Hello, PayPal Community,
I am a long time user of PayPal and Ebay. I have set up my account 10 years ago when I turned 18. With that being said, I have experienced a lot of dealings that went bad and either a full refund or a partial refund would only be fair. Sometimes, only minor details, like the item being not 100% accurate to the description, or a minor damage would be done during transport didn't necessarily mean I would open a case, but instead I'd be forgiving and benevolent to the sellers and just let it slide, or ask them to issue a small, symbolic partial refund for X or Y, if they felt like it. They didn't have to, but I said I would welcome it if they deemed it fair as well.
But in more severe cases, the sellers almost always assume a defensive, yet aggressive approach to the matter, usually denying all responsibility and feeling very confident if a case is opened against them. Without sounding too arrogant, I hope, I have eventually emerged "victorious" in all cases that I have opened against sellers whose items arrived damaged, did not fit item description or had flat out deceptive photos. I may have gotten the money back, but I'd still lose a lot of time.
Let me get straight to what this is about more specifically.
I stand before a moral conundrum. In simple terms, I cannot decide whether to be harsh on one seller or let it slide. I guess that no matter what structures and systems we build, at the end of the day we are still humans and I would hate to feel bad about something.
I bought two items from one seller. Let's say that the total value of those items is GBP 500. One item had cost me GBP 200 and the other one GBP 300. I have no issue with the GBP 200 item. The problem is with the more expensive one.
The item in question is a full suspension Mountain Bike Carbon frame. The seller states in the listing, that the frame has no damage. Taken directly from his listing, it stated "in good buildable condition - no cracks".
The frame was unfortunately far from a good, buildable condition. The bearings are all seized and rusty. After one week after delivery, I still have trouble removing some of the old bearings so they can be replaced with new ones. Today I have found out the frame itself actually has cracks and will need repair. Today, I have been informed that repairing the cracks will cost around 10,000 CZK (I'm in Czech Republic), which translates to around GBP 350.
The item in question isn't all that important I suppose. It could be anything. The main problem is the way I should approach this. I think the seller went above and beyond to get this frame to me. It is a rare item and I showed great interest in it. I just didn't expect it to be in such a horrible condition.
So, what next?
there are several options
A) Let it slide. Forget about it.
B) Ask the seller very, very nicely if he would be willing to issue a partial refund. I would ask for GBP 200 even if the repair will cost around GBP 350
C) Go via Ebay or directly via PayPal and confront the seller this way, present my case effectively and then feel like an insensitive **bleep** for another week or two.
D) ...?
Thank you for your opinions. If it isn't clear by now, I do not want to be an A-hole to the seller but at the same time I don't want to feel like I have been cheated.
Thanks for reading
