eBay

tervarg_2 · ‎08-11-2018

Hi,

I recently bid on a 128 GB Google Pixel and won on July 29th. I paid promptly and it took 2 weeks to go through GSP and I finally received it yesterday. I checked the phone and discovered it was the 32 GB version. I contacted the seller and gave them the IMEI number to confirm. They admitted that they sold both phones, messed up and sent me the wrong phone. I am in Canada and the seller shipped from North Carolina.

The seller advised what is listed below.

"Please provide tracking information along with any costs occurred so that I can make sure to refund you all shipping costs along with your bid amount."

I just had a couple of questions.

1) I am still interested in the other phone - the 128 GB. Is there a way the seller can send me that? I can get a refund and I can pay again. (Mostly because seller seems legit and it seems to be a one off mistake). If not, do I go return item option and start from there or do something else?

2) As I send this phone back to the seller in the U.S, I don't know if I will be charged due to customs to send it back to the U.S . I am in Canada. I read something about "marking it as return to sender". This is my first time buying on Ebay and there seems to be a lot of conflicting information. I've never had to send something back.

3) How will I be refunded for the import charges paid to Pitney Bowes? Will Ebay be refunding me the portion paid to Pitney Bowes?

A step by step guide would be appreciated. This is my first time using Ebay and I don't know where to start. Thank you for taking the time to help me out.

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-19-2018

@femmefan1946 wrote:
I shipped it back on the 14th and it will reach the buyer on the August 23rd......I'm not sure when GSP will be issuing that.

Usually, when GSP is involved, there is no demand for return.
GSP handles the refund as a no-drama business expense, and requests the unhappy buyer to destroy or donate the unwanted item.

As mentioned in post 8, this is a seller fault snad so the item does get sent back if the seller wants it back. The gsp then refunds the money they were paid and the seller refunds the rest.

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-19-2018

@femmefan1946 wrote:
I shipped it back on the 14th and it will reach the buyer on the August 23rd......I'm not sure when GSP will be issuing that.

Usually, when GSP is involved, there is no demand for return.
GSP handles the refund as a no-drama business expense, and requests the unhappy buyer to destroy or donate the unwanted item.

As mentioned in post 8, this is a seller fault snad so the item does get sent back if the seller wants it back. The gsp then refunds the money they were paid and the seller refunds the rest.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎08-19-2018

The only way you would be able to get the correct phone you originally ordered (128 GB) is if the customer that received it in error is willing and honest enough to return it to the seller for shipping to you. More than likely though, they are going to be thrilled to have received yours even if it was in error and will not complain to the seller. In this particular situation, your only recourse was the NAD and wait for your refund(s) to process and then bid on another phone that meets your requirements.

-CM

marnotom! · ‎08-19-2018

@pjcdn2005: I think we're probably defining "support" differently. I don't consider a refund of the import charges on this sale to be "support" for a return, given that the buyer and seller are doing a heckuva lotta hoop-jumping without any sort of involvement from the GSP/PitneyBowes. In other words, PitneyBowes has no mechanisms in place to grease the wheels, such as they are.

I do see and appreciate your point, though.

marnotom! · ‎08-19-2018

@lotzofuniquegoodies: There's the possibility that the seller would be able to obtain another 128-gig phone. We don't have much to go on, of course, but this could be a seller who specializes in this sort of merchandise and has connections that would enable him to procure a replacement fairly easily.

Or he may have multiples in stock already.

tervarg_2 · ‎08-23-2018

Hi all,

Sorry about the delay in replying.

So I received my payment from the seller and the shipping amount as well.

This how much I paid so far. All amounts are in U.S.

Phone - $252 (refunded by seller)

Shipping cost - $14.19 (refunded by Ebay)

Import cost - $38.95 (NOT refunded by Pitney Bowes)

So I got in touch with Help & Contact and they told me that it might NOT be refundable at all. They were pretty much trying to get me to accept it as a cost of doing business on Ebay. They said that Pitney Bowes and Ebay are separate companies and they can't issue a refund.

I said that I'm fine paying import fees if I had a phone. As it stands, I have no phone and I am not going to be paying any import fees. If anything refund me from the seller, as they screwed up. It is going to be a month soon and I am frankly getting more and more annoyed as I have no phone and now I'm being charged these fees through no fault of my own. All because Pitney Bowes can't issue a refund.

I just got off the phone and they advised that I shouldn't get my hopes up on getting my money back. I am not sure what to do at this point. I guess I should see the bright side and that is NEVER EVER EVER use GSP again. Not sure, if I should go through Paypal? Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your valuable time.

tervarg_2 · ‎08-23-2018

This is not a big commercial seller.

He is an individual that updated his phones and is getting rid of the old ones.

So he said that the other individual is returning the phone, however he still hasn't mentioned anything.

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-23-2018

Don't go to PP, you'll get a bigger headache with them when it comes to the gsp.

I would phone ebay again and ask to talk to a gsp specialist. To be honest I don't know if there is such a person but I've seen people on the boards being advised to ask for one. You should definitely receive back your import fees since this was a not as described return and you are covered by ebay's MBG to be refunded in full. Don't mention anything about getting a different phone, that is a totally different issue but I would be firm that you need to receive a full refund.

What was the reason that you used when you opened the return request?

tervarg_2 · ‎08-23-2018

Ok, I will call and try again.

The reason I used was Item not as described -> wrong item sent.

I don't get why this is such a big hassle to be honest. I mean, unless they are trying to run the clock down on the MBG or something. But yea, for a first time buying experience this has ended up being a nightmare.

Guess the silver lining is that, going forward it get only get better right lol.

retroman_studios · ‎08-23-2018

You know, when I've opened cases on PayPal for items that were GSP, they automatically create a case for GSP. Why don't you if all else fails open a PayPal claim for the Pitney Bowes transaction. That's if all other routes fail.

This is kinda a grey area because. To one point seller made a mistake, which they admitted to, so seller should really compensate. On the other hand the eBay MBG comes into play, although one would need to look at the fine print.

Perhaps a little insight from eBay staff to this since eBay values it cross border marketplace solution?

tervarg_2 · ‎08-23-2018

I guess the thing that really annoys me more than anything else was the fact that they wanted to "manage my expectations". I mean its just $50 CAD but at the end of the day, I'm going to stick with this out of principle.

My assumption was that the MBG would cover this as well, that is why it was such a shock when they told me that Ebay and Pitney Bowes are 2 separate companies and I had to "manage my expectations". I mean its gonna be a month since I bought the phone and I still have no phone but apparently Ebay thinks its okay to charge me import fees. I've been going back and forth regarding this for at least a week and still no resolution in sight.

I gonna keep PP option in the back pocket and another member suggested that I go to the Canada Post website and fill out a form so that Revenue Canada will return the money. However, I don't know how long that will take.

I do want to thank each and everyone of you for taking the time to read my thread and just helping me out. I know I would be completely lost if it wasn't for your valuable suggestions and insights. I really do appreciate it!

Thanks again

T

marnotom! · ‎08-23-2018

@tervarg_2 wrote:

I mean its gonna be a month since I bought the phone and I still have no phone but apparently Ebay thinks its okay to charge me import fees. I've been going back and forth regarding this for at least a week and still no resolution in sight.

I gonna keep PP option in the back pocket and another member suggested that I go to the Canada Post website and fill out a form so that Revenue Canada will return the money. However, I don't know how long that will take.

Hey, there. Just a couple of points from me to help clarify things if you're able to get hold of a "GSP specialist". (Like @pjcdn2005, I've heard the suggestion myself but don't know if or how it works in practice, but it definitely is something worth pursuing.)

First of all, the "import charges" are levied by Pitney Bowes, not eBay, which is why you've been fed the line about two different companies being involved here. It's not actually a line, but it isn't terribly helpful to your situation.

The way the "import charges" work is that Pitney Bowes pays any taxes, duties, and customs-processing fees related to your item on your behalf and is on record as having paid those monies. The "import charges" are your way of paying back Pitney Bowes.

Trying to make a claim with Canada Border Services or Revenue Canada for those "import charges" isn't going to fly because you didn't actually pay taxes (and duty, if applicable) and processing fees. It's like if you give a friend cash to gas up your car and your friend uses a credit card to pay. Your friend will be the one on record for having paid for the gas, GST, etc. on the fill-up. You don't have a receipt for the gas, your friend does. You don't have a receipt for the taxes, etc. paid on your phone, but Pitney Bowes does.

Hope that makes sense.

Hope you do get this sorted out to your satisfaction. Please continue to keep us posted.

femmefan1946 · ‎08-24-2018

Pitney Bowes pays any taxes, duties, and customs-processing fees related to your item on your behalf and is on record as having paid those monies.

Is there a phone or email way for the OP to get in touch with PB and talk with an 'eBay/GSP' specialist?

Because somewhere PB should be reclaiming the duty and sales taxes they paid on behalf of the buyer. Which at the moment are with CBSA or Revenue Canada.

You'd think PB would have somebody -- even if it's just Linda in Accounting-- who deals with this question.

GSP handles thousands of parcels going all over the world every day. They deal with Not As Described/ Damaged with a simple refund, and no return required. Which for a big - and really quite efficient- company is the cheapest way.

These seller errors are another kettle of fish. And oysters, crawdads, turtles and octopi. Just a mess of seafood.

Sadly, it is too bad the OP didn't just say the item was received broken and claimed the refund. It wouldn't be ethical, but it would be simple.

tervarg_2 · ‎08-24-2018

Well, at this point I'm pretty much ready to call everyday. After hearing all these No's, somebody is bound to say Yes.

"Sadly, it is too bad the OP didn't just say the item was received broken and claimed the refund. It wouldn't be ethical, but it would be simple."

That might have been easier but my personal integrity wouldn't let me do that. So, despite being a little more tedious this is the path I have to go down. In the future, if someone else goes through this situation at least my experience will be able to help them. I will be keeping you all posted.

momcqueen · ‎08-24-2018

I don't know if it was cited earlier in the thread, but here are the terms and conditions of the MoneyBack Guarantee as it pertains to the Global Shipping Program. There was also once an entire thread where we debated whether Items Not as Described cases were eligible for the refund of import fees until ebay staff confirmed they are.

https://pages.ebay.ca/shipping/globalshipping/buyer-tnc.html

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-24-2018

I’ve heard just the opposite. There have been a couple recent posts on the US boards about gsp claims through PP and they were not smooth sailing either. I would file with them in this situation as a last resort.

reallynicestamps · ‎08-24-2018

@tervarg_2

They paid $60 CAD. $30 for the package with tracking and $30 for the inconvenience.

So the seller paid for Return Shipping PLUS an apology fee?

Since you have also received your original payment back, minus the import fees, with that $30 apology, I think you are coming out even or a little ahead.

(I'm dysnumeric, and lost track of all the payments.)

tervarg_2 · ‎08-24-2018

"Since you have also received your original payment back, minus the import fees, with that $30 apology, I think you are coming out even or a little ahead."

I'm worked the math out and I am still in the hole about $20. Now normally, it wouldn't be a big deal but all this **bleep** I've gone through I'm determined to see it through till the end. The seller gave me about $30 for wasting my time instead of double checking the address.

tervarg_2 · ‎08-24-2018

Just an update, I talked to an Ebay rep named Jasmine like 10 minutes ago and she advised that Ebay won't be able to do anything. She said that the best thing to do would be to initiate a dispute through Paypal in order to received the money for the import charges.

I asked her once again to confirm whether Ebay would be able to refund in any way, shape or form? She advised that she would not be able to do anything and in her words "Personally, if this happened to me I would go through Paypal because Ebay can't provide any other recourse." I thanked her for effort and time and hung up.

Now about 2 minutes later, she called me back saying that she looked into it a little more and she got in touch with the Manual Collections team and explained my situation to them. It seems that they might be able to do something. She said that it might take between 5 - 7 days but she said it wasn't a guarantee but either way she would be emailing me or calling me back with regards to this situation. I asked to speak to her manager as well, cuz she did a great job and I explained that she was going above and beyond to help me out. So, I'm hoping that this pans out.

This was my Hail Mary pass and hopefully they might be able to do something for me. If this does not work, I guess my only option is to go with the Paypal dispute. Is there anything else I should try? Any other suggestions?

Thanks for taking the time to read and help me out.

marnotom! · ‎08-25-2018

Did you ask to speak to a GSP Specialist when you called eBay?

The rep you spoke to is correct in that eBay can't issue a refund as the import charges aren't collected by eBay; they're not eBay's to refund.

What you need to do here is get Pitney Bowes in the loop on this. Right now, I don't get the sense that your problem is on their radar or will be.

Filing the PayPal route may have to be the way to go here in order to get Pitney Bowes involved. I'm not optimistic that you're going to see a resolution with what the rep is pursuing because it doesn't appear to include Pitney Bowes.