It's been a while since I bitched & moaned about something, so I'm back, Ebay and Paypal being my latest peeves.
I ordered a sh1tload of stuff on Ebay during the November/December 2017 period, an act of utter stupidity in retrospect, as not only did every single order (10+) fail to arrive by its 'Due-date', about one-third to one-quarter still haven't shown up and probably never will. This incidentally was only the second time since joining Ebay in 2003 that orders have gone missing in the post.
In order to protect myself financially, I was therefore forced to look for refunds on all outstanding orders. This proved a chore in itself as some of the orders had over 15 items and Ebay forces the Buyer to go through the same tedious Refund request operation for each item. This must have taken an hour or so. What came as a surprise was that all of the Sellers promptly offered refunds without query or dispute. Which had me wondering just who ends up out of pocket when something like this happens - is it the Seller or are they insured against it, therefore not too bothered about losses like these?
Given that I see it as bad Karma to try profiting on someone elses misfortune, I set about repaying the Sellers that had given me Refunds, for orders that finally had begun to show up in dribs-and-drabs, a simple task one would imagine.
Not a bit of it! First off, Ebay does not seem to give a toss what happens after the initial transaction is complete (and they have collected their fees). Two months after an order is placed, Buyer-selectable menu-items for said order will disappear, irrespective of whether the order was received or not. The only usable option left being to "Contact Seller".
Without exception, when I have contacted a Seller about repaying Refunded money, I am instructed to re-order all of the items again (often a time-consuming process) and supply a note mentioning the Refund - that way, they will just pocket the money without sending another order out - fine by me! This I have done several times already. However this is far from ideal. For instance, one item I had bought 3 months earlier had cost $15.77. When it eventually arrived and I tried going the 'Refund-by-reordering' route, the cost had increased to $23.89 - there was no way I was going to fall for that! In this instance, I managed to pay him through Paypal - more on that lot later.
Currently, I have another order that has arrived for the amount of $28, made up of about 15 items that needs to be repaid. Given that I was curious as to how Ebay looked upon this repay-by-reordering of Refunds, I contacted Ebay, and was informed that the usual way of repaying Refunds is via Paypal - just call up the Refund transaction details, right-click on the Seller's email address and select 'Send Money' - makes sense. Interestingly, the Ebay Rep. that responded didn't comment on the 'repay-by-reordering' of Refunds, so I guess they're Ok with this.
Except that when I do this, there is no Seller's email address displayed! The bizarre thing is that when I contacted the Seller and told him about this, and that I needed him to send me his Paypal address in order to send him the Refunded money, he refused, insisting that I re-order all of the items again. This I told him I am not prepared to do.
In a final attempt to 'do the right thing', I have contacted Paypal and asked them to explain how I can send money to a Seller when Paypal themselves are failing to provide the required email address.
Right now, all of this has really left me with a sour taste as far as Ebay is concerned. First off, what the hell has been happening to my orders - orders have been late in the past, but individual orders not 15+ orders simultaneously! While the Guaranteed Refunds is great, the way Ebay sucks in cash, you expect them to also anticipate problems like this and provide a point-and-click method of returning refunded monies to Sellers.
It's also one of the reasons that I'm just after ordering €200 of stuff through Amazon.uk, not Ebay. Not only am I guaranteed to get my items an order of a magnitude faster, I am also covered financially.
Ebay, you'd better cop on or you'll go the way of the dodo.
Edit:
Wow, I'm dumb-founded at the utter incompetence of Paypal's Customer Support. My first email to them was a general query, excluding specifics, as I just wanted to know how to locate a vaild email address from a Paypal user-name. I was promptly answered, Paypal needed a 'Transaction ID' number.
Second email, I provided same, while briefly adding that I had contacted Ebay initially and they had informed me that I must return Refunds to Sellers via Paypal. Mistake - The mere mention of Ebay had the Paypal Rep. send me a two-liner telling me that Paypal was a separate company and that I sould contact them for help!!!
Third email, I point out that this is exclusively a Paypal issue - I simply am trying to pay someone through Paypal, need a valid email address to do so, and would they kindly please address the specific question I have been asking. I also include again the Transaction ID number of the Seller's Refund for completeness. I get a one-liner response this time, requesting the Transaction ID number.....
At this stage, I can only conclude that Paypal is fcuking with me! That, or Paypal's out-sourced Customer Support(!) - the names appear Indian - is pissed off with Paypal, so are fcuking with its customers. Either way, this is the worst Customer Support I have received from any company, ever! These guys seem completely incompetent.
To add to the irony, after the second email, Paypal contact me, asking me to rate their Customer Support. I must have spent 10min doing so, explaining my dissatisfaction with the service I had thus far received. Only to be treated to more of the same....
Fourth email, a one-liner listing the Transaction ID for a third time. Those clowns seem to have a 1sec attention span. Maybe I'm expecting too much with multi-line emails.
Edit1:
I'm just after receiving another order that was placed on December 17, 2017 - so yeah, a mite late in arriving!!!
After the fiasco with what Paypal laughingly calls its Customer Support - see post above - I am reduced to going the 'repay-by-reordering' route. Or so I thought.
I owe this latest Seller just $11.64, but when I try re-ordering the item from him, I am informed that the Seller refuses to sell to Buyers that fail to "meet his requirement" - yep, I've apparently been blacklisted! I cannot even contact the Seller via Ebay as I'm informed when I try, that the Seller cannot respond to my questions. So no way at all to pay back the Refunded money to this genius.
But this raises the quesion as to what rights a Buyer has when dealing with Ebay Sellers. Can a Seller just blacklist you on a whim like the Seller above has done to me? Ebay's money-back guarantee isn't all that it appears if a Seller that gives you a Refund for goods genuinely not received (in a timely manner in this instance) can then refuse all further business with the Buyer in question - namely, me!!! I'm sure that there's something called "Consumer Rights" that prohibits a retailer from taking this line of action - at least here in the EU.
I'd contacted Ebay about it but following my experience with their (Ebay & Paypal) farmed-out, abysmal Customer Support, I'm sure such a 'General Question' would be a waste of time.
It does highlight how disfunctional Ebay's business model can be, when something like this arises. Money-back guarantee aside, they have put zero thought into what happens when orders don't arrive in a timely manner. It would appear that they are content at having the Seller suffer the loss, and who really can do little else but offer a Refund, or risk Ebay's wrath!
I'm really, really disillusioned with Ebay.
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