Ebay Process Conundrum

[NugentS]

Hi all,

First of all, I have no complaint about anything that happened. Its all been sorted out just fine without any issues. What I can't get my head around is Ebay's advice which I think ought to be wrong.

What happened:
1. I order a 3 layer glass table for putting amplifiers, DVD players etc on in front of the TV
2. Saturday: Delivery company deliver box. As I am about to sign I notice that the corner of the box is a bit bashed in (only a bit). Stick my fingers in and pull out a largish chunk of fractured safety glass. Given the table is glass - I take this as a bad sign. I reject the parcel as broken / damaged and driver, agreeing with me, happily takes it away
3. Saturday: I contact vendor to point out what has happened and ask for a refund rather than replace as I want / need it that weekend. I order a slightly more expensive unit from Amazon to arrive Sunday as that way I get the tidy that part of the room out of the way
4. [Irrelavent] Amazon turn up Sunday 9:00PM+ which is annoying
5. Monday: Same delivery driver, same box with taped up end - err what? Driver is bemused and takes it away again. I can only assume that if they can get a signature then they are off the hook for damages and are trying it on.
6. Monday: Vendor makes contact. We discuss the issue and he agrees a refund
7. Wednesday: Refund arrives

So all good other than Amazon annoying me - but that's irrelevant

Background: I buy quite a lot through Ebay and have never had an issue - and don't count this as an issue either - its just the way things go.

This is the bit that confuses me:
I contacted Ebay's Concierge service to inform them just for the record. No action required.
They said that "you should have accepted the parcel in the first instance, and then opened a case to say arrived broken and let the vendor deal with it". Their reason for that seems to be that it complies with their process rather than actually helping out the vendor.

This seems wrong to me. By rejecting the parcel the delivery agent cannot point to his T's and C's and say "parcel accepted intact". The vendor has a clear (it seems to me) claim against the delivery agent without any (from my POV) he said / she said about when it got broken. The parcel was never delivered and never left the agent's care = their problem. I suppose they can then try and claim that they got it damaged - but its not my problem and down to the vendor and the delivery company.

If I had accepted the broken parcel, even signing as "damaged" then the vendor will have to pay for a return, and the claim is messier AND it causes me more hassle in that I have to drop the parcel off or be in for a collection.

Seems barking mad to me - but what do I know

[Alucidnation]

Thanks for sharing.

[anonymous-user]

tedious.

[Nickyboy]

Why did you even bother informing eBay?

You contacted the seller, they refunded, job finished.

You made it more confusing yourself by speaking to Ebay when you had no need to

[NugentS]

Why did I bother informing Ebay?

Because They kept pestering me about this concierge they do, and I thought I would see what was involved having never used it.

[wibble cb]

And now you know its of little use to you, they just wanted you to follow their procedure...next time, do what you feel works, I would probably have done the same, why take in a visibly damaged item, that's an open invitation to 'you signed for it, its yours'.