I bought a Nokia phone N8 on eBay sold as new. But it was not new as it was not in the original box and missing all original accessories. The phone itself, as the seller insisted, may be new, but it cannot be confirmed. It was a full refund case and the seller agreed first to include the return shipping fee. Later we knew that it takes FedEx to ship lithium ion batteried phone from Japan to US. It was due to Japanese postal service strict policy not to ship any lithium ion batteries on their carrier, by sea or air. The seller refused to pay for FedEx charge so the case was brought to eBay customer protection service. I argued that since the seller practically lied to sell his item, to have it shipped back he should pay for the return shipment, regardless of the cost. eBay ruled that the seller is responsible only for the original price and shipping and the buyer pays for the return.
I had two choices, either to keep the phone the seller lied to sell me on eBay, or to pay about $100 shipping fee to get a refund. I sent 2 emails to eBay appealing to review the case but no replies. Instead I received an invitation to write a review of purchase and rate the seller. eBay closed the case and I am left with the phone I do not need nor wanted had the seller not made a false advertisement on eBay. From this experience, I learned that eBay customer protection is like a robot, it work on some automatic guidelines, and as long as you stay in there they don't come after you. In this case, the seller showed his will to issue a full refund so the case closed. And full refund in eBay terms is original purchase price and shipping no matter what. I find it very resentful that eBay pushes the buyer to pay for return shipment in a case like this.
