We purchased a Samsung Galaxy S24 on 31 January 2025 advertised as a brand-new phone with a 1-yr warranty. We also expected a genuine Samsung warranty from this eBay Seller, box_buy, as nothing to the contrary was advertised. The phone suffered a serious malfunction in early October, so the Seller was contacted. No reply for days, so we contacted Samsung which unsuccessfully tried to rule out causes of the malfunction over the phone. Samsung then instructed us to take the phone to their repair centre which, after 3 days, it was determined the phone was an overseas phone and, as such, was not warrantied by Samsung (repair to cost $750). And BTW, we've owned about 12 Samsung phones over the 15 years, and none until this one needed repair both pre and post warranty, so we suspect we were sold a refurbished phone.We then contacted eBay twice via chat (since a phone number is no longer available as it once used to be), which finally yielded a response from the Seller who advised us to mail him the phone for a replacement phone (no mention of a brand-new phone). It became clear that the Seller wanted to repair the phone himself and send us a replacement refurbished phone. We wanted our phone repaired by Samsung in the area where we live and be assured it's getting genuine Samsung parts, plus knowing we would be getting our original phone back. The Seller wasn't willing to arrange a Samsung repair in our area, so we demanded a refund which the Seller ignored and then stopped responding to our messages. We checked his reviews and despite having good reviews overall (he sells other items besides phones), he had many negative reviews (if you filter them) regarding selling refurbished phones as new, not supplying genuine parts, not responding to messages, and not providing proper invoices. Some complaints referred to him as a scammer. This only confirmed our resolve for a refund if Samsung could not repair the phone under their warranty.EBay has been ENTIRELY unhelpful in advocating for us. They repeatedly claim they are not the seller and have no accountability as to the warranty their sellers offer. They repeatedly cite the user agreement signed when we registered with eBay 15 years ago!!! They repeatedly claim they can only intervene within the 30-day period, which as others have stated, isn't even 30 days since the period starts from when you order the item, not when you receive it.EBay is aiding and abetting these types of unscrupulous sellers whilst profiteering from their fraudulent sales. We will be addressing this issue with the ACCC. There are far too many negative reviews about eBay on this forum, as well as other forums, and it's time eBay, the greedy behemoth it is, be reigned in and held to account for being complicit in these misleading and unconscionable sales and practices. Australian consumer laws must be adhered to, including the 2-year fit-for-purpose warranty that consumer goods in this country are to receive.
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