eBay United Kingdom eBay.co.uk eBay Buyer Protect Program Scam Internet

eBay Buyer Protection Program Scam

I bought a brand new chainsaw on eBay (United Kingdom) which came with a 2 year warranty.

The item arrived quickly and I had a friend of mine who owns and runs a sawmill who is using chainsaws all day long put the saw together for me as it arrived via ParcelForce disassembled.

I also read the instruction manual 3 times to ensure I was completely familiar with the chainsaw's safe operation.

Upon going to use the petrol/gasoline powered 62cc engine, I of course filled up the petrol tank on the engine with the correct petrol / oil mixture. And also put the chain oil in the separate tank on the chainsaw engine.

The chainsaw ran at most for 2 minutes (literally) before the machine developed  a fault. The chain brake was stuck in the forward position and would NOT move back to release it. In other words, the safety brake was permanently fixed in the ON position. Upon contacting the seller he advised me to use some force to release the chain brake. This did not work. The chainsaw chain brake is absolutely stuck in the forward (ON) position and if I applied more force, I am afraid of breaking the rather flimsy plastic chain brake handle altogether.

Next I went to undo the 2 nuts on the side cover. Plus the chain tensioning screw. This screw which also holds the same cover in place will NOT undo at all. The screw just turns anti-clockwise without doing anything meaning the side cover cannot come off to inspect what the problem with the chain brake might be.

No worries I thought, I'll simply contact the seller on eBay UK who I purchased the chainsaw from and ask for a full refund under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 which states quite clearly that an item sold has to be fit for it's intended purpose and must work as described. This chainsaw because of the chainsaw brake problem does not work at all - therefore it is not fit for use for it's intended purpose.

The seller refused to refund me saying it was my fault for not reading the instruction manual properly (see above).

So I contacted eBay UK about the matter to see if they would resolve the issue.

They stated that I must send the petrol chainsaw back to the seller and I must pay for the return postage cost which left a rather sour taste in my mouth. Now not only was I sent a faulty chainsaw (a Chinese rip off model) but to boot...I was being asked to pay more money out of my pocket for a problem / a fault which was not of my making.

So I contacted ParcelForce to ask them to come and collect the petrol powered chainsaw to return it to the seller. They point blank told me that they could NOT place what was now a 'used petrol chainsaw' onto one of their vehicles because in the UK the law quite simply states that used engines with petrol still in them is a fire risk. They do have a point.

Even if I empty the petrol from the tank on the chainsaw there will still be petrol residue and fumes in the tank itself as well as petrol in the engine , in the fuel lines and in the fuel primer bulb.

This law applies to all parcel companies and courier companies in the United Kingdom.

Long story short I have no way now of getting this petrol powered chainsaw back to the seller as his business is about 340 miles away from me.

Also because the engine has used oil in it, both in the chain oil tank and within the engine itself, this is also prohibited by law in the United Kingdom which forbids under a severe fine any item such as this to be transported by a parcel delivery company.

I did not make up these rules or laws. They are there to protect everyone in the event of a serious road accident which could lead to a fire risk causing severe injuries or death. If i sent it without informing them and an accident occured if it was traced to this parcel I would be held liable, summoned to court and fined a large sum of money or worse. This is a risk I am not prepared to take to act unlawfully.

So I ring up eBay (UK) and explain the situation.

They tell me again to send the item back to the seller.

I explain to them why I cannot do so and they tell me again that I MUST send the item back to the seller via the carrier (ParcelForce). I'm speaking to someone on the telephone who informs me they are from a Philippines eBay call centre. Not getting any satisfactory solution offered I ask to speak to a manager. They place me on hold and then the phone goes dead.

I ring the same number again and once again after waiting 40 minutes for someone to answer, I'm finally speaking to someone from eBay customer support who once again is from the Philippines. I have to explain the entire scenario from beginning to end all over again.

