I'm headed out to spend the day with family, but I've got a bit of a problem here and was looking for some tips. I've never returned an ebay item before, but I just recently bought a piece of gear listed as 'mint' which is in actuality damaged and unworking.

Unfortunately, after contacting the seller asking for a full refund, he's arguing with me and saying the item shipped in mint condition. I know I only have a certain amount of time to do anything about this, and am not 100% sure how to go about it. I sent another email off to the guy saying I'd ship it back monday and expect a full refund. Do I ship first? Wait for the refund? What if the guy outright refuses?

Anyone familiar with this stuff help me out if you can. I've never sold a thing on ebay, just purchased stuff.

If the guy keeps dicking around, contact eBay/Paypal.

But how long do I have to contact ebay? I've heard a billion stories about people dragging their feet to outlast the period paypal gives to make a claim?

For that matter, where do I find all this info on ebay? I can't find shit there. It took me a while just to figure how to contact the seller!

Make sure to give him a bad review, clearly explaining what happened. exchange a few more messages to see if you can get a refund first then ship it back. If not contact paypal about a purchase that did not go as planned. They do a really good job. I got in a dispute with this shitty record label that print a TYAG 7" that I ordered and never sent, They claimed to have sent it like 3 time but were full of shit. needless to say paypal got my money back.

yeah, take care of it right away. paypal usually gives you around a month for it.

1. File a claim with paypal and one with ebay

2. They will mediate a response

3. Do it BEFORE giving the guy a review. The review closes the case.

Thank you guys. If the guy emails me back and agrees to refund me, should I still make the claim with ebay and paypal? It's only been 1 day, and it's christmas, so I want him to get a fair chance to respond. He has 100% feedback, but only one item is as a seller.

And if he agrees to refund, should I ship first or get money first?

Finally, how exactly DO I make a claim with paypal/ebay? There's not a link or anything for making a claim that I see in the auction/paypal.

Link me to the auction, and what's the issue that came up?

These things are all in the details.

I PM'd you the auction link. The item was a 120 gig Zune. The listing says it's mint condition and that all internal parts work flawlessly. The corners of the case are scratched/dinged in a manner that indicated it had been dropped. In addition, when I fired it up, the hard drive makes loud clicking noises. I tried to sync it, and it would go for a while then die. The computer said the unit was unplugged, but the zune is still reading that it is syncing. After unplugging it, it remained like this until I did a manual restart.

Long story short, everything above clearly points to a failed hard drive. My assumption is that he dropped it, broke it, and decided to sell it.

The item is clearly not as described, and I told him so. He disagrees and says he wants me to take pictures of the gouges on the corners to prove the damage, etc... The item is black metal and black plastic. The damage is almost imperceptible and I have no idea how I would even photograph it.

The corner closest to the camera (lower right) looks a little dinged, but it's hard to tell.

He does point to some wear in the text, but all and all there's a few ways to go about this.

The first step would be to contact him THROUGH PAYPAL OR THROUGH EBAY. I hope when you say you "emailed" him it means you did it through one of these services. This is because eBay and PayPal only take accountability for what happens on their "property", not in your email box, over the phone, etc etc. What you do is if you have been going through eBay the whole time, you file a complaint via the website. Just look it up under the "Help" section. You could do this through paypal too / instead, though I recommend eBay first and mention you're going to file with PayPal as well, then follow through.

They'll mediate a dialogue between you guys, and suspend his accounts until it's resolved. They hold the money in escrow until the matter is resolved (including fees) and only give it back to you or allow him to have it once you both agree the matter is resolved.

One thing I can propose is that if he feels strongly that it was a shipping problem, then look at how it was packed. Was the box damaged? Can you prove it one way or another? Was it in bubble wrap or peanuts? I would also look at USPS' site and see if Priority mail has insurance with it. If so, you could file a claim for your money through the post office if you can prove it was damaged along the way.

Hope this helps.

Yes. I didn't see it til I was looking for it, but the corner is what I'm talking about. On close inspection, the plastic there is smooshed and flattened. The other corner on top is pitted, as if it had been dropped pretty well at least once.

I don't give a shit about scratches and dents, however. I give a shit that the harddrive is busted. I managed to get it to sync if I went slow - 1 album at a time. However, as soon as I tried to move a bunch of stuff over it would run for a bit and then freeze, presumably when it hits the bad section of the hard drive. I tried for about three hours on christmas eve and managed to get about 30% of my music collection on there, but it was painful and required at LEAST 5 or more resets. I say at least because I think it was much higher, but I DON'T want to exaggerate. My own zune 80 can sync my entire music folder (around 1000 albums) without stopping once.

