Help please on Ebay Purchase

[Shafted-again]

My wife purchased a pram on Ebay on a buy it now. After the sale, the seller sent a txt to my wife saying they were not in stock and would she take a leather one of the same model for no extra char4ge. She agreed, but when it came, it was plastic. She sent a txt back cancelling it and requesting a refund. Howeever, the seller said that we have to send it back first for him to check. The carriage is £30 and he will not refund that.
His T&C's on the site did not say anything about us having to pay for the return. It was paid for by debit card and the bank say we are not entitled to a chargeback as he has not refused to accept the goods back.

Where to now?

[lexis200]

Re: Help please on Ebay Purchase

Hi

I've just had a look at the DSR (I take it he's a business seller?)

They state

You cannot charge for returns if the goods are faulty or do not comply with the contract or order.

And

Under the DSRs, when a customer cancels a contract but has already received the goods, they are under a duty to take reasonable care of the goods and to return them to you. However, this only means that they have to make them available for collection by you from their premises, following a request from you in writing or on a durable medium available and accessible to the customer.
If you want your customers to return the goods to you and to pay for returns when they cancel a contract under the DSRs, you must include this in your terms and conditions. This information must also be given to the customer as written information (see The information you must provide once the customer has decided to buy under the DSRs).
The DSRs do not require the customer to return the goods but if the contract says the customer must return them and they do not, you can charge them for the direct cost of recovery.

It sounds like you ordered one thing, they said they'd swap for another which you were ok with, but they actually swapped for a third option which was not told to you. It looks like the goods do not comply with the contract or order from what you've said. Also if they haven't written it in the t'c and c's that you have to pay they may be on dodgy ground.

Here's the link so you can have a look
http://www.oft.gov.uk/business-advice/treating-customers-fairly/dshome/dsrexplained

I think it only applies though if they are a business. If they're not I'd open a dispute with ebay. Although they state the buyer is liable for return costs in the case of an item being 'not as described' (which seems really unfair to me!), the seller may make more of an effort to come to a compromise rather than have poor feedback or having to deal with ebay's incredibly poor and biased dispute system.

Everything is obviously only imo, but hope something helps!