Ebay Buyer Protections Aren't Good Anymore
I had two recent experiences with ebay that caused me to stop using them.
Case 1.
I bought an item (2 tubes of Shoe Goo to fix some shoes), no tracking number was provided on the Purchase History page, when ebay showed it as Delivered and I had not received it, I asked the seller for the tracking number, no reply, asked again, no reply, on the third request they provided the tracking number.
It was a FedEx number so I called FedEx customer service, gave them the number, repeated it 2 times to make sure they got it correctly, gave them my name and address, and they said neither my name nor my address were on the shipping label.
I told this to ebay, gave them the tracking number and FedEx customer service number, they denied my claim for a refund saying the customer assured them it had been delivered to me. ebay never called FedEx! I contested and they denied it again.
Case 2.
I bought the same item from a different ebay account (which I now suspect was the same seller as in Case 1.) When it too was marked as delivered I never received it.
I went to the USPS with the tracking number and told them what happened, they said it had been delivered to a different name and address than mine. They actually printed out proof of this so I could use it to back up my claim to ebay - that the seller used the wrong address. I took a picture of the USPS document, posted it in a message to the seller, the seller didn't respond to me, and ebay again denied my claim of a refund, saying the seller assured them it had been delivered to my address. I told ebay the seller is obviously lying, please look at the proof I posted... nope.
Summary:
ebay buyer protections used to be very good, but now in my experience they are worthless. I closed my account and will use other online sellers instead of ebay going forward.
Suggested if you use ebay:
If you use ebay I recommend you use PayPal to make your purchases, as that gives you an additional option for a refund in case ebay screws you, besides using your credit card bank, which often takes 6 to 8 weeks (Chase) to research a refund. PP does it quickly, sometimes instantly.
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