I need advice to get my money back

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lonepal
Posts: 322
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2017 12:26 pm
Location: Turkey

I need advice to get my money back

Post by lonepal »

Dear all;

I purchased a Mitutoyo M Plan APO 5X lens from a Chinese seller named lehk013.
Item no 223427222344.

Before purchasing the lensi I contacted with the seller and trusted his words.
I requested him to declare a low value on box and he agreed me.
I requested him not to ship with DHL but to ship with EMS because I know DHL is very problematic during customs inspection.

The lens arrived to Turkey with DHL tracking number 4128274872 and held by DHL as I expected. Then they rejected the lens and the cause was that the lens was not a hobby item and can not be imported by individuals.

I requested from the seller to call the package back but he requested 80usd from me for the return shipping but I already knew that shipping back is free on DHL.

Then I request a shipping back to seller and DHL shipped the lens back to the seller with the DHL tracking number 3257062152 for free.

After a few days I saw the package was delivered to seller then I contacted him to ship the lens back with ems or make refund.

After that time he never answered my questions. I send nearly 10 messages but there was no answer.

Then I opened a dispute from ebay but they rejected it because I have requested a low value decleration from the seller.

I told them this is not a low value declaretion problem and the seller have both the lens and my money and do not ship the lens back or make my refund.

I also send them the shipping labels that I hardly got from DHL but their answer is same everytime.

I made +200 purchases from ebay but I think this time I got swindled.

Ebay also do not help and defend me but always says ''You can not get a refund because you requested a low value decleration''
What and stupid answer!.

I told them many times that the problem is not about the low value decleration, the seller had both money and the lens but he does not make a refund or answer my questions.
I have proofs like shipping and tracking numbers but there is no luck.

I also opened a dispute from paypal it is still under inspection.

Is there any chance to take my money back?

Do you have any advice?

Thanks.
Regards.
Omer

lonepal
Posts: 322
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2017 12:26 pm
Location: Turkey

Post by lonepal »

I got my refund, this topic can be deleted.
Regards.
Omer

dolmadis
Posts: 897
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:51 pm
Location: UK

Post by dolmadis »

Before it does I would be interested to know if Ebay reversed its original decision because it seemed to me that the root of the decision was in Ebay Policy.

BR

John

Chris S.
Site Admin
Posts: 4037
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:55 pm
Location: Ohio, USA

Post by Chris S. »

Omer,

We don't typically delete topics, but prefer to leave them for other forum members to learn from. Your experience sounds horrible. I agree with Dolmadis: Would you mind teaching us how it came about that you got this issue resolved?

Thanks! :D

--Chris S.

lonepal
Posts: 322
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2017 12:26 pm
Location: Turkey

Post by lonepal »

Hi;

First of all ebay did not change their decision and they continuously rejected my return or refund attampts.

Then I opened a dispute from paypal and send them tracking numbers and shipping labels and explained the situation.

After a couple days the decision was given and I was refunded by the seller.

I think paypal gave a decision for my favor.

Thats all :)
Regards.
Omer

dolmadis
Posts: 897
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:51 pm
Location: UK

Post by dolmadis »

Thank you.

That is what I expected.

Presumably PayPal either not know about the customs issues or it ignored them?

Can you comment on which applied in your view?

I can understand that you were relieved to get the refund.

BR

John

lonepal
Posts: 322
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2017 12:26 pm
Location: Turkey

Post by lonepal »

Hi dolmadis;

I think ebay ignored because I explained the situation nearly 5 times to different customer representatives but the answer was same all the time.

They all have just one word like ''Because you requested a low value decleration from the seller, we can not support.''

I told them if this is a rule, why did the seller accepted to ship with low value decleration but their answer was interesting ''The seller may be do not have knowledge about this rule or preferred to accept your offer by skipping ebay rules.''

