Claiming a refund after 180 days

[rjg54]

Bought an item from a business seller in march 2017. Brand new so manufacturer warranty. Vacuum developed a fault late September. Seller arranged for DPD to collect so they could inspect. Item was delivered and signed for by seller on Sept 28. Contacted seller Oct 14 asking for an update. They requested "tracking number/proof of postage". Told them they didn`t need that info as they were already in possession of vacuum as confirmed by DPD. Had message from seller on 17 Oct saying I would receive a refund that day. Had another message from seller on Oct 19 saying refund would be in a "few working days".

Sent message to seller on Oct 25 regading refund and had a reply on Oct 27 saying the refund was given on  Oct 19.

Checked Paypal account, no refund. Contacted Paypal and it appears that due to the 180 day limit for disputes there is nothing they can or will do. The moral of this is: If you buy an item using Paypal with a warranty of more than 6 months and it develops a fault after 180 days they are not interested, so much for the "buyer protection"

[kernowlass]

@rjg54

Paypal clearly state that they give you 6 months of buyer protection if you take the time to read up on it before starting to use paypal to buy.

This is the same timescale that most credit cards give you.

Also if you had paid via your debit card or bank transfer you would have 0 buyer protection.

So 6 months with Paypal I think is pretty good.

[rjg54]

Credit cards have no limit. Agree, debit/bank transfer has no protection. What is the point of purchasing an item with a 12 month warranty from a business seller if the seller and Paypal can wash their hands of any responsibilty after 180 days. The buyer then only has recourse to litigation. Where items carry a 12 month manufacturers warranty (which is the responsibility of the retailer/business seller) it would be fair to buyers for Paypal to have the same time period for opening a dispute.

[Paelavong003]

Hi rjg54,

We’re sorry that you had problems with this.

Unfortunately, PayPal can only offer PayPal's Purchase Protection if your transaction is eligible and warranty is not one of them yet. To avoid similar experiences, go to www.paypal.com/uk and click Security near the bottom of any PayPal page to learn more about the protection we offer.

Sincerely yours,
Paelavong

[rjg54]

Paypal Buyer protection is a joke. As stated previously, buy from a business seller a new item with a 12 month warranty, said item develops a fault within the 12 months but after the 180 day limit and paypal doesn`t want to know. I`ve checked feedback of seller in question and the negative comments regarding refunds issued but not received by buyer is a joke.

I now have to resort to litigation as the seller is now in possession of my property (purchased item returned to seller as requested) which in law is theft.

[LaizaVenice]

Hi @rjg54,

I have nothing against you but PayPal cannot really protect something that is really hard to determine as an online company whether the damage or the fault has developed due to misuse or the actual item being substandard. Obviously you would say that ofcourse you've used the product and has made no damage to but again how can we prove this? Even so, it's still over the eligibility period which is 180 days which is more than enough to detect signs of the product having faults or defects don't you agree? But you cannot blame PayPal if you hadn't notice such change or fault.

If you have decided to return the item without PayPal's advise that means you took it upon yourself at your own risk to loose completely and PayPal will not be obliged to respond to that.

Most of the time 5 people out of a million will have trouble using PayPal due to ignorance such as not knowing the policy and not reading the terms and conditions.

Still you may try other schemes to get your money back by either seeking protection with you card issue if you paid with a card that is or filing a small claims court.

Regards,

LaizaVenice

[sonal5117]

There are some good arguments put forward for not honouring the warranty, but that really means one should stop using ebay/paypal for items which have a warranty. I no longer use ebay/paypal for these kind of items as other providers are able to honour these warranties. I still use ebay/paypal for items which can be assessed on arrival or during the 180 days.