Arghhh! Where do I start?

Oldest son(13) saved up his pocket-money etc got us to purchase an iPhone 4 off evil-Bay for him from a seller with, seemingly, a good large feedback, on the 29th of August.

Phone worked for a couple of weeks but then the Wi-fi button 'greyed out' ie couldn't connect to wi-fi. We contacted them, asking to return it for a refund.Their response was, to me, a load of gobbledegook but they recomended watching a youtube video

and follow the steps it contained. We did this and it did work......for a week!

This time they said send it back for an inspection, it was returned to us, working. but by the 21st of October it went faulty again!

We again messaged them asking for it to be returned for a full refund. Remember this would be the 2nd time we've returned it and are now £5.00s worth of postage down.

There then followed a few messages back and forth with us asking for confirmation that we would get a full refund including 2 lots of postage, which I could copy and paste if anyone is really bothered but don't really expect you to.

Anyway we sent it back with a request for a full refund at the begining of last week. In the post today was.........the 'fixed' phone!!!!!!!

So the question is, after this long rambling rant, what do we do now?

A) Keep and use the phone until it, undoubtably, breaks again and return it again?

B ) Contact the seller demanding a refund?

C) Open a case against them with e-Bay and/or Paypal?

or D) Any other course of action that I'm not aware of?

If anyone's interested the sellers are http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/craft_bargain_corner

Would I buy again? I think you'll know my response!

This incident has strengthened my views on 2 things.

1) Don't buy anything over 20 quid on eBay from anyone you don't know or have heard of.

2) (CR)Apple products are OK until they don't work! If it were up to me I wouldn't allow another one in the house

Have you tried a factory reset on this phone? If you have and doesn't work I would open a case! o and buy your son a new one for xmas haha! :)

Did you check the phone wasn't stolen in its past life? Not suggesting it is but that could be why the wifi is locked, even if you can use your network? I would just create an eBay case against them, might not do much but better than nothing

Sent from my iPad using Ford OC

@Ross. It was reset at some stage by us at the begining of the process when it first failed. It working fine.....just now, but I'm pretty sure the fault will reoccur shortly.

And I'm sure you'll know my reply to the last bit of your comment! :D

@Matthew. Stupid question but how do you check if it's been stolen?

When the button is greyed out the wi-fi doesn't work.

http://www.imeidetective.com/

Use the link above to check phone status

Thanks for that. Not on that list ;)

Bookmarked the page though.

Open a case. You should be protected.

Hello, if I were you I would open a case and demand refund, if seller doesnt agree you can escalate your case and a ebay staff member will decide, ebay will always side with the buyer in this situation. The seller knows about the fault and sounds like he temporary fixed before he sold it to you hence he knew what to do. Also if the phone was stolen (blacklisted) you would still get wifi but no 3g or cellular network nor make or receive txt or calls therefore I doubt this is barred, it is more likely to be a motherboard fault.

I use to be a phone repairer and came across a lot of this on ebay but it is only a small percentage of people on ebay that are like that and ruin it for you.

Ps. If you decide to do this, keep your emails profesional etc as ebay will read them to help make a decision.

Hope this helps

Case being opened as we speak!

Mrs Turvey's brother is a 'profesional' eBay seller and is guiding her through the process.

Cheers.

Had similar and heres what youll get its not ebays issue this is from trading standards its between you and the seller the seller doesnt have to refund you as youve used the item and its over 14 days ebay only covers you from 30 days from the date you ordered it and paypal also will tell you you cant get a refund as its ebays problem trust me ebay and paypal are a waste of time after 30 days has passed ebay protection if you look into it isnt worth the paper its printed on

iPhone 4's are crap. My 4S has greyed out wifi and bluetooth does not function!

Apparantly it is now 45 days from date of purchase to raise a case, which has now passed! The fact that we have not been happy with this item since we bought it counts for nothing, the seller obviously has been playing for time.

Mrs T is going to phone eBay about it tomorrow. Don't suppose it will do much good but we have to try something!

