Late last year I bought a laptop on eBay that was being sold by a third party seller. In February the Metropolitan the police emailed me to let me know the laptop had been stolen from the NHS. I returned it, per his instructions, about 10 days later.
I called eBay for a refund, assuming the fraudulent activity would be covered by their money back guarantee. The seller, at that time, had disappeared from the site.
But eBay informed me that since 30 days had passed, they would not help me any further with my loss.
I then contacted American Express, my card provider, to initiate a chargeback, which they did.
However, eBay later reversed that because it said it had not attempted to contact the seller. This seems ridiculous, given that the seller is now the subject of a police investigation.
so i made a section 75 claim with American Express, who rejected it on the basis that I had paid eBay, rather than the seller. To his credit, he offered £50 as a goodwill gesture as a full settlement.
So I lost the £175 I paid for the laptop and I feel like eBay is happy to take their share of the money from the sale but not responsible for fixing the situation.
gn, ballynahinch
It was obvious that you should receive a refund, and we’re happy to say that eBay acted quickly when we contacted them. However, this type of case does little to instill confidence in their ability to protect buyers from fraudulent sellers.
EBay says: “We are sorry about your reader’s experience. We do not condone the sale of stolen goods and have fully refunded them. In the rare event that a stolen property is listed, we have dedicated teams that work closely with law enforcement to remove the listing and investigate the seller.
“We are investigating this case and will take appropriate action if we find any evidence of fraud or criminal activity, including liaising with the appropriate police force.”
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