I can sort of imagine what you bought, though I haven't seen the actual ad. It sounds as if the seller is Chinese, even if the item is located in Australia.

Personally, I think you sound a bit cheeky, with a sense of entitlement, as far as the question of the cost goes.

Let me ask just one thing. Say you bought the item at $25 and the next week, you saw the seller had raised the price to $30. If the seller sent a note to say you should send him an extra $5 because he sold it too cheaply, would you feel obliged to?

No, I thought not.

The fact is, sometimes things do go on sale or sometimes you will buy an item by making an offer and you might find that someone else makes a lower offer and is accepted. That's life. It happens in real shops too and a seller isn't obliged to refund the difference.

So you were a bit cheeky to ask but hey, the meek don't always inherit anything and your effort paid off, the seller offered a $5 refund. You should have snapped it up. What you think the item is worth is not relevant because you agreed to the asking price, you weren't forced to buy.

The fact the item doesn't work as well as you hoped is disappointing but it doesn't make the item faulty.

Big difference.

Ebay covers you for items if they are broken when you receive them or if they are not the product you ordered and paid for.

Ebay and paypal won't cover you if the quality isn't up to what you were hoping for. They are not in the business of issuing guarantees about quality or any guarantee, come to that.

The bit about false statements. I understand where you are coming from. My own point of view is if an ad claims an item can do something and you find it cannot do that at all, then that is a misrepresentation. 

Items are meant to be fit for purpose.

But if it can do what it was advertised to do-in your case I am imagining a spinning cleaner head-but the results aren't as wonderful or easy as you were hoping, then that is more about the quality of the product.

• You should not have asked for a refund based on finding the item at a lower price afterwards (even when it’s from the same seller). 

• If you wanted a full refund based on the item being significantly not as described, you must be prepared to return the item.

• If it’s just not as good as you hoped it would be, that’s buyer’s remorse and you’d not be entitled to a refund unless the seller offers it as a goodwill gesture (and of course many large Australian retailers offer change of mind refunds as part of their own policies).

• If the seller unequivocally agreed to a partial refund based on what you said, well, they should morally follow through but this isn’t covered by eBay.

• eBay does not make sellers give partial refunds. Buyers should ask for a full return/refund when it’s a case of SNAD, and the seller might opt to offer a partial refund within the case with buyer able to keep item, but that is not one of the offered options. In other words, it’s up to the seller to decide to offer such a solution.

Quoting: ❝Buyers and sellers may agree to another solution, such as a full or partial refund while the buyer keeps the item, or a replacement item instead of a refund.❞ — you can’t request this, though, when you open a refund request. I can only repeat - you cannot request this - for obvious reasons.

Also, as you’ve used the item (as you say, it didn’t work to turn your shower sparkling clean, but it did still work), you would not receive a full refund even if you returned it. See the MBG Help page for details.

If I were you, I’d take whatever refund the seller is willing to offer, or - the item truly isn’t as described - return for full refund. However, you’ve compromised that possibility due to your reason for asking for a partial refund in communication with the seller.