I had purchased 10 pcs. Diamond core drill bit set from ebay by making advance payment. The product I received was far from specifications and of very very poor quality. I immediately contacted ebay and raised my refund claim vide 978516 of April 26, 2015. Thereafter, I received a call on my mobile on May 2nd, 2015. However, I could not make out what was being asked/said from the other end since the mobile signals were too weak(signals are normally not available or too weak at the place of my work). I kept on requesting the caller to call on my land line number.
However, it seems the caller also could not listen to what I was saying and the call dropped. This followed by a message from ebay on my mobile the next day that my claim request has been closed. Thereafter I contacted ebay again on 4th May 2015 while I was out of station. I was told to submit images of the product which I sent at insellerverificatio(at)ebay(dot)com, the next day on my return back home. Thereafter, I again contacted ebay(call reference SR# 1-474076XXXXX), I was told to contact the seller, one Mr. Jai Narayan . I tried to call his number but the number did not exist. I again contacted ebay and I was told to dispatch the product at the address from where it was sent to me.
I was further told that the amount would be refunded on submitting the Proof of Despatch to ebay in the form of scanned copy of the courier receipt. I was about to dispatch the product when I noticed an email again informing me about closure of my refund request, unilaterally. Moreover, when contacted, I was again advised to contact the seller whose contact number as given by ebay did not exist. Since then I have been calling ebay every two days and they keep telling my "sorry for the inconvenience" and that the ebay team would call me in next 48 hours. And those 48 hours are like endless eternity. The last call reference was 1-479329XXXXX dated May 14, 2015 when I was told the same story but nothing happened on ground.
In nutshell I concluded that it is simply foolish to pay in advance to these online shopping sites. They are simply cashing on the mindset of the people carried away by "discounts". Therefore, please DO NOT fall prey to the tempting advertisements and massive discounts on products and DO NOT purchase anything from online shopping sites except in the CoD mode. Don’t pay without checking the quality of the product even in CoD mode. Reputed sites like ebay are no exception to such callous attitude towards its customers and cheating.