Ebay.in — I phone 5s - cheated by seller on ebay and pathetic response from ebay customer service

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Ebay

Hi,

I had placed an order for an iPhone 5S (64gb) on 4th Jan 2016 through www.ebay.in and it was assigned order no.PaisaPay ID [protected]. I made payment of the full amount of rs.27499 by credit card. The vendor's name is elixircart2014. The product came with a 6 month warranty against __defects as displayed on your website. The iPhone was delivered to me on 11th jan 2016. However the phone was a defective piece since it was not getting activated, even after I connected it to my home wifi after providing the wifi password. I called the vendor's proprietor Mr.Abhishek several times and he suggested several methods, none of which worked. On asking him specifically, he acknowledged that this was an iPhone he imported from outside india. I even called ebay and raised a complaint on 11th January 2016 but the complaint was closed without contacting me.

Since the phone was not getting activated after several attempts, I called him and asked him to replace it and send me a new phone. He agreed and I couriered the phone and after a week or so I received a phone. He confirmed to me that it is a new phone. However when I switched it on at home, it automatically connected to my home wifi. It became clear that he sent me the same phone. Once again it was not getting activated. I called him and complained about what he did. After several calls from me, he apologised and asked me to once again send back the phone and that he would replace it. I did the needful and couriered the same phone back to him.

After a week or so I received a different iPhone 5S. This phone got activated and was working fine for about a month or so, and suddenly on the evening of 11th March 2016, the small hardware piece on the exterior backside of the iPhone became loose, and the speaker and microphone of the iPhone suddenly stopped working. I restarted the phone several times and tried using it but the problem continued. The said small hardware piece then got detached and it was clear that this piece was stuck with glue as you can see from the attached picture. Thus it became evident that the phone was not a new phone but a used and spoilt phone, which he passed off as new, but in reality it is a defective product.

When I called him and asked about it, he flatly refused my complaint and said he cannot do anything about it and that it's our bad luck. He refused to replace the defective phone. I have been trying to call ebay since then but no one is even bothered to take my complaint. The customer service guys answer the call and do not give me any response at all.

Due to his inactions and attitude I called the eBay customer care and they were not helpful too informing me that your company cannot do anything in this matter. Finally after several calls to eBay, I received this grievance email address stating that my grievance will be settled. Therefore I request you to: (1) immediately refund my complete payment made for this iPhone 5S of RS.27499 that I incurred and take back the defective product, and (2) blacklist this fraudulent vendor elixircart2014 and it's representative Abhishek so he doesn't cheat the public anymore and bring such disrepute to e-commerce. I would never wish to buy anything on ebay ever again and will ensue to tell everyone about how I have been cheated by the vendor and the casual manner in which ebay has been handling my complaint.

Please also note that I am a lawyer. In case my grievance is not redressed on priority at your end, please treat this as a notice from my end, and I will not hesitate to seek remedies available to me under law, including the consumer forum.