I bought home gym equipment from https://ebay.in for Rs. 4, 374/- on 25-Dec-14. It was delivered on 03-Jan-15 and was supposed to contain the following:
Rubber plates in a combination of different denominations from 2kg to 10kg totaling to 100kg e.g., (4 x 10kg; 6 x 5kg; 4 x 3kg; 4 x 2.5kg; 4 x 2kg= 100 kg)
One pair of hand gloves
One skipping rope
One 5-ft barbell straight iron rod
One 3-ft EZ iron rod
Two 14” dumbbell iron rods
Although the rubber plates were received as per the denomination given on the website, yet the total weight of the rubber plates when weighed on two different scales came to only 86kg and not 100 kg as listed on the ebay.in website. The reason for this is that the 10 kg plates are not exactly 10 kg, but approx. 8.6 kg each, similarly the 5 kg plates are approx. 4.3 kg each, and so on and so forth. A difference of ½% to 1% could be understood and tolerated by the customer. However, a difference of approximately 14 kg i.e., 14% is too much. Again, out of the above-mentioned plates one 10kg plate, four 5kg plates, two 2.5kg plates, and one 2kg plate has several cracks on it. Thus, the undamaged plates received as per description are 3 x 10kg, 2 x 5kg, 4 x 3kg, 2 x 2.5 kg, 3 x 2kg totaling to 54 kg. Considering that these too weigh 86% of their total denomination, I have received only 54kg worth of undamaged rubber plates, while I have already paid for 100kg. Accordingly, I wrote to ebay customer care, and they accepted my claim. However, the customer service executive(CSE) who got in touch with me told me that if the seller were to ship for the remaining 46kg, the total expenses would amount to Rs. 2, 000/- and consequently, he will have to incur a loss in this transaction. Similary, if ebay were to give me a coupon for Rs. 2, 000/-, they too would incur a loss. Therefore, the CSE requested me to ship the item. However, I have found from a few couriers that the cost of shipping approximately 100kg(including the rubber plates, iron rods, etc.) ranges from Rs. 2660/- to approx. around Rs. 16, 000/-. If ebay.in wants to safeguard the interests of the seller and of themselves, then why should I not safeguard my own interests? I am pretty confident that supplying damaged equipment cannot be construed as a fault of the buyer i.e., me. Then, why should I be compelled to incur a loss of Rs. 2, 660/- for a product that cost me Rs. 4, 374/-, and when it is not my fault?
Most importantly, on writing to them on several occasions, they do not bother to reply. Moreover, they have told me that they would close the claim within three days i.e., by 16-Jan-15, if I fail to ship the product.