Ordered something from hong kong (ebay- new) it doesnt work properly.... what to do ?
 

I purchased a small device which converts vga to hdmi from ebay ( for my dreamcast ), when i got here the box was in no way damaged and the item was new.

When i connected everything only one of the lights came on and a strange smell came from the device. It doesn't work.

Now when i emailed the seller who has a great deal of feedback, he asked me to check all the obvious...

Now he wants me to send the device back to him for replacement....

Im just wondering where to take this? Since i can't imagine it being cheap to ship something back to hong kong. It also should have got here and just worked... So it should really be my responsibility should it? [help]


I just need some advice, shall i say to him that i should just get a replacement? Shall i send the device back and demand a refund on the cost of my shipping and packaging? Obviously as a seller i wouldn't want to take someones word for something being broken especially if its new.

Electronics are very volatile. Some stats suggest as much as 10% of consumer of electronics are shipped knowing they very well might be defective. If you order something from an online retailer such as Newegg, and the product arrives defective, the purchaser has to pay for shipping back to Newegg. It sucks, but that's how it is.

The seller should ship it back to you free of charge, but you shouldn't expect him to pay for your shipping both ways IMO.

I disagree. If you buy something and it's faulty the seller should pay for return shipping as it's their responsibility.

It's their responsibility to replace it, not to cover costs associated with return transit.

If you bought something from a store, took it home, and found out it was defective, would you demand that the retailer pay for your gas (petrol) that you used to drive back to the store so you could get a replacement?

I'm in the UK and spent a few years working in retail and I have actually seen someone claim back their petrol for the return trip to the store (i think they may have been a lawyer) as the amount was so minor it was better to cough up the cash than to upset said lawyer who was quoting some rarely known UK legislation.

You wouldn't, but you should be able to is the point. Especially in the case of shipping it should be the sellers responsibility, but it never works like it should.

Newegg pays return shipping for defective items. I just returned a Pantone Huey Pro for being defective. Their RMA process takes a while. They paid for 3 day return but they're overnighting the replacement to me... Not a bad RMA process but I wanted a refund. Apparently the Hueys are known for being defective.

IMO that's how it should be. You paid for a working item. If they give you a defective product it should be retrieved at their cost. Any retailer who wanted ME to pay to return defective merchandise would find themselve on the phone with one very angry customer. I get what I pay for, and if I don't I raise hell. I'd go so far as to file a chargeback request with my CC company and tell them I'll make the product available for retrieval for 31 days.