Just in case you missed it in the first post the seller is craft_bargain_corner http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/craft_bargain_corner

Avoid at all costs!!!

ha good luck youll get a poor english speaker on the phone took 10 mins before he got the spelling of my name right it took 58 mins to get through in a constant cue then 45 mins on the phone then told they would get back to us which they didnt in the end we spent 5 days 12hrs 17 mins on the phone to ebay most of that waiting only to be told all you can do is contact trading standards who tell you to contact the seller or ebay will send the seller a message if they dont give a satisfactory answer they can suspend the account which is useless as the just open another one weve been left out of pocket on a brand new tablet that came with 1 year warranty which they refuse to repair replace or refund ill not purchase anything over £20 on ebay again

i used reliable-e-home they are just as bad and getting away with it selling duff gear and stealing youre cash but ebay will tell you no ones made a phone complaint not surprised given how much time it takes

@ed12 Yes it's a 4s the son's got as well. Check the video out in my first post. What they suggest does work but in our case it only worked for a while but if you have to keep re-setting and faffing about then it is 'Not fit for purpose'

@artscot79 Yes, can see it will be a pain BUT it's the only option we have left.

I see most of the sellers NEGATIVE FEEDBACK relates to phones , dig your heals in, BEST of luck ....

Mine did come back with resets and all but did eventually completely pack in. Replaced lots of it's guts and still a no go. eBay wise I think you're buggered really, I would love to say yes just do this etc. I've made the same mistake, with eBay generally once times up, it's up!

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC

Have you reset the network settings? I assume you are using the latest iOS? Apple Store will probably help out with the phone,

This is why I changed to Android last year, can't go wrong.

There's always Sale of Goods Act 1979. They are dealing in the course of a business and you are a consumer.

Expectation of quality etc is lessened with used or re-furbed products but you still have rights. Within 6 months of purchase, the burden is on the seller to prove it was fine when delivered to you as opposed to you having to prove it wasn't.

You are supposed to give the seller chance to repair under SOGA and they have had that chance and failed. You are well within your rights to request a refund but they will claim that sufficient time has passed that shows you have accepted the goods rather than rejecting them.

That argument falls down on the basis that case law (name escapes me now), shows that time taken requesting or carrying out repairs is not to be counted when deciding whether or not sufficient time has passed which shows the buyer has accepted the goods.

"Their response was, to me, a load of gobbledegook"

Feel free to PM me their response.

There's always Sale of Goods Act 1979. They are dealing in the course of a business and you are a consumer.

Expectation of quality etc is lessened with used or re-furbed products but you still have rights. Within 6 months of purchase, the burden is on the seller to prove it was fine when delivered to you as opposed to you having to prove it wasn't.

You are supposed to give the seller chance to repair under SOGA and they have had that chance and failed. You are well within your rights to request a refund but they will claim that sufficient time has passed that shows you have accepted the goods rather than rejecting them.

That argument falls down on the basis that case law (name escapes me now), shows that time taken requesting or carrying out repairs is not to be counted when deciding whether or not sufficient time has passed which shows the buyer has accepted the goods.

Are you referring to the consumer contracts regulations?

(Replaced DSR this year)

No. There are new regs as you say which are for contracts post 13th of June but the essence of those is all about right to cancel etc.

SOGA is for when goods are not of satisfactory quality or fit for purpose. Going purely on face value and that's all I've got to go on here, I believe a phone with wifi that doesn't work is unsatisfactory, even if it is refurbed.

It would be different if the seller told the buyer of the problem before purchase and the buyer accepted and purchased anyway.

Stick with the ebay case, it's a long !Removed! process and generally as you said, people drag their heels, but once ebay understands that your phone is stuffed and you want your money back it should all start going the right way...

A wee bit of progress in the right direction :)

Mrs T got in contact with eBay last night, they actually phoned back and were on the phone for 1/2 an hour! They agree with us that the seller is dragging their heels and have opened a case! They have 8 days to reply so we await with bated breath!

@Dave AKA The Dark Knight, just going out now but I'll PM you with it shortly ;)

Let's hope eBay sort it all out. Much easier than having to deploy SOGA rights. It will be interesting to read their reply though.