Item arrived, issues with a partial refund | Questions and answers among users

taneet · 2022-09-30T17:21:13.809000Z

I bought a statue, the item arrived broken, it was packed terribly, the statue had not been detached from the base, totally wrong for this kind of heavy shipment (+-20kg). The item is a metal panther with a marble base, it arrived broken.There were some marble parts missing from the base that were just supposed to be glued on, the seller forgot to put them in the package.The seller used a polystyrene crate used for fish, a used one, packing that was not only disgusting and unhygienic but also not suitable for shipping a 500€ item, then to fill the empty spaces he used toilet paper 😅.I paid 150€ for shipping, which also included insurance.This is only the beginning of the disaster, my worst experience in 8 years of buying.I immediately explained the situation to the seller, showing him the damage, the first thing he told me was that the damage was clearly intentional, a hammer blow according to him, and he went so far as to say it was probably a customs officer, and that he had used the best packaging, the communication started off badly right away.My intention from the start was to get a partial refund to cover the damage, but not seeing the seller willing to cooperate I decide to call PayPal and explain the situation, they tell me to open a dispute and that they would resolve everything for me, I stress that my intention is to get a partial refund, they open the case.Meanwhile, privately after various messages the seller also agrees to a partial refund.I also ask an experienced restorer to estimate the damage, who gives me a friendly price of 100€ since he is a family friend.Everything seemed perfect, but the seller gets annoyed because he sees his funds blocked and the dispute opened through PayPal, so he decides he doesn't want to communicate and chooses to return the statue.So I find myself having to send back a statue with PayPal buyer protection that covers at most 30€ of shipping, and it would obviously be more expensive, not just the damage, but insult to injury as well.Partly my fault because I hadn't opened a dispute in years and before it was different, looking back I would have done everything through eBay and not PayPal.Meanwhile the seller changes his story and says that I caused the damage on purpose to profit from it, he's not stupid and it's obvious.I tell him to talk to the insurance company but nothing, he says it's his right, that he wants the item back and that he will assert his rights by proving that I was the one who caused the damage.I feel insulted and cheated by the seller who is also trying to be in the right even though he is completely in the wrong, I absolutely don't trust sending the item back under these circumstances, I'm afraid the seller will try to scam me and then take both the insurance money and mine, maybe causing further damage to the item.I therefore call eBay and an operator on the phone tells me that the only way to get a partial refund is to close the PayPal case and only after that would it be possible to open a dispute on eBay and request the refund, I ask for confirmation 3 times of what he told me, given the fact that PayPal has always told me you should never close a case until a solution has been found.Meanwhile PayPal is already asking me to return the item and to do it within a week.Meanwhile the seller's funds were still blocked and he refused to issue me a partial refund until the money would be released.I call PayPal, explain the situation, tell them what the eBay operator told me, they think it's strange but tell me that if an operator told me that, then it's correct, so I proceed with closing the case.After a very long negotiation the seller tells me that he is willing to give me at most 70€ for the repair + the parts he forgot, obviously madness, the package was also insured and the damage was caused by him.I immediately tell the seller that I closed the dispute with PayPal but he keeps saying that his funds are blocked, 3 days have passed and he says his funds are still frozen.Unfortunately I already think I know how it will end, I won't get a refund, I won't get the parts the seller forgot, I'll have to pay for the repair out of pocket, I'll have to wait weeks before I have the statue whole in my collection, I'll also have to pay a stonemason to produce the missing parts, and through all this I've wasted hours dealing with chats and customer service that told me a load of inaccuracies.

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Item arrived, issues with a partial refund | Questions and answers among users | eBay Italy