I've babbled enough. It's been a day, this guy didn't respond. I'll wait til tomorrow afternoon, then I will file a claim through ebay and paypal. Hopefully they can take care of this quickly so I can get my money back. I'm just going to buy one new and not take a chance next time. I promised my girlfriend my zune 80 when I won this auction, and bought her docks, a car charger, a/v cables, the whole shebang. Now I'm left looking like a turd.

For the record, and as an aside, I do not want this thread to look like I'm zune bashing. I am 100% a zune enthusiast, so don't tell me to just get an ipod. If you need high capacity, NOTHING touches a zune.

Awesome. Thanks for the help, guys. I'm shipping it back monday, and when he receives it he will give me a full refund. I'll be out a little for shipping, but lesson learned. He's in Ma. anyways, so shipping should be like 10 bucks at the most.

I told him once the deal is done and everything is square we would agree to leave positive feedback for each other. That way everyone is happy. Except the next guy to buy that zune, of course.

Jesus!

Resolution, FINALLY.

I bought this thing on the 19th. After all the above shit, I shipped it back to him last monday with $250 worth of insurance on it. (that's $100 more than I paid for it.) It arrived at his house wednesday morning. I didn't hear from him for 5 days, so I emailed him. He replies a day later with "uhh, I don't know how to refund your money. What say ye?"

...

...

...

So I sent him instructions on how, and 24 hours later opened a case with ebay. A day later (Yesterday) I get an email apologizing, a full refund of my money, and a lame excuse of "You actually weren't dealing with me. That was my 15 year old son."

Fuck ebay.

That said, I just ordered another Zune off ebay. CROSS YOUR FINGERS.

how is a zune better for high capacity? the largest ipod is larger than the largest zune by 40GB.

i have a 60GB creative zen widescreen. thing weighs about as much as a brick and is about as big as a...well, a brick

In the few years I've had a zune, it's outperformed my iPod in every way possible.

Only thing Microsoft ever did right.

And more expensive, and far far FAR FAR less functional. There's really no comparison.

when I last played with a zune, it made my ipod feel like it was a gift from god crafted out of little chunks of heaven. Maybe the zune got better since then.

I also see plenty of 160GB ipods on ebay for $239.
not sure how $239 is more expensive and less capacity than a $250 zune who's max capacity is 120GB.

look at you, always bringing MATH and FIGURES into things.

facts schmacts, you can prove anything that is even remotely true.

Looks like somebody needs to learn the ebays.

Zune 120 is $200 new on ebay, still cheaper than iPod. Also, iPod has NO video, HALF the screen real estate, and we haven't even begun talking about accessories.

Does the ipod come with an FM tuner? WiFi? An all-you-can-download unlimited access pass option for music?

And still, we haven't even discussed accessories, which is the MAIN selling point for me. The only pro-ipod defense you can make here is that the zune cannot be used as a portable drive, while the ipod can.

As for my favorite thing about Zune, it's the accessories. I just bought 3 Zune docks for $1.99. I also picked up 3 Zune car chargers for $.99. These are the real microsoft zune branded items too, not the cheapie generics you find all over ebay. Point being, the accessories for zune are DIRT CHEAP because the zune just never caught on like the ipod did. Since a portable music player is about being PORTABLE, I love the fact that I've got a dock hooked up to my computer (for syncing), my entertainment center (watch videos, or listen to music through my Bose), the stereo in my bedroom (so I can make sex to any album in my collection, of course), and most importantly in my CAR. I literally just pop it into the dock and it's good to go, no connecting wires or anything.

You might be able to create a setup like this with your ipod, but I highly doubt you could do it as well and cheaply as with a zune.

And the final clincher? Compare an ipod to a zune side by side with your favorite headphones. Zune sounds BETTER. (2nd gen, not the old 30 gig players with the e.q.)

I'm not knocking ipod, they were first and I can admit the Zune came along too little too late. However, I HATE itunes. The Zune software is much better (but not perfect).

I could go on and on about all the little things I love about my Zune.

I just didn't like my experience with the zune. I also buy knock off accessories wicked cheap for the iPod, but they are knock offs and not Apples.

my 60GB iPod surely has video and the video plays over my car stereo on the screen too. The screen is a little smaller, I guess... but I dont't like watching video on a candy bar anyhow.

itunes eats dick. So does all the MS mp3 software. I prefer winamp which connects right to my iPod.

So, if you get a zune, how would guys know to suck your dick?

But it's 60 gig.

Again, you just can't beat what you get with the 120gig zune. Unless you don't need much space, which is where itouch comes in.

I have a 120GB iPod Classic. Love the thing.