A Fraud called eBay Guarantee

While eBay can be, and has been, a boon for sourcing items that are otherwise difficult to get, it's a big misery when the item doesn't get delivered, or a faulty one gets delivered. To make matter worse, the fraudulent practice that eBay calls - eBay Guarantee - adds salt to the wound. The whole eCommerce apparatus is based on trust between - not the seller and the buyer, but between the website (which works as a middleman) and the buyer. That's why Flipkart enjoys a lot of trust and is still synonymous with peace-of-mind eCommerce in India. 

eBay is just the opposite. It's all good when you can source things like old manual lenses, tools, equipment that are otherwise pretty difficult to find from local market. It's all good when the seller is honest and well-meaning. It all starts falling apart when any of that is not true.  

Quite a few experiences so far when eBay failed big time for me and caused a lot of distress and that infuriating feeling of being deceived. It's not about the money you lose, it's the feeling that you were taken for a ride by someone/something you trusted - that really pisses me off. eBay guarantee is one such thing. You purchase from eBay thinking it's too big a company to be dishonest about its promises to customers - especially with something as sensitive as eBay Guarantee promise that says you are covered if a seller deceives you. I fell for it. And it failed me. More than once. 


First was when I had bought a case for Moto-G (PaisaPay ID: 36040966303), about six months back. The case didn't fit. I applied for return and refund. These guys took almost 2 days to reply. That too with a funny excuse - "You were not reachable on the contact number you mentioned - 988******, so please upload photographic proof to process your claim". That's my old number from Pune. I still have a screenshot of the order, and it clearly shows my Bangalore number 95******* and says - you will receive SMS alerts and order status on this number. Even the delivery guy calls on *this* number, and eBay just ignored it. 

Unfortunately, by the time they replied, I got impatient and broke the flimsy cover while I trying to force it on the mobile. I mentioned so, and closed the claim. Only if they had called me on the right number ... 

That was the first time I grew suspicious about their practices, even though it was my fault to break it while trying to put it on the mobile. 


Then came this current infuriating episode. My 7-year old Dell laptop's charger went kaput. I decided to buy a locally built one from eBay - thinking even if it turns out bad/conterfeit, eBay will be able to cover it under it's eBay Guarantee. What was I thinking!? 


Here is a step by step account of how and why it got to my nerves - 

I ordered one 90W adapter from eBay (PaisaPay ID: 37359944823) with the same charger family and even validated the plug dimensions against the original one I had. The adapter worked for couple of days, and then on one fine day, it stopped working! Just like that. The green indicator on the charger brick would turn on, but it wouldn't charge the laptop. 

I wrote to the seller about the problem. 

He took almost a week to reply. 

I called this engineer and he came to conclusion that the charger may not work for the laptop even though specs were right. "Only genuine Dell one will work. You can buy that from our eBay shop". We had an agreement about refunding the amount paid. 

I raised an "eBay Guarantee" claim with these details. 

After couple of days, I got a response from ebay, saying they couldn't contact me. 

Preposterous. Both of them were my Pune numbers, long discontinued. I have screen-shot of the order showing my Bangalore number. Why they would not even try a number that's so obviously used for communicating order details and alerts, is a mystery to me. I still replied back with my Bangalore number, along with other details. On the very same day. 

Since a photo couldn't a be proof, I even got my wife to shot a video showing the charger in non-working condition. The charger serial number is also visible in this video http://youtu.be/bUnz7KRyT2U

All this on the very same day. 

And then, couple days later, I receive an email from eBay, saying the claim is rejected! What a rip-off! 

If this is not infuriating, what is!? 

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The eBay head-ache doesn't end here though. Another order (ID: 324132884013) placed on 25-September, with a European seller, is still not delivered, and I have as good as given up on that refund claim as well. 

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This was not the first time I was shopping online. I have shopped from many eCommerce websites, from nascent-stage ones to the well established, from American to Chinese, for electronic goods to cycling equippments. But the kind of trust kickback I received from eBay was unprecedented and unique. 

These days, ebay is completely out of my shopping radar. I even tend to filter out ebay results from my google searches as well. They are the ponzies of online shopping for me. 

The only good thing that came out of this distressful experience is that it got me out of my blogging slumber, and made me finally write about this, so that people would be aware of the reality behind this so-called eBay Guarantee, and would be wary while dealing with eBay in general, due to lack of any real fallback mechanism in case one gets duped. 

Caveat emptor!



PS: I have uploaded the whole guarantee claim page here - a.fraud.called.ebay.guarantee.proof.pdf. Read bottom up. It contains all the communication regarding the claim.