Removing oak veneer on solid oak shelf

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If the item was "pick up only" then not certain that the seller is liable for anything other than the refund on the goods.
 
Hi thanks for the notice! Sorry, I wasn't clear, it's the seller who will be booking the Shiply return. I meant that the customer representative advised that my original Shiply fee - that I booked to have the shelf delivered to me - should be dealt with after the return has been completed. It would be dealt with by eBay's courtesy team, so it's on a case by case basis, I think.
That was the point that concerned me - I suppose if you made the Shipley booking through eBay, they may help, otherwise, they won‘t/couldn’t. Anyway, why not initiate the refund asap?

Obviously we don't know all the facts and can only chip in.

Cheers
 
That was the point that concerned me - I suppose if you made the Shipley booking through eBay, they may help, otherwise, they won‘t/couldn’t. Anyway, why not initiate the refund asap?

Obviously we don't know all the facts and can only chip in.

Cheers
Thanks! That's a good idea. I'll try calling again to speak with another eBay rep, maybe this one might let me start the refund process of the delivery fee earlier.
 
If the item was "pick up only" then not certain that the seller is liable for anything other than the refund on the goods.
Yeah, I was told that the refund of the delivery fee would be passed to eBay's courtesy team, long shot, I know...
 
Thanks so much, grateful for all of your replies and input. Next time I know to come here first before buying!
 
Hi folks! So the seller has gotten back saying that the courier fees he's receiving are really high, and whether or not I'd consider a partial refund instead. What do you think of this idea, and what price do you think is fair? Keeping in mind that even with a full refund I'll likely be out of pocket for the courier fees since I had arranged collection myself. I bought this for £100, plus £60 for shipping. Here are some photos - it can be positioned both vertically and horizontally, and the dimensions are 137 x 90 x 40 cm. Thanks for your help!
 

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This is do you like how it looks ?. Does it fit in with its surroundings ?.
If you like it,and it fits with where you want to put it who cares if it is not solid. Many pieces of fine furniture are made using veneer. Tables or large surfaces unless you are spending thousands are probably going to be veneered.
There is nothing actually wrong about a veneered surface, and in fact it is probably a more sustainable way of doing things.
 
I’m at a loss to understand why some of the posters above seem to be on the side of this buyer and, it appears, ignoring the principle of Caveat Emptor.

The facts as I understand them from the OP’s comments are that he took a chance and bought a piece of second hand furniture he liked the look of on Ebay believing it to be solid oak, although admits that the owner never attested to this as he had no Idea if it was solid oak and admitted such “ He said he had no idea as he's not a wood expert,”.

He paid £100 for the item and £60 to have it shipped to him. He received his purchase and on closer inspection decided he wasn’t 100% satisfied with it and by raising the question on this forum has now discovered the item he purchased is not in fact solid oak and the chance he took on it being so wasn’t correct.

So now, sometime after purchasing the item and establishing that it is not solid oak, he wants to nullify the transaction on this basis despite the fact that it was not a condition of the original purchase contract.

As a result, he now expects, a refund of the £100 purchase price, a refund the £60 he paid to have it delivered to him and for the vendor to pay the cost for collection of the item. All this despite the fact that the vendor never told him the item was solid oak.

A lot of us will at times be both buyers and vendors on Ebay.

Where would you stand in this case if you were in the vendor’s shoes?
 
I’m at a loss to understand why some of the posters above seem to be on the side of this buyer and, it appears, ignoring the principle of Caveat Emptor.

The facts as I understand them from the OP’s comments are that he took a chance and bought a piece of second hand furniture he liked the look of on Ebay believing it to be solid oak, although admits that the owner never attested to this as he had no Idea if it was solid oak and admitted such “ He said he had no idea as he's not a wood expert,”.

He paid £100 for the item and £60 to have it shipped to him. He received his purchase and on closer inspection decided he wasn’t 100% satisfied with it and by raising the question on this forum has now discovered the item he purchased is not in fact solid oak and the chance he took on it being so wasn’t correct.

So now, sometime after purchasing the item and establishing that it is not solid oak, he wants to nullify the transaction on this basis despite the fact that it was not a condition of the original purchase contract.

As a result, he now expects, a refund of the £100 purchase price, a refund the £60 he paid to have it delivered to him and for the vendor to pay the cost for collection of the item. All this despite the fact that the vendor never told him the item was solid oak.

A lot of us will at times be both buyers and vendors on Ebay.

