Why would PayPal not refund the Postage Component?

[clarry100]

Back in April I bought a genuine Samsung (well it was branded that way anyway) phone charger and cable.

Item was lised at $20 + $5 postage.

After about 4-months the charger itself failed.

I went back to the seller but noticed they were no longer selling on ebay but were still registered.

Their feedback received from buyers suggested they had been having some problems in the previous month or two.

So I contacted them asking if they would replace the charger under manufacturer warranty.

Stating that I would be happy to return the failed one.

A week went by with no response.

So since it was outside the 30-days ebay MBG claim period I raised and INAD case thru PayPal.

In the case I said what had occurred and that I was happy to return the failed item.

After a further week or so there was still no response from the seller so I escalated it to a claim.

Just yesterday I received an email from PayPal saying they had found in my favour and refunded the original purchase cost of the item itself ($20) but not the postage cost of $5.

Just wondering why this would be the case? I have not contacted PayPal as yet to ask why.

[daffodilau]

Hi Clary.

Could the reason be that the postage was seen as a service and the service was used. If that makes sense  I see your point of view as you are out of pocket on the postage . But I cannot see Australia Post returning any money as they delivered on their service . The item not working is not part of their service.  Maybe some-one with more experience will know another reason

All the best

[digital*ghost]

Was it just the wording of the notification email or definitely payment less postage amount refunded to your account?

If not an error on PayPal's behalf, the only thing I can think of would be maybe this: 

S11.1 An item may be considered “significantly not as described” if:

The item is unusable and was not disclosed as such. (Note, this applies to the item in its received state.)

And/or this:

S9.5 Where we are unable to recover the whole or part of your payment from the seller we may, in our absolute and sole discretion, decide to make a payment as a gesture of goodwill.

(Meaning, technically the item wouldn't have qualified for a PP INAD claim, because the received state was fully functional and as described, so perhaps either the seller's lack of response prompted the win by default, and/or their account was empty and a discretionary payment was made). 

[clarry100]

Definitely only the $20 was refunded into my PayPal balance.

The email message from PayPal only mentioned the $20 and made no mention of the postage component ($5) at all.

You could be right in that when I actually received the item it was working as it should have. It was later that it failed. So technically was not really INAD at the time I received it I guess.

Since it was a name branded item my thinking was that it should be covered under a manufacturer warranty. I thought it should have worked for more than about 4-months. So originallly I set out for a replacement item from the seller on that basis.

But when there was no response from the seller I decided to try for a PayPal claim.

Might have to call PayPal and ask them to explain why. I just thought there may have been a logical explanation I may not have thought of.

[lyndal1838]

If it was a genuine item you should have tried the manufacturer....you may have been given a new one as a guesture of goodwill.

[lizzyamelia]

Some accessory items only come with a 90 day manufacturer limited warranty. 

[lyndal1838]

You never know if you don't ask.....many manufacturers will do something if an item fails very close to the expiry of the warranty.