eBay Fram Ultra Problems?

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Hello,

After finally exhausting my Napa Gold stash of filters and reading all of the Fram Ultra reviews on here for years, I decided to give them a shot. I'm sure I had read good reviews on here for eBay seller SAE Auto (eBay feedback about 98.5%), so I bought a 6-pack for about $22 shipped. They arrived today and I could not be more disappointed. The shipping box was perfect, but inside I found what were clearly returns and/or store rejects. Every box is crushed to some extent, two of them had the seals torn off - and one had the actual box torn off where the seal would have been. I inspected the filters in the "unsealed" boxes and box have dents in the endcap. One directly on the end, one on the side of the grippy material. I did not open the boxes with the seals intact.

I have already fired off a message to the seller with pictures and asked for a refund.

My questions are:
*Did I buy from the wrong seller? If so, who should I buy from?
*Is this typical of this seller or are they normally new stock unblemished filters like I expected? Maybe I just caught the new guy who meant to send these to scrap?
*Has anyone had this experience before? Should I expect my requested refund or expect to put up a fight?

Thanks!

Adam

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IMO, buying filters on eBay or from Rock Auto is taking on some risk on what you're going to receive. All you can do is see if the seller will correct the things that are wrong.
 
The seller sent you damaged good (ie significantly not as described). It doesn't matter if they don't want to give you a refund. Ebay will side with you once seeing the photos. Either they or the seller will reimburse you fully....included return shipping. For the cost of shipping them back.....they just might tell you to keep them free of charge.
 
I could not care less about box condition if the filter was still good.
Complaining about boxes is petty.


The filters should arrive undamaged, though.
 
Thanks for the replies- even the criticism.

If they were $8 I wouldn't bother buying online. The only reason I did was because of the price and remembering good reviews.

I know it's possible for boxes to be damaged and the product fine, but I think it increases the chances that it's not. And with other threads that talk about rattles and potentially hard to see or hidden damage I feel it's right to be cautious. The damaged ones are just obvious.

I should note there was no packing in the box. Just the filters inside and they had room to move around. I'm sure that didn't help.

If cheap enough I might give another seller a try (the one mentioned), otherwise this may be my last foray into online oil filters.

Adam
 
Wow, they look like factory rejects. I guess they're $9 (Wal-Mart or Amazon) per filter for a reason. If possible, I would return them and get a full refund.
 
I ordered a lot of 3 FSP7317's off eBay once (pretty much XG7317 internally).

One of the filters was really weird, had a base plate more like an OEM A02 Honda filter so the gasket was loose in the box.It was as if the production line was shifting between making FSP7317 and A02 filters to create this frankenstein filter.

I took a photo, contacted the seller, he was like yup that's weird and refunded me for 1 filter. I still ended up using it. I removed the gasket from a used A02 filter, pressed it on the base of the defective filter and ran it for a 5000 mile OCI on my brother's Accord. No leaks seen at next oil change.
 
The seller buys filters from stores that went belly up, or buys old closeout inventory and sells it cheap. I have bought 6 packs of Fram Ultra filters on Ebay cheap, knowing the boxes were going to show signs of age or had been opened. I was OK with that since buying the filter not the box. Last batch I bought I had two dented filters, I sent the seller pictures and a few days later I had two perfect dent free replacements, and was told to keep the two dented filters. That was good CS in my book. I will continue to buy them when needed and save $$.
 
If you bought them from SAE Auto, they will either refund your money for the dented one(s) or send you replacement ones, I've never had any trouble with them. My brother even took a dented XG5 & put it on his SB Chevy Jeep-he said "It's not that bad!"
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I would file a claim and dispute the products. You will most likely get them for free. Otherwise have them send you a packing slip and return the order. I have never purchased oil filters online. I have had some poor products that I purchased online and like to buy from power sellers if I can.
 
Originally Posted by ZeeOSix
IMO, buying filters on eBay or from Rock Auto is taking on some risk on what you're going to receive. All you can do is see if the seller will correct the things that are wrong.

I would like to add Amazon/3rd party sellers to this list. I recently bought two TG cartridge filters from a 3rd party for dirt cheap. One was perfect in sealed box and one was opened and missing the o ring. I contacted Fram and they sent me a replacement. I have also bought air filters from Amazon. In every case the box was damaged but filter was fine.
 
Originally Posted by joekingcorvette
I would file a claim and dispute the products. You will most likely get them for free. Otherwise have them send you a packing slip and return the order. I have never purchased oil filters online. I have had some poor products that I purchased online and like to buy from power sellers if I can.


I'd do that if and only if the seller refused to make good on the filters in question. I would give them a shot at doing that first. As I said earlier I had no problems getting the 2 dented filters I got replaced.
 
I would contact the seller first. They may make it right either refund or send new ones. They may even do you better. Going through dispute process takes slightly longer and will at best only get a refund that takes longer.
 
Just about all of the Ebay filters have issues that created their discounted price. Some of the issues are visible - some are not.
If you do not find fault on the outside of the can, then be sure to dissect the inside of the can.

NOBODY is going to offer you a $9 filter for 50% off, unless issue(s) exist. Roll your own dice - but I will pass on any filter heavily discounted.
 
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