Ebay: Dispute or Amicable Resolution?

AxeWieldingBastard

Bought an item off the bay, it looks fine, but sounds all the wrong kind of ugly.
Do u just head straight to PP and raise a dispute and let them mediate from start to finish?
Or do u contact the seller first to give them a chance (even if potentially untrustworthy)?
Id prefer the latter, but dont want to end up with no honey and no money.

ICBM

Is it faulty, or do you just not like it?

joeyowen

Always contact the seller first, they may be happy to resolve. Don't let them stall you too much though as time will run out to raise a dispute.

Only if it's broken though, if you just don't like it, nothing much you can do

AxeWieldingBastard

It sounds broken to me.

AxeWieldingBastard

Ill contact the buyer, hes not gonna like me

mart

If it's a ukulele, they're supposed to sound like that.

ThorpyFX

always give the seller a chance, if its just that you don't like the item id say that you have to accept that that is not the sellers fault. 

AxeWieldingBastard

Lol @ Mart
I wouldn't return just because i didn't like it. I had some guy do that to me when i sold my LazyJ, got the ped back and it was fine. Annoying!
Thanks for the advice, wasn't sure on the etiquette as ive always been a happy shopper.

Beexter

I'd try the seller first. You have nothing to lose as you can still raise a dispute if it isn't resolved. Tricky if you just dont like the item though. If it's as described, I don't think there is much you can do unless the listing states returns are accepted.

Voxman

I sympathise but unfortunately you haven't given us much info re the problem ie what the item is, what you paid, and exactly why you're not happy. Otherwise 'All the wrong kind of ugly' and 'it sounds broken to me' doesn't really give too many clues - I'm assuming this relates to an FX unit of some sort.  You need to be quite specific to the seller to be fair to them, to E-Bay if you're raising an issue, and it would help us to help you. For example, if its a chorus pedal that is distorting or a distortion pedal that isn't distorting properly etc. If it's a stomp pedal, have you checked its not a problem with the power supply or even battery?  It's just that without any real information we're kind of all stabbing in the dark here.     

E-Bay always expects buyer/seller to communicate and for buyers to give sellers a fair opportunity to resolve. Its important that even if you don't get a response or can't resolve matters, that you have an audit trail that E-Bay can see - so all dialogue should be through the E-Bay account so they can access the messages from both sides.  Depending on quantum and reason for dispute they have a system to automatically 'undo' sale and credit your account back if for example the seller fails to respond, or to adequately respond within a reasonable time.  

But assuming there is a bona-fide fault with the item and it isn't doing what's described, there's no problem at all. Couple of years back I bought a special car battery jump starter device that looked heavy duty, but that didn't generate enough power to jump-start a flea. Seller asked me to return it and he'd refund me. This would cost £18 (it was darned heavy!) and I couldn't get his written confirmation I'd be re-imbursed, plus I didn't want inconvenience of packing & sending. So I refused but told him he could arrange collection. Nothing happened; told E-Bay who saw correspondence and credited my account - I then gave the unit away as I didn't want it taking up space.  

Johnnyseven

I would just raise through the resolution centre, the reason being that if you return it it will cover you if you do. If you send it back without the seller could claim to not have agreed a refund, say they never received it etc. Using the Resolution Centre will record all discussions with the seller and ebay will come to a decision, however in my experience they always side with the buyer.