What Are Your Rights As An eBay Buyer? - By Paul Heitman

Your Item Buying Receiving Rights.

Perhaps the seller forgot or made a mistake and never sent the item, or maybe it was somehow lost in the mail. Regardless of what took place, you paid for the item. Whether the undelivered item is the seller’s blunder or not, if it doesn’t get to it’s intended destination as described in the advertisement then you as the buyer have a right to a refund or replacement.

You have the same exact rights when buying something on eBay as you would have if you bought that same thing in a shop by where you live. [Note: These type of rights are similar pretty much every where else in the world.] In addition, the seller is not permitted to change the deal once the auction ends, according to eBay’s rules and regulations. Once the auction is over, it becomes a valid and legal contract and thus you must buy and the seller must sell, otherwise face penalties from eBay.

Your Item As Described In The Auction Rights.

Now and then items become damaged during shipping due to sellers not packaging them properly. Occasionally sellers write misleading descriptions that are just plain wrong to begin with, leaving out critical details that would have forced you to not even consider buying to begin with. If something like this happens to you, again you have the right to a refund or replacement.

So How Can You Use Your Rights?

First of all, you should try and take it up with the seller – most will be responsive, as they will not want to have their reputation lacerated when an upset buyer leaves negative feedback for all of their future buyers to see. If that doesn’t work, then you’ll have to report them to eBay.

Unfortunately eBay doesn’t have many employees handling complaints between buyers and sellers. However, they do have a relatively effective set of automatic procedures that handles common problems amongst both parties.

Finally, if that doesn’t work, then you should seek advice from consumer groups in your country, and as a last resort from the police. You should never have to get this far, though: problems on eBay that can’t be resolved easily are extremely rare. Although, it does and can happen but as long as you’re a circumspect eBay buyer you shouldn’t encounter such a situation.

You Shouldn’t Be Too Quick.

Always remember not to become too irritated and to be unreasonable with the seller. In the past good sellers have agreed to grant me a refund for items that I didn’t receive, only for me to find out a short time later that the items were waiting for me down at the postal service. Constantly try your best to communicate maturely and professionally with the seller. Also, try to think of everything that might have gone wrong. EBay works best when both buyers and sellers work out their problems constructively together, instead of getting all upset and reporting each other to the authorities straight away.

Final Thoughts

Anyone can access information about eBay through the Internet because there are no boundaries on countries. All somebody has to do is surf the web and they can find useful and informational material on eBay such as this article here.

Maintaining the true value of eBay was the main motivation for writing this article. Only in ways like this will people like you and me be able to learn and know more about eBay. We will be able to share our information and experiences, whether good or bad, but most importantly avoid costly mistakes.

Please inform all your eBay loving friends of this article so they to can reap the benefits and be a satisfied, safe and successful eBay user.

Paul Heitman is an eBay and internet auctions enthusiast. His web site, http://www.spot-deals-here.com provides a wealth of informative articles and resources on everything you'll ever need to know about eBay.