Damaged Blinds, eBay can't seem to help (complicated buyer issue)

[kaibacorp*]

OK here's what happened:

I spent about $200 on roller blinds last year.

Every single blind arrived damaged, but I did not know it until I had mounted the blinds.

The blinds are the "blackout" type which are just meant to block out the sun.

When the blinds arrived, I did not have the tools to mount the blinds so I had to wait about a month buy the tools.

By the time I had mounted them, the 30 day time limit for returns through eBay had just passed and I had realised that all the blinds arrived damaged. (They had holes and tears in them, some were more damaged than others.)

eBay advised me to dispute it through PayPal because of the 30 day thing. So I did.

But, a few days after I had opened the dispute, I realised that I was not as sure as I could have been that the blinds arrived damaged.

There was a possiblity that I may have somehow inadvertently damaged the blinds while mounting them and I gave the seller the benefit of the doubt.

So, I canceled the dispute through PayPal and decided to pay for new blinds.

So I ordered new blinds from the same seller, sure enough, the replacement blinds were also damaged. So, I can now be certain that the original blinds were all damaged (probably in transit.)

eBay can probably refund me for the replacement blinds I bought since they only arrived yesterday but, the issue is over the original $200 worth of blinds that I bought. Because I cancelled the Paypal dispute, I am now advised to contact my bank for assistance in recovering the lost money.

 I would prefer not to contact my bank over this issue.

I have appealed to the seller to help but the seller is un-responsive.

What I would like to know is; can eBay or Paypal help me? I would prefer to deal with them. I'd rather not appeal to the good-will of the seller or contact my bank to see if they can help.

Are there any other options?

Thanks in advance

[repentatleisure1952]

"What I would like to know is; can eBay or Paypal help me?"

With the original purchase?

eBay can't...but you knew that.

PayPal could have helped but you closed the case...so that ship has also sailed.

"Are there any other options?"

Yeh... your credit card may offer protection...idk

Fwwiw...always inspect items on arrival.

Open a case for Item Not As Described for your current purchase...follow all the steps.

If the seller wakes up once you open the case I would now ignore them & just stick with the case...but that's me.

[lyndal1838 · Accepted solution]

There are no other options that I can see.

You cannot use paypal for the original damaged order as you cancelled the original dispute....the only option is a bank chargeback as you have been told.

Just open the ebay dispute if the seller is not co-operating and at least minimise your loss.

[kaibacorp*]

Thanks for the replies guys. I went back and double checked the options.

Paypal stood firm in their ground and said because I cancelled the dispute, it invalidates my buyer protection.

They then advised me to contact my bank.

My bank were curious about why I took so long to report it and I tried to explain the best I could the situation.

I was wondering what the process was called and they told me that it's called a 'transaction dispute.'

They told me that it can take up to 45 days for me to get the money back.

Here's hoping 🙂

[kaibacorp*]

As it turns out my bank was NOT ABLE to return my money as it was over 120 days old.
I suppose next time if I have doubts I should investigate sooner. 😕
First time I've really lost money doing business over eBay as well.

[crypt_keeper000]

Your biggest mistake was buying off that seller again and waiting to long to do anything about it....learn from this costly mistake and from now on check all your goods as soon as you get them.