They tell me again to send the item back to the seller. Talking with them is about as useless as trying to converse sensibly with a chocolate fireguard. In the end I hang up and search online for another eBay telephone number to call and find one for eBay.com in the United States.

Explaining the situation again, they repeated the same old line that I MUST send the item back to the seller via the carrier that the original parcel arrived with. (You couldn't make this up if you tried).

I again explained to them that this is impossible and explained the reason why I could not do this again (for the 3rd time now). T

They would not listen and again told me I MUST RETURN THE ITEM. I hung up on them too as it was like speaking to a brick wall.

Back on the phone again to eBay.com and customer support in the United States as no eBay phone numbers are supplied on eBay.co.uk to reach and speak to someone in customer support.

This time I demanded to speak to a manager. Someone comes on the line eventually and I once again have to explain the whole situation from the start (by now I'm being driven up the wall). Not to worry I was informed, on 4 Feb 2015 you will see a new button appear for the item in question under your purchase history and you will be able to escalate the claim for eBay to resolve on your behalf. Great I thought - a result at last! Finally I'm getting somewhere.

The 4th of February arrives and NO button is on display as promised. But there is a new message in my inbox from eBay. I open the message fully expecting to see a link so I can escalate the case to the resolution centre but oh no, far from it.

The new message simply states that I MUST send the item back to the seller via the parcel delivery company the parcel first arrived with. They have completely IGNORED my previous correspondence altogether.

So I get back on the phone again and once more I'm put through to an eBay call centre in the Philippines. I'm asked to explain the situation again to this new person that doesn't know what I've already been through.

Rapidly losing my cool at this point I explain the situation from the start all over again, she hm's and ah's and then tells me she is going to put me through to another department specialised in helping in cases like this.

10 minutes later, I'm speaking to another guy from eBay who asks me to explain the situation from the start so he can fully grasp it.

Almost spluttering with rage at this point I tell him him to look on his bloody computer to find out what the problem is. He just keeps on apologising before asking me again to explain the situation

Patience flying out the window altogether - I hang up again. 4 hours I've wasted now on the phone trying to get a very simple matter sorted out.

Not to mention it has by this point in time it has cost me about £15 just for a bunch of utterly useless telephone calls where I would get more sense out of a bunch of monkeys.

I leave it for a few hours to cool down and then ring up Paypal to see what they have to say as they are a sister company to eBay and I paid for it via Paypal.

They put me through to someone at eBay who asked me to explain the situation yet again and then told me they were going to put me through to another person at eBay who could help me, would I please stay on the line whilst they transferred me to this department?

10 minutes later, I'm still waiting for someone to answer the phone. At this point I totally give up and hang up and immediately came to RipOffReport.com to write about this dreadful experience with eBay (UK).

It is blatantly obvious that eBay Buyer Protection Program is a scam. It looks good. It inspires confidence in you to buy on eBay but in reality when new items have a fault with them - there is NO guarantee in place.

So now I have lost a large sum of money and I've got a chainsaw which I cannot send back and is nothing but a useless pile of junk because it does not work.

As for the company who supplied it via eBay, I contacted Liverpool trading standards officers on the telephone and spoke to one of their officers earlier on today. Explaining briefly the problem with the chainsaw and the flimsy construction of the safety brake plastic, they told me they will be visiting the premises to carry out a full investigation into these Chinese imported chainsaws which do not meet UK safety standards.

Ebay should NOT be allowing these Chinese inferiour chainsaws to be sold on their platform period. In doing so, they are potentially complicit in causing injury or accidents to persons unknown should one of the chainsaws develop a major fault whilst being used in action, for example to fell a tree. They are dangerous machines at the best of times.

eBay in this entire matter have acted appallingly badly. I will not be using eBay again after this experience. It is NOT a safe trading platform to buy from and the eBay Money Back Guarantee Program is obviously not worth the paper it's written on. The EBay Money Back Guarantee is a scam pure plain and simple.