Where would you stand in this case if you were in the vendor’s shoes?
Second line in the original post is a clue....

"I was told that the whole thing's make of solid oak though."
 
Thanks for your responses, lots of things to think over! Yeah, the listing was advertised as "solid oak" in the listing title and description, and I also messaged him prior to purchase to check that there were no veneer components. He looked it over and said there appears to be no veneer used, and that it was sold to him previously as solid oak.
 
Very observant Adam. There's another clue in the OP's response to your comment on the issue. The OP informed you that the vendor said “ He said he had no idea as he's not a wood expert,”.

In his subsequent post, yesterday, the OP says “ I've been on the hunt for a solid wood cubed shelving unit for a very long time.” So his principal need seems to be of a solid wood piece. If he bought something thinking it might be solid wood, that was not confirmed to be so and turned out not to be then he has no case for nullifying the transaction in my opinion.

My question on the issue is simply where would you stand in this case if you were in the vendor’s shoes?

I am asking this question out of interest simply because while there appears to be a level of desdain for sellers on Ebay and I understand that, I have been the victim of unscruplous vendors. But also, I have been on the receiving end of disingenuous claims from purchasers on Ebay. I won each case easily as Ebay could clearly see the situation for what it was.
 
The information disclosed in the OP's final post would have been helpful in the original post.

As I say I'm interested to hear anybody's view on disingenuous purchasers!
 
FYI here was his response prior to purchase: "I'm no wood expert but we bought it as solid oak and I cannot see/detect MDF or veneer anywhere on it. The weight does not lend itself to an MDF or wood veneer either." For me, at the time, that seemed like confirmation of it being solid oak, especially if he had looked over it and then purchased it as such. But I know better now in the future and to come to this forum first.
 
I'm sorry Conrad,....but I completely disagree with your rationale.

The OP purchased the shelving unit on the premise that it was advertised as Solid Wood. If the vendor wasnt 100% certain of what it was made of, he should not have stated it was "Solid Oak"
It arrived and has now been confirmed that it is veneered, not solid.
The responsibility for confirming that it was solid wood or veneered, before putting it up for sale and listing the details on Ebay, is the vendor's, not the purchaser.....

If I were in the OP's position, I would expect the vendor to reimburse me in full....including the cost of shipping!

In my opinion, I dont think the vendor has a leg to stand on.....
 
I'll give you an example of a similar situation that happened to me when I made one of my first purchases on Ebay.

A few years ago, I needed some new dust extractor bags for my old 2002 Festool dust extractor. The bags were/ are no longer made or supplied by Festool. I found a listing for the correct part number on Ebay and they were being sold as " New, old stock". They were for sale as a " Buy it now" price, not by auction.
Festool list their parts / spares as a 6 digit code number and the vendor had used this part number as part of his description. The part number is for 5 bags. You cannot then or now, buy individual disposable bags for Festool dust extractors, they always come in packs of 5.
The price was just over half the cost of what would of been the retail price for 5 new bags, had the bags still been available.
I agreed to buy them and paid up front + a delivery charge.

When the parcel arrived 2 days later, there was only 1 bag in the parcel. I contacted the vendor and he said he never stated there were 5 bags, so when I asked him why he had used the 6 digit code which was for 5 bags, he never came back to me.

I contacted Ebay and they said they would look into it for me, but I've never heard anything back from them or the vendor.

I learned my lesson from that....

Just because a vendor doesn't know exactly what it is they are selling, does not give them the right to pass the responsibility of confirming the details, over to the purchaser.
"Caveat Emptor " may well be relevant in my situation and the OP"s, but the vendor surely has the primary responsibility to ensure that his description is accurate and not misleading.
 
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I'm sorry Conrad,....but I completely disagree with your rationale.

The OP purchased the shelving unit on the premise that it was advertised as Solid Wood. If the vendor wasnt 100% certain of what it was made of, he should not have stated it was "Solid Oak"
It arrived and has now been confirmed that it is veneered, not solid.
The responsibility for confirming that it was solid wood or veneered, before putting it up for sale and listing the details on Ebay, is the vendor's, not the purchaser.....

If I were in the OP's position, I would expect the vendor to reimburse me in full....including the cost of shipping!

In my opinion, I dont think the vendor has a leg to stand on.....
I agree. There's no reason why the OP should incur a loss as the item was incorrectly described. I do think he should change his name to "VeneeredChipboardly213", though.
 
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