I advice all ebay users not to request such a thing from the seller by ebay messages, I got my lesson learned.
Regards.
Omer

dolmadis
Posts: 897
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:51 pm
Location: UK

Post by dolmadis »

Thanks.

You missed my question so I will make it a little more focused.

Did PayPal know about the customs issues when they made the decision to refund?

Thanks


John

lonepal
Posts: 322
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2017 12:26 pm
Location: Turkey

Post by lonepal »

Hi;

Sorry John I really missed your question because my mind was busy with another thing.

I told paypal the same story but I think they understood that the problem was not related with low value decleration.

But as I told ebay never wanted to understand my problem so they always rejected my attempts.
Regards.
Omer

dolmadis
Posts: 897
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:51 pm
Location: UK

Post by dolmadis »

Thanks. It is good to know that PayPal are likely to focus on the fundamentals of a dispute when making a decision.

BR

John

Fero
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2021 4:02 pm
Location: Svosov, Slovakia

Re: I need advice to get my money back

Post by Fero »

I bought my Mitu 2x and 5x from Korea,
also asked for lower value but when it was bout to arrive and DHL asked for supporting documents, the value on the invoice did not match the value in Paypal and they needed proff of payment, so I asked the seller to make new invoice for the real value and after reading this I am glad I did, I will never do this again, not worth the hassles, and btw microscopic items are free of duties in EU (not VAT though)
Fero

Pau
Site Admin
Posts: 6038
Joined: Wed Jan 20, 2010 8:57 am
Location: Valencia, Spain

Re: I need advice to get my money back

Post by Pau »

Fero wrote:
Fri Jul 16, 2021 3:26 am
and btw microscopic items are free of duties in EU (not VAT though)
In Spain we pay both duties and VAT, microscope items have not privileges :cry:
Pau

Beatsy
Posts: 2102
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 3:10 am
Location: Malvern, UK

Re: I need advice to get my money back

Post by Beatsy »

You were openly and obviously evading taxes. I'm with eBay. I don't like paying taxes either, so I wait until I find a source that doesn't impose them, or I pay the price, and moan about it.

You got caught out this time, and happily got your money back in the end. Lucky you. But I don't think you had a moral platform to complain from in the first place really.

And I'm not saying this out of some vague sense of moral superiority, I'm saying it because it costs me a lot of money, as well as delays and irritation.

I've been swapping and buying technical equipment from abroad, including via Ebay, for over 20 years. I've never misrepresented the value of an item bought commercially or privately for money. But for private swapping and gifting of equipment and parts between acquaintances, we marked items as gifts and never paid import taxes, either way.

Until the "normalisation" of under-declaring value for import took hold! For the past five years, more in the last two, UK customs have got uber-picky and very knowledgeable about the value of obscure opto- mechanical parts, old and new. They are rapacious! This in *direct* reaction to a surge in import tax evasion, like yours.

Now, more than half the "gifts" I receive are stopped and taxed at 'market ⁷ rates' plus exorbitant handling charges. Not only that, when I do buy a bargain and declare it, they sometimes don't believe the price and surcharge it - plus handling charges. It is so onerous to appeal, there is effectively no appeal

In short, the range of places I can buy from ( at reasonable cost) has shrunk alarmingly. I don't blame you personally, it's mostly about big, organised duty-dodging, but millions of little guys add up to a big deal for customs and excise too. Certainly enough for them to pay attention and act, to my detriment - and get me up on this soapbox.

Have a think, eh. At least you might consider being somewhat less public and casual about tax dodging. " Everyone else does it" is no defense, nor correct.

Glad you got your money back tho 😁

Lou Jost
Posts: 5933
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:03 am
Location: Ecuador
Contact:

Re: I need advice to get my money back

Post by Lou Jost »

I agree with Beatsy. This is your fault as well as the vendors' fault.

I often see eBay vendors say that they will not declare false values. Other vendors openly say they will declare false values. Which of these two kinds of vendors would you trust more?

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