eBay advice when it says "ask us to step in and help"

[mrbigstuff]

The story: I bought a "new" cellphone from an eBay seller with who I have bought a few phones in the past. You would think a repeat customer would mean better service, a bit of honesty, etc. Nope. Anyway, phone that shipped had a dead battery and was returned and another brand of phone was agreed to ship out, again in "excellent" condition (although not new).

I took a hit on the price, but it was not huge ($50ish) but I was unwilling to keep haggling. Seller agreed it was in "excellent" condition. Now, it ships and has scratches all over the camera lens. Again, no refund from original purchase, just an exchange. Done all through eBay. Now, I'm a bit pissed, and it's been two months since the original purchase. The eBay page still has the "ask us to step in" text but no link, etc. I'm willing to accept a refund of some amount vs returning the phone, but I can't seem to see what the next step would be.

[hal]

This should be obvious. If it isn't, your best bet is to call ebay have them walk you though it.

It sounds like you made one purchase, not two. That is not ideal - it's always best to return a defective item for a refund, then make another purchase if you want. There is no ebay procedure that I know of for doing an exchange to a different item.

I've always said that any seller with a 90% rating is a BAD seller. That's only one out of ten bad sales. I suspect that your seller have been a crap seller all along - you just got lucky previously.

Your solution is to return this phone for a refund. Do not discuss it with the seller - do it all through ebay. Most of these kids of sellers will not do a partial refund.

Worst case is that you opened a case on the 1st phone and the seller talked you into cancelling the case if he sent a replacement phone. In that case, that's one transaction and you've used up your ONLY shot at contesting that transaction.

[Gareth]

hal wrote:
Most of these kids of sellers will not do a partial refund.

Also, eBay will not authorize a partial refund. That has to come from the seller. All eBay can do is force the seller to take a return, which as hal points out, may or may not be possible at this point, depending on more specifics of your case. This is partly how I ended up with a free 46" TV via eBay (back in the day when that was actually expensive) - because the seller forgot to include the remote and all I wanted was a $20 refund to buy one, but eBay couldn't authorize a partial refund (anyway, more details on that in other posts if you're interested).

https://www.ebay.com/help/home - Scroll down and either have eBay call you or Chat with them to go over your options.

[mrbigstuff]

90% seller rating? I didn't say anything about that. She has a 99.8% rating and I bought two previous phones that were in excellent condition and for a good price. Again, I'm a repeat customer. Not that it matters, I guess.

My question again: when it says "ask eBay to step in" there is no link or other obvious email address.

Gareth, I didn't see that link. Thanks!

[clay]

just call eBay