I'm very disappointed with a dispute at the moment and how Paypal is helping.
Background (Case ID: PP-D-54470385):
This was an eBay transaction and the dispute option was gone from eBay after 90 days. "Luckily", I was able to open a case with Paypal on this particular transaction. The item I bought was a travel SIM card which has an expire date attached. I've miscalculated the expire dates so I was happy with some penalty in refund based on how many days that have passed in my calculation. However, in the seller's item description, he has not specified the exact date of expiry other than "90 days from the purchase" and a buyer could only find out about this date after he/she opens the package, though the item would not be returned and refunded if a buyer has done so. In my case, I've opened the sim kit package when I started my trip (100 days from my purchase) and discovered the sim has expired