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My first bad experience as a buyer!!!
 

As majority of us are sellers on this forum I'm sure we all agree with one thing that us sellers hate is the fact that buyers have us wrapped round their little finger....

I bet we all hold back with what we are really wanting to say in the risk of a negative feedback or an opened case emerging on your account.
Well not this guy who I have just bought from, I want to share with you all my story so far -

I purchased a raised double airbed from a trusted seller on ebay and after receiving it in lightning time I was very impressed with the service they provided, checked it all over and pumped it up etc all seemed ok so I left positive feedback.

4 weeks later we have some guests staying with us and after using the airbed we noticed it was going down, so we pumped it back up thinking it may be because it is new, but no it was getting worse with time and is definately faulty.

So I send a polite message back to the seller asking if he can do anything for me as the bed is faulty to his reply of this is normal as the material is stretching...Ok well this is was we thought originally but it was just constantly going down, so a couple of days later we email him back again saying it is definately faulty please can I send back for a refund, at this time he is comming accross as very angry with me saying that it is not faulty and it will be fine after time!!!

I ask him again or I will have no option but to open a case which I end up having to do, this guy is not having it.

Now I am a great believer in two sides to every story and I am also a believer that 9/10 the seller is right so am going to copy and paste the conversation up to now and see what you guys think, here goes -

The details you provided:
The item doesn't match the seller's description.
You have tried contacting the seller
You paid for the item on 30 Jan, 2013.

More comments: I contacted the seller yesetrday as I had a problem with the bed deflating. They tried to fob me off by saying it was normal for the material to stretch. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and tried again last night. The bed constantly deflates flat and I spent all day yesterday re inflating it. There is obviously a hole/defective valve somewhere in the bed which is letting the air out. The seller refuses to acknowledge this and I wish to return for a full refund including return postage due to the bed being faulty and not fit for purpose. I had to purchase another bed from Tesco last night due to these problems so therefore I now require a refund.
You did not give permission to share this phone number with the seller.
The best time to reach you is at 'Any'.
The item is damaged
Additional information:
"The air bed does not stay inflated. It deflates and is not useable."
You've requested:
You prefer to return the item in exchange for a full refund.

Seller's message:
"We have clearly explained to the customer how the bed needs to be set up and directed them to the instruction manual and set up leaflet. The customer has decided to ignore this so there is nothing we can do. You don't buy a car and then ignore the fact you have to put petrol in it, this is the same with a high quality airbed. The reason your Tesco bed doesn't go down is because it's rubbish and the material will fracture within a couple of weeks. We sell thousands of airbeds each year, we know exactly what we are talking about."

Your message to the seller:
"As per my previous emails, I have not completely ignored your advice, I have read the instructions and am well aware that there should be some sort of deflation of the bed. However I do not expect the bed to completely deflate. I do not buy a car, put petrol in it and expect it not to work which is exactly what has happened with your bed. Like I previously said I expect some air to leave the bed as the hot air cools and contracts and the material stretches however the bed should not completely deflate. The seller is choosing to completely ignore my complaint and assume he knows it all. If ebay looks at his recent negative feedback they will see that I am not alone with this problem. BTW my guests managed a full nights sleep in the tesco bed which is more than can be said of yours. Your bed lies flat as a pancake on my bedroom floor. I am not happy with your level of customer service and repeat again that I want a refund. Regards"

Seller's message:
"We will not continue to debate this with the customer. The customer has not used the bed correctly or enough. Claims there is a puncture but cannot find any whatsoever. Bed is fine and will work when used correctly."


Your message to the seller:
"The bed has been used correctly. Ie I have inflated it. It is faulty, ie it deflates completely flat every time within 10 minutes. Simple fact it is faulty, end of. We will let Ebay/Paypal decide however I don't see how you have a leg to stand on as the bed is plainly faulty. Your attitude and "customer service" is quite frankly disgusting."

Seller's message:
"It does not deflate completely within 10 minutes, you have said it takes far longer in previous emails. If it went flat that quickly it would be very easy to see a hole and you've not been able to find one. Our Customer Service has been excellent, we've replied to each of your emails within one HOUR of you sending them. Unfortunately we can't deal with the issue because you refuse to use the item correctly. This item is NOT FAULTY."

Your message to the seller:
"Like you said yesterday there is no point to this as you refuse to budge or admit there may be a fault. Lets just leave it for ebay to decide. You can repeat over and over again the item is not faulty however that does not make it true. The bed is useless to me."

Seller's message:
"."

Your message to the seller:
"Not sure what you are trying to achieve."

Seller's message:
"I don't understand your last message. We are happy to leave this for eBay to deal with as we know they'll side with us. Please refrain from communicating with us any further."

Your message to the seller:
"Ebay will not side with you as the bed is faulty. End of. Please do not unnecessarily contact me again unless to offer me the refund I am legally entitled to."

Seller's message:
"eBay"

Your message to the seller:
"obvious"

Seller's message:
"Is there something wrong with you? You have said you want ebay to deal with this, so do we hence why we addeded 'eBay' to the last message. Please stop being childish and allow us to close this issue."

Your message to the seller:
"Well if you are getting personal about this then yes there are a couple of things wrong with me, not that it has anything to do with you or a claim for a refund for something faulty. once again we tried the bed again last night and as i thought it would it still deflated, how long is this supposed to keep deflating the floor till it amazingly fixes itself? Is there anything wrong with you maybe?"



And that is where we are at right now.... Now I have looked this company up and they are worth £11 million and he has 16 staff working for him I have been talking to the actual owner of this company in these messages! I cant believe what I am reading!!

The worst one is the last message where he is getting personal, but he is obviously trying to get the last word in. Can I ask if this is important in an opened case??

