Bought fork from ebay.... bent... where to start?

Here is the story... I just bought a Rock Shox Tora fork off of ebay. Here is the sellers description...

"Rock Shox Tora 289 Fork 1 1/8'' 26'' disc 100mm, in good condition, IS brake mount, steerer tube length 20cm or 8'', 100mm travel."

Upon receiving the fork, I placed it on the bike, went to put the front wheel on and immediately noticed it was bent inward because the dropouts did not even come close to the axle on the rim. I have taken pics and measurements of how bad the fork is bent (a little over 1/4"). Where should I start with getting a refund and the fork sent back to the seller? I have never had to deal with an issue like this.

 

Contact the seller and demand a refund. If no avail, dispute through Paypal.

 

Thanks. I thought this would be the best route to take but wasn't sure.

 

x2, do it now. Seller should pay for the return, he can adjust your refund through paypal. He had to know it was bent, unless it was bent in shipping and would change everything.

 

I was looking at the pics a little closer that he posted on ebay.... It looks slightly bent there too but the way the pics were taken it is hard to tell. Almost like he was trying to cover it up. If you stand a little ways away from it you can definitely see how the 2 tubes start to bend in to each other.

 

I have sold a lot of things on ebay and that is just plain dirty, you know what you need to do......

 

Yeah it is. Just contacted the seller demanding a refund and return shipping be paid. Hopefully they make things easy and accept blame.

 

Update on what is going on with this issue... I contacted the seller and he responded to have me send the item back and he will refund me for the product plus shipping both ways. I sent the item back and it arrived on Nov 29. I contacted the seller to confirm he received the item. No response for approx. 3 days. He confirmed he got the product. No mention of when I would receive my refund. Sent seller an email Sat. asking when I could expect to see a refund... no reply... It is now Dec. 5 and I still have yet to receive a refund. I just opened a case with Paypal to get my money back. Hopefully this will put some fire under his ass.

 

Good, opening a case usually gets some results.

 

Yeah i hope. I really dont care if I get the shipping cost for sending it back. I just want my damn money back so I can be done with this.

 

That sucks man I've had that happen a few times to me on ebay. You can also open a case through ebay and they can put a mark on his record for others to see.

 

I think he has 5-7 days to get this cleared up before ebay and paypal take action against a seller. Whether this guy want's to be a douche or not you will get your refund. Keep us posted.

 

why didnt you file a case through paypal before sending the shit back? that is the first thing you should have done. paypal cant protect you if you dont use them....

 

just make sure you keep a record of the receipts and the e-mails saying that he agreed to refund you because the product was defective

 

will do Thanks for the help

Because the seller responded and said to send it back and he would refund me all my money. Did that and the seller has magically disappeared.

yeah I have all the emails saved.

 

No. I was going to keep it as a case and if he didn't respond to that, then I was going to push it in to a claim.

pm inbound

 

A couple of mistakes were made so far by the OP. As stated, I wouldn't have sent anything back without first invoking the Buyer Protection Plan. Follow the case worker's direction. If it goes bad, they will initiate the claim process.
You will probably be OK though if you have proof of receipt/delivery.

The second one is a mistake that is often made in these situations.
HIDE YOUR FRIGGIN EMAIL ADDRESS !!!!
ALL correspondence needs to be within the Ebay message system !!!!

If you forget to hide your email address, ignore the email and come back in the Ebay message system without reference to the email.

The message log becomes a legal document in a way and the case worker can easily access what was said.
They are generally not interested at looking at copies of your emails that came from outside their system.

Always stay civil and matter-of-fact when using the Ebay message system.
Let the bad guy look bad.

Plan on not recovering shipping costs.

 

Here is an update on what is going on. ended up escalating my case to a claim. Paypal ruled in my favor and are paying me back the money I deserve. What a pain in the ass this all was but I am glad it is almost done