I had an extremely negative experience purchasing a mobile phone from a seller . I believe this seller does not really have any products and only exists on eBay to make money off the less informed buyers.
Here's what appears to me the modus-operandi of this bottom-feeder seller:
1. You place an order.
2. The seller asks for an extension of 14 or 15 days, citing the foreign-import as a reason for the delay, despite showing that 4 or 5 items are available. You accept that.
3. After the extension period is over, the seller pretends to ship the item (the seller updates the order on eBay and claims to have shipped the item), and provides a bogus (invalid) tracking number of a courier. However, you have to wait (as told by your eBay portal) for 10 days as the supposedly shipped item takes time to arrive, before you can claim a refund.
4. Now, as I understand, this seller depends upon you not making a refund request when the period for waiting for the delivery of the item is over. That is because, if you do not make a refund request within a few (3? Maybe 4?) days of the expected delivery date, eBay automatically assumes that you have received the item. eBay does say so at the status page of your order, though it does not mention the exact date or number of days after which it would mark the order as received.
If, at this point, you ask the seller why the item has not arrived and why the seller provided to you an invalid tracking number, you receive a reply from the seller with the same foreign-import as the reason of the delay (even though that is ridiculous as the item had supposedly been already shipped to you via a local courier service), and no explanation for the invalid tracking number. The seller also asks you to wait for 4 more days for the delivery (by which time eBay would automatically mark the order as received) - A very shady practice by the seller.
I don't know what happens if you really wait for the item instead of claiming a refund at this point. Maybe the seller gets to keep your money without sending anything in return. I just went ahead and made a refund request.
5. The seller disputes (appeals against) the refund request, whereby, eBay puts it on hold and you now need to wait longer for your money. eBay does not tell you a deadline for sorting out this claim. If you ask about that from the eBay Customer Support, they take more than 48 hours (i.e., longer than their claimed response time) to tell you that it may take eBay up to 20 days to make a decision. The Customer Support response is polite and very reassuring, though. However, again, the Customer Support seems to ignore what you've said; specifically, I had asked them not to contact me on mobile (for, my current handset is not working properly, which also I told them), but later they did that anyway, showing neglect, carelessness, and disregard of the customer's choice on their part.
6. After more than a week, you receive a call from eBay and they finally approve your refund request. This phone call and the associated experience was also very positive for me, even if them contacting me via the phone call was unwanted (as I explained in the last point).
Maybe the seller would sharpen their deceiving strategy with every new order and therefore the next buyer may not be so lucky. I'd advise not to fall for the scam, and to steer clear of this seller.
My overall rating for eBay regarding this order is average; the automated instructions they provide are unclear and inadequate, they take long to initiate any action (or to reply to the customers' queries); but once they're on to anything, they do it superbly and take no time to finish it to your satisfaction. (Tip: The refund took about a week to reach my bank account after having been approved from eBay.) eBay also seem to delete some of the messages from my eBay inbox on their own - something I don't like at all. This takes away from my trust score in them.
Overall, I'd most likely avoid buying from eBay in the future unless there's no alternative, as there's nothing definite and you are at the mercy and goodwill of the eBay Customer Support people, which I believe it should not be so.
You may respond to this message but please note that I may not be able to follow up. Thanks for reading.
