@megrenk wrote:
The key question: seller in or outside Australia: do they have to pay for return postage if item is not as described; my understanding is they have to.
eBay's Money Back Guarantee does state that a seller is responsible for return postage for items that are not as described, but there is literally nothing that can force a seller to actually pay for it when it comes down to it. In the beginning, eBay had policies in place that suggested if the seller didn't front the expense, it would be charged to their account and the buyer reimbursed - those parts of the policy no longer exist, I'm afraid.
Re: the wording of their reply - lots of intention and meaning can be lost in translation, this goes for both their and your communication. Having dealt with Chinese wholesalers for a good few years now, with plenty of crossed wires along the way, I would personally interpret "we are working on the packages..." and what follows as acknowledging there's an issue and 'we are trying to improve our packaging methods', and suggesting that if they still work, they can still be used so while devalued, not necessarily worthless and compensating for loss of value is actually a common practice, it's even part of Aus consumer law (that is, if goods have an undisclosed fault, the buyer has a right to remedy, and one of the options is a partial refund from the seller to compensate for the loss of value).
Not that I'm suggesting you need to find their offer acceptable, I'm just saying not everything they write can be interpreted literally, and that if you conveyed that the lights are still functioning, the offer may seem perfectly reasonable and fair from their perspective even if you'd prefer to reject it (which is also reasonable - I understand that this kind of flaw isn't necessarily purely an aesthetic one).
