Hello everyone, I’m asking for help because I’ve gotten into an unpleasant situation on eBay. I’ve been using eBay for five years, I’m an eBay Plus member, have 240 ratings and 49 sales, all with 100% positive feedback. For my child’s birthday, I ordered an iPhone 16 Pro Max for my 10-year-old daughter. This is exactly the phone my daughter wanted in white because she doesn’t like the big camera on the 17 model. In another case, I would have just bought a new one at MediaMarkt. I found a phone that, according to the description, should have been “like new,” with packaging and cable, although the battery was pretty weak. When it arrived, it turned out that the phone had small scratches and obvious signs of use in many places, and the cable was a no-name cable for 1 euro, the kind you can buy at Action. The seller has some ratings as a buyer, but no ratings as a seller. Questions came right away about when I would send her the money. I think that’s due to a lack of experience with eBay – the person probably doesn’t read eBay’s selling terms. After unpacking it, I noticed that the item had many scratches and a non-original cable. I offered compensation of 25 euros for the cable and would have been willing to overlook the scratches. The seller then said I could simply return the item. I told her that precisely because of a poor-quality cable, the battery could be in this condition. She then said she had only included this cable as an extra and hadn’t charged it with it. That means: the cable she actually used to charge it with she simply kept. I agreed to return it, and she immediately said she would send me the money and asked for my bank details. I asked that everything be done through eBay, and after that she disappeared. I wrote to her for 2–3 days, but she didn’t reply and didn’t send anything as promised. I opened a case, and she immediately started sending lots of messages – about her sick mother and all kinds of other problems in life. I said I’m sorry about that, but it has nothing to do with the matter and I want to return the item since the conditions were not met. After that, I got a flood of messages saying the phone had no scratches and that I was not a person who has understanding and compassion for others. I asked her to apologize, but nothing came. Then I took detailed photos and opened a case with eBay, uploading a video of unpacking the item, showing all the scratches. After that, she started claiming that she would not be in the country until mid-July and that nobody could accept the return, even though a few days earlier she had said that I could of course send the item back. After that, she stopped claiming there were no scratches and instead said that was normal for an old phone – even though the item was described as “like new.” And as you know: new items are not scratched. Two days later, when eBay stepped in, I received an email saying that I could send the item back and that I should get the shipping label from the seller. I wrote to her that she had the opportunity to fulfill our agreement, and then we would not continue with the return. After those words, she wrote racist and antisemitic insults against me. She said I should leave Germany and go back to my country, and claimed that I was a fraudster. I immediately filed a complaint with eBay, which, as always, nobody responded to. Then eBay told me they needed another 5 days to resolve the case. After the 5 days had passed, I contacted them again and was told that I would simply be refunded, but I have received no confirmation and no money. The next day I called and was again told that everything had been decided and that I should wait for the money. Another day later I called again and was told that such processes take a long time and I should wait until tomorrow. Today I contacted eBay again, and I was told that the colleague was wrong yesterday and that I am not entitled to any refund at all – even though eBay has records of the conversations. The support agent started putting pressure on me and said he would close the case if I didn’t like their decision. After that, he said they needed five days again, and if there were a return label, I would see it in the open case. He also said that I needed to communicate with the seller. The seller is blocked from my side because he allowed himself those insults and racist comments. However, the email says that I should wait for messages from the seller in my chat – which I don’t even have. Tomorrow is my daughter’s birthday. I can’t give her this gift, and I don’t have any money this month to buy something else. Please help me solve this problem – and please also help me fight racism and insults on this platform.
