Think twice before you purchase anything on Ebay.in

[abhishek.agupta]

Although I'm a regular online shopper, I made a blunder this time by purchasing a stuff on ebay.in - the "so called" World’s #1 online marketplace.
On 13th Feb 2013, I purchased a Toshiba netbook item # 400411897753, using Credit Card PaisaPay ID 33130086202. It was supposed to reach me in 2-3 business days. I was really excited for my new laptop. Two days later, out of curiosity, I called up the seller, enquiring about the non-shipment of the item. To my surprise, he says, "It’s out of stock and cannot ship it". I got furious and asked for a refund immediately.

I was asked to contact EBay for refunds!!!
Now the real pain begins!
I called up Ebay on 19th Feb. Call reference # 1-6451036189.
The person who answered my call didn't know anything about the refund policy. However, she assured me that she will be escalating the matter to the concerned department. So, I waited for another two days. WTF!!
I called up EBay again. This time, it was worse!
The person named Ramzan was more keen in understanding my authenticity than my issue. He asked me ten security questions. (God knows why!) I answered them correct. After which, he said he had to collect more information and told me to hold on for 2mins and he went off. What is terrible is that I had to be on hold for more than 15 mins!! (you may check the records). And the guy never turned up.
So, I tried contacting Ebay through a newly introduced way called online chatting. (Which is too slow!! )You end up getting answers for everything but not for your question. Frustrated to the core, I shot a mail to Ebay. Though time-consuming, it is an efficient way of contacting them. And finally, I got a call from ebay on 22ndFeb. 2013, saying my bill amount would be refunded. But it doesn't end here. They said that I will have to contact another department for refund of processing fee (EMI Charges) its 11th march 2013 and I haven’t received it. My fight is still on...

My only question to ebay is
1) Why did you list the product availability if it was out of stock. Or atleast you could have mentioned that it was Out of Stock

2) Why was I put on hold for such a long time - that too for no reason

3) Why should I suffer for the blocked amount of my credit card (I could not buy the same from other websites as my Credit Limit was blocked)
4) Who is going to compensate for my monetary and non-monetary losses.

Thank you Ebay for such a wonderful experience or LESSON.

[shophappyindia]

Sir,

Sorry to hear your ordeal. Mind you these are ecommerce teething issues and not only happens with ebay.in but an US ecommerce website or indian sites like Flipkart. I see so many reviews of flipkart and deals4u having issues. So no particular site is left.

At the end of it consider this issue if it would have happened in a retail offline market. Would you have blamed anyone. Anyways i sympathize with your situation and wish you best.

thanks,
Rohit

[kunalshree]

hi Abhishek,

i can assure you that this is not an isolated incident, either with ebay or any other online shop. fortunately, the only thing you've got to get a refund for is the EMI charges, which i hope you get soon. i've had a similar order cancellation at another leading e-commerce site and was lucky to get good customer support and a quick, hassle free refund.

having dealt with so many customer harrasment representatives, i know why the level of customer satisfaction is so poor, pathetic. be it my bank, telecom, ecommerce, etc. the agents are all poor at understanding rather than to say not well trained. if it was a case of the later, i could say fine. but it seems like inherent in their nature to harass the customer as if they pay us to get harrased. having worked at an internation BPO for a leading US bank, i can tell all this. with personal experiences, it only vindicates my stand.

Kunal