I am just amazed at how unprofessional this guy is for the sake of £40!!

Rough story - at least you have learned from it and know how to deal with things moving forward :thumb:

Weird.

2nd user here that had an air bed issue.

:juggle:

really? ill have to look for it, I wonder if its the same company?

i think some sellers think their untouchable and completely forget about customer service

remember keithy bud

there is no rush to leave feedback when buying something that could show faults in time

lesson learned

did this seller have quite a few negs, i imagine so

Yes there were others who had the same problem but with the amount of positives this guy has a few negs would make no difference.

You are right GTB, another lesson learned regarding leaving feedback too soon.

By the way there is nothing wrong with me as I said there was in the message but for him to say something like that is terrible!!

Just had a thought...Now wouldn't it be funny if this guy was a forum member!! :)

This has nothing to do with ebay airbeds, but it is an airbed story. Two years ago, we went to WalMart and bought the high end air bed for camping that came with the auto-inflator. Now, this was a brown box that is inside of a canvas/mesh type of black bag with a carry strap on it, had a zipper on the bag and the zipper had a small black ziptie around it and a loop on the bag, as if it were completely factory sealed.

We get home, open everything up...inside is a mattress in shrink wrap. Cut the shrink wrap, get the mattress out and it appears dirty and is a different color than what the sticker looks like...begin to unfold it and I kid you not, it is HALF of a dirty used mattress and there is an encyclopedia and some thick cook book inside. At this point I am dumbfounded.

Go back to WalMart, explain the situation....knew for a fact there was only ONE of this same airbed in the back. We go back there and grab it, it is packaged the same way...small ziptie on the zipper around the loop on the bag. Take it to customer service desk and say we want to open the damn thing right there, right now before going home.

We are opening this in front of 3 WalMart employees, ON CAMERA might I add, right there at the service desk...packaged exactly the same. Cut the ziptie, brown box inside, shrinkwrapped dirty looking mattress. I cut the shrinkwrap open, pull out the mattress and unfold it...., it's the OTHER HALF of the dirty used mattress, unfold it and there is a Corn Flakes box with 3 potatoes and a big can of "pork juice". I have never seen or heard of pork juice, but all I could do is stand there and laugh.

The employees didn't know what to say - along came 3 LP guys, manager, etc. Needless to say, we got our money back and bought an entirely different type of mattress. Got home, it had a hole!! It went flat by the middle of the night just like OP's mattress. Took it back the next day, bought a mattress and box spring. It was just for our guest room....for temporary use every now and then, but we shelled out the money for a mattress/box spring combo since I wasn't about to go down that air mattress road again.

Means that you bought a used airbed mattress...from a camping trip :( disgusting - lack of QC on the return on the part of Walmart

As I said - it was half of a used mattress...the whole mattress was cut in half, the buyer shrink wrapped it with the other crap inside and boxed it up, put the ziptie on etc. The OTHER HALF of the mattress was in an entirely different box.

WalMart didn't open it up when they were returned, just simply stuck them on the shelf. Now, even if they had opened it up, the mattress was in shrink wrap so they probably wouldn't think anything of it.

But one thing to note is...those mattresses are never shrink wrapped inside the box. Never buying one of those again after that situation.

Oh my god I cant believe it....I escalated this claim and I cant believe that ebay have favoured it to this seller!!!

HERE is the message I have litterally just got from ebay...

Hello Keith,

Thank you for contacting eBay Customer service regarding the air bed .... I understand that you want to return this item since it deflates and not useable. I'm sorry to hear that this transaction did not go smoothly as expected, please allow me to assist you with this.

In your specific case I reviewed the listing, the photos of the item, and communication between yourself and the seller. I can see you stated the item had been used for several times before it became faulty. Unfortunately, such cases are not covered under our policy. We only cover items that are faulty on the first use.

For this reason, we are not able to find the case in your favour. Our system will generate an automated email that says the same, but I wanted to take a few moments and explain our decision in further detail.

To avoid this situation in the future, remember if you receive an item that differs from your seller's listing, you will only be entitled to a refund if you can return the item in the same condition that you received it. I would also encourage you to contact the seller via the Ask a question link if you have any questions about an item before bidding on or buying it.

I understand this may not have been the outcome you were hoping for but if you have any further questions please feel free to get in touch.

Kind regards,


Now where in my message have I mentioned that it was ok to start with......Nowhere!!! It is not the end of the world for me its a few quid but the way this seller spoke to me and the fact he won this has really peed me off!!!

GOBSMACKED.COM!!

ebay at its best.

NOT

That just dumb that like expecting you to see got lemon computer without using it. I only had problems from start on one item I ever purchased a Wal-mart calculator every other time took using over time.

Sorry to hear this.

Since this is your first welcome to many more. Hope not but it will happen.

I get the ole bait and switch crap done on me often.

I buy whats in the picture and get something entirely different.

I make their lives nice and miserable when someone tries this on me.

Hope you dont have this happen again but always be prepared.

How did you pay? was it with card via PP and can you claim back on the card?

No matter how you pay or what forum you use to purchase an item from a real company, you still have your consumer rights.

I'd take this direct to the company via letter and then take it to whatever the authority it is (OFT ? ) if they refuse your consumer rights in law. Go to Consumer Action Forum for advice, letters to write etc.

As i say, if it's a real company - not just some bloke pretending to be one - then whether you buy through ebay or go into a branch of their shop then you have the same consumer rights under UK law.

PayPal are not the authority here - if you can be bothered, perhaps you can complain to them too with some legal talk for effectively bypassing your consumer rights under UK law?

Not fit for purpose can even be 6 months later if that purpose is that it should last quite a few uses.

Good reading. I'm with the seller on this one.