Yon March this year I bought a £60 Nintendo Switch console on eBay. Never arrived. The Royal Mail tracking number shows a delivery in August 2022, seven months before I placed the order – to an address in the Midlands. I suspected that the seller had fraudulently applied a tracking number previously used to suggest that the order had been delivered. EBay’s money back guarantee promises a refund for any item not listed, so I contacted customer service. They assured me that a refund would be automatically applied to my account. Instead, I received a message that my claim was invalid and the matter was closed. I filed an appeal. Within half an hour I received a notification that my appeal had been rejected. I’m quite frankly at my wit’s end and pretty exhausted with the whole process.
CS, Swansea
EBay’s website states that member safety is its top priority and has “zero tolerance” for fraud. However, it seems that their algorithms expect scammers to play by the rules.
The platform’s money-back guarantee requires buyers to complain within 30 days of an estimated or actual delivery date. Since the seller provided tracking for a package sent to a stranger last August, the system seems to have decided that it didn’t have time. EBay told me that your refund was delayed due to a “technical issue” and has now been processed manually. It is not known if he would have ever appeared without the threat of a headline. He said he was “resolving” the issues he experienced and had “taken action” against the seller.
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