In March this year I purchased a £60 Nintendo Switch console on eBay. It 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 previously used tracking number to suggest that the order had been delivered. EBay’s money back guarantee promises a refund for any item that does not turn up, so I contacted customer support. I was reassured that a refund would automatically be applied to my account. Instead I received a message telling me that my claim was not valid and the matter was closed. I lodged an appeal. Within half an hour I received a notification that my appeal had been rejected. I am frankly at my wits’ end and quite exhausted with the whole process.
CS, Swansea
EBay’s website declares that members’ safety is its top priority and it has “zero tolerance” for fraud. It seems that its algorithms expect fraudsters to play by the rules, however.
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 parcel sent to a stranger last August, the system appears to have decided you were out of time. EBay told me your refund was delayed due to a “technical issue” and has now been processed manually. Whether it would ever have turned up without the threat of a headline is uncertain. It said it was “addressing” the issues you experienced and had “taken action” against the seller.
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