[Griffus]

Over the years I've bought a fair bit off ebay. Never really had any problems, but last week I bought an Osprey Revolution Steam Cleaner (just over £600 with delivery), unfortunately it's a crock of *****.

It leaks water all over the place when filling up and the only place the steam comes from is beneath the machine. Our kitchen floor will have a nicely sanitized spot, but not really what I'd hoped for!

Anyone else had any bad experiences?

Intention is to claim / sue for refund but might get it looked at as may be an easy fix for our friendly local service engineer.

Any experts on Osprey machines here?

[Richy L]

did you buy it with paypal?
You can open a dispute and they will the money back off them

[Griffus]

did you buy it with paypal?
You can open a dispute and they will the money back off them

Yep, thankfully.

Still a pain in the **** though.

Wondered how many others had been ripped off. As times get tougher (recession) then scams tend to increase and ebays gotta be the number one outlet.

I'll be a bit more careful in future.

Cheers Richy

[TomCrowther]

If you got an engineer to look at it then you would struggle to get a refund. The seller could argue it has been damaged by this other party.

[Griffus]

If you got an engineer to look at it then you would struggle to get a refund. The seller could argue it has been damaged by this other party.

Very true, but I'd only do this if the seller agreed, and agreed to pick up the tab also.

It would save me the hassle of a refund and the seller the hassle of reselling, especially via ebay as he'd have negative feedback specific to this item and would never resell for anything near what I paid.

As it stands I think it's going to be a bit drawn out as he's not responded to emails, nor answered his mobile. Oh well, resolution centre here I come.

[BDCS]

When my osprey went wrong it was quite reasonable to get the osprey engineer out. From memory it was £60 plus the part

[Kenny83]

Was he an  osprey engineer from osprey? i have one that needs looking at, do they have a national group of engineers or did you ring an independant company up?

[BDCS]

He was an Osprey bloke from Osprey that worked from home. Ring Osprey and pay the call out and he arrives, fixes it and invoices you for the parts

[TN Cleaning Services Ltd]

I did the same thing about a year ago, The picture on ebay was one product, the steamer I recieved was a different product, and the instructions were for another product entirely.
Sent it straight back,
Reported to Ebay,
They tried to give me partial refund,
Complained to Ebay,
They refunded my money in full.
Tossers!

[Griffus]

I did the same thing about a year ago, The picture on ebay was one product, the steamer I recieved was a different product, and the instructions were for another product entirely.
Sent it straight back,
Reported to Ebay,
They tried to give me partial refund,
Complained to Ebay,
They refunded my money in full.
Tossers!

Thanks for that, cheered me up a bit.

I've heard nothing from the scammer that sold it and doubt I will. Fingers crossed the "protection" promised by ebay will be true. Failing that it'll be County Court here come :

[Griffus]

Just checked on ebay for a reply and no surprise, nothing.

The seller texted me last week claiming the steamer worked before he sent it out. I replied saying no way, and a few other comments. I have called him a fair few times but not been answered.

I left negative feedback, as I didn't want anyone else to get ripped off. I noticed another buyer had left negative the day before or thereabouts after buying a Nissan Primera, which the seller has now sold three times but was ripped off for the money.

Anyway, today I noticed the feedback both me and the buyer of the Primera had left has vanished and he is showing 100%.

Can someone tell me how this is possible as I am flummaxed!!

[Griffus]

Apparantly, this seller requested my negative feedback left for him be removed. This despite conning me and another buyer out of a combined total amount of about £1500 in a couple of days.

He was left negative feedback by me and the other buyer.

Because he requested the feedback be removed, claiming it to be untrue, it simply was. No communication whatsoever to me from ebay and no option now to leave further feedback.

This seller, and no doubt many more, are playing the system. I am certain that he has multiple accounts and gets away with this many times. I have a dispute ongoing but after what's happened thus far I think I've lost my wedge. Not surprisingly he never answers his phone and I have no address for him as I paid via Paypal.

Moral, be careful with ebay, it's not quite what it's cracked up to be. I've used it for 10 years and never had an issue but this just goes to show that they aren't geared up to help / support with such an issue.

Whinge now over, on here at least! Now I've just got to find out where this ***** is hiding! 

[Griffus]

Faith restored, although the negative feedback I left this scrote is still not showing 

I am happy to say that ebay / Paypal is a safe way to buy. Couldn't have asked more from any for of purchase.

Email from ebay: -

Good news. We issued you with a full refund of £633.00 on 20 Jul, 2012. The refund includes the purchase price plus original P&P and has been credited to your PayPal account. Please log in to PayPal and view the history page if you don't see it in your PayPal balance.
 

Decision:
This case has been decided in your favour.

Comments:
The item doesn't match the seller's description. We're sorry you have a problem with your purchase, and we're issuing you with a refund in this case.

[Jamie Pearson]

Do you get to keep the machine?

[Griffus]

Do you get to keep the machine?

 

That piece of junk went back the the other piece that sold it to me.

Nightmare to package and putting on the scales was entertaining as they were on the counter and about 12" x 10". Needless to say the weight ended up 'guestimated'

Money paid back to me the day after I posted it.

Job done

[Kev Martin]

You have full protection on E Bay as a buyer. They come down on the buyers side 99/100.  I know this to my cost as I have been selling on there for about 10 years and had 2 requests for refunds through no fault of my own but we just refund it as It's easier. Still I don't worry after over 9000+ happy customers and a lot of them are repeat business. As regards the feedback although ours is brilliant less than 20% of customers even bother to leave feedback and it doesn't count for repeat customers anyway.

Kev Martin
Marblelife Ltd

[Ian Gourlay]

In my experience people including those who use Cleanitup try to offload doggy  secondhand gear on Ebay

I am amazed how much people bid as they do not factor in cost of likely repairs, some might be needed straight away some in a few months

[Griffus]

In my experience people including those who use Cleanitup try to offload doggy  secondhand gear on Ebay

I am amazed how much people bid as they do not factor in cost of likely repairs, some might be needed straight away some in a few months

Over the years I've had some genuine bargains via ebay, saving thousands. This did highlight the risks but to be fair ebay stepped in and sorted in my favour. The main thing to take from this is to use Paypal to pay as this gives you some proper 'legal' support.