the original purchase. Good luck.

[shewat_1547]

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@ace134blue wrote:

I did look at them upon handing them off to the exhaust shop. The exhaust shop did not swap them.

I contacted the ebay seller about them not matching the description photos and they said they are just as good "quality".

So they substituted the cats with one that had the same dimensions.

It's not my fault they made that call and they should be the ones who are at fault for making that decision.

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Then you should have noticed the difference.

[2015mhfashions]

You've written 2 statements in your replies :

I did look at them upon handing them off to the exhaust shop. The exhaust shop did not swap them.

Any logical person can see that they are not as good quality though.

If that's the case why did you use them ? Simply open INAD and return.

[shewat_1547]

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@2015mhfashions wrote:

You've written 2 statements in your replies :

I did look at them upon handing them off to the exhaust shop. The exhaust shop did not swap them.

Any logical person can see that they are not as good quality though.

If that's the case why did you use them ? Simply open INAD and return.

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Bad and wrong advice.  The OP had a 3rd party install them, they're used, they cannot be returned and the condition they were received in.

The OP says that they inspected them before so that there is no way that the installation people could have swapped them out, so they should have known that they weren't the items they had paid for.

This is on the OP and their 3rd party mechanic for not noticing the cats weren't right to begin with.