This is regarding a Canon SLR camera I 'tried' to sell on eBay. Being a new user, was not aware of some of the policies. A customer paid for the product and when I tried to ship the camera, no couriers were ready to ship fragile items including Blue Dart and Professional. As the delivery was a local one, I called up the buyer and ask him if he was ready to accept a hand delivery. He agreed. I hand delivered the item and he accepted receipt of the item on eBay. eBay told me that my payment had not been remitted because I would have to submit a POD,the transaction being a high-value one. I submitted the POD and did not hear from them and my payment was not remitted to me too for some time. Then I received an email and a phone call saying that all was clear and that my remittance is active and all dues would be paid to my account. When after a week of this intimation I called up eBay, they said that the payment had been refunded to the buyer. Earlier the same agent had assured me that inspite of the policy violation due to my ignorance of eBay policy, I would still receive the payment. The agent now told me that this would not happen. I asked him about the assurances he had given me and there was no concrete response to that and he kept repeating the same excuse. He said eBay would not be able to help in this case. I informed him that when the customer is acknowledging receipt of the item which had been verified also earlier in the transaction by eBay, then why was the POD receiving so much attention. I would have understood the concern if the camera was not working fine or the buyer had not received the delivery. But all was fine and the buyer was satisfied with the purchase as stated in one of the conversations I had with an eBay representative.
I approached eBay.com (US) this time and explained to them the issue and they passed me back to eBay.in. On sending them messages eBay.in has not bothered to reply.
So now, I do not have my SLR camera and the money has been refunded back to the buyer. This sets a great example for a supply chain gap. While I have lost my money, what is more important to me are the communication gaps and the way in which it simply dropped my case.
I was informed that the reasons for the issue were the rejection of the POD and the hand delivery of the product. I feel the real reason was that they never informed me about the rejection of the POD either due to system gaps at their end or just sheer lack of coordination. Also, eBay also probably did not realise that if they did not process the POD on time, then the refund would be triggered by their 'own' system. They were probably caught unawares and where they had informed me (seller) that the remittance would be made, by that time or at the same time probably the payment had been marked for a refund on the buyer's credit card. A goof up sure and probably will not know till eBay tells me. I am waiting and all ears!
