Ebay rules and consumer law?

[vohkinne]

Hi....I just received a package from hong kong through ebay but the parcel arrived mangled.
my parents took it in and prob. signed for it.
The item in the box was very expensive and was sadly broken so that it is now worthless as it was a collectable.
What are my rights? I want either my money or a replacement but i don't want to pay £20 in post when this has nothing to do with me.
What can I do to avoid unfair charges.

[atworth49]

When you say 'probably signed for it....' - did they or didn't they? And did they sign 'in good condition'?

Find out the facts and then contact the seller via ebay messages. It's for the seller to sort out, but remember that they don't know you've got a problem until you tell them - and will probably be as irritated with the postal service as you are!

[wethrby]

Was the item insured,
if it was, then contact the seller, they claim the insurance and they give you the refund- simple !!

[smid]

You will have to pay the return postage.

If you can't agree anything with the buyer, then open a case, but what ebay will decide is that you send it back at your own cost.

[boyce]

You can have all the legal rights in the world, but if you cant exercise them they are worthless

It depends what your parents signed

Its possible they signed to say it had arrived ok
In this case you dont have any rights to send it back at all
(the seller is responsibile for ensuring it arrives safely - if your parents said it did, the sellers responsibility has legally ended)
However - its quite possible that the box was ok but the contents were smashed internally during transit. In this case the seller might accept your word that this was the case and that when it was received it looked fine, it was only when opened did you become aware it was smashed.


If the didnt then legally you are entitled to send it back at no cost to you.
Problem is - the only way you could do this is pay the postage yourself and claim it back from the seller. If the seller dont pay it then you are stuffed. you would also be relying on the seller sending you a replacement

One option is to advise the seller whats happened and see what they say. It may well be that they will rely on your word and just supply a replacement without requiring the original sent back (whats the point of sending a smashed item back except to verify it WAS smashed?)
(take photos of object and offer to send via e-mail - as a buyer it was in your interest to have the object undamaged. Offering photos would show that the object WAS damaged and, as it would NOT have been in your interest to damage it yourself, then thats how it arrived.)

However the only thing you can do with certainty is raise a case with e-bay and get your money back (but I would still advise the seller first, cos I would not be happy if a case was raised without the opportunity to rectify the problem)