Fragile item broken in post, am I entitled to anything?

[luluraeven]

I purchased a set of four vintage Pyrex bowls from the US. I paid an incredble amount in shipping, but I had to have them as it was THE ONE and I wanted to give them as a wedding gift.

I open my parcel today to find the smallest of the four nesting bowls was shattered 😞 I was devastated I almost wanted to cry.

The box was well packed with some styrofoam to prevent the bowls moving round in the square box. Each bowl was wrapped in a piece of butchers paper, a piece of cardboard laid in the centre, then another bowl placed inside. This was then wrapped in bubble wrap and surrounded with crushed newspaper to take up space in the rest of the box. The box was indeed marked fragile. I personally would've been more generous with the bubble wrap myself... 

It says in the description the seller will refund my money if I return the goods within 14 days, the problem is I don't have that kind of money to ship crockery back  to the US, 3 out of 4 are still okay, and I don't have enough time to source another gift. Am I entitled to any refunds? Do I have any rights through ebay or PayPal? I don't want to be greedy, even a fraction of the sale price would suffice- It's a complicated situation and I wanted to consult the ebay gurus before I go ahead and make a fool out of myself!! 😛
 
Does anybody have similar experiences or any insight into this matter? *fingers crossed*

[shepherdsrule]

What the seller see's:

What Aus Post sorters see:

[letscleanupmycupboards]

Doesn't mean that if something fragile breaks it isn't covered.

The way I've always looked at it is that if it's well packed and damaged, it's the post office to blame (or in a few cases a faulty item fraudulently sent in an attempt to claim postal insurance - it does happen) and if it is badly packed making it more prone to damage, then sorry but that is all down to the seller.

Granted that the sender may not have known it would be re packed but somebody at the sending end needs to take ownership of the problem. It's not like you can't buy a metre or 2 of bubble wrap and pack it well, especially if it's glass. I think the seller/sender needs to take responsibility for any damage caused due to insufficient packing. If they could prove it was re packed they could ask for compensation from the shipper.

[2106greencat]

And the AP standard response will be:

The item needs to be packed and protected to withstand damage should a parcel the weight of 20kg being dropped on it from a height of 1 metre - short of a titanium box, not possible, that will however be the 'cop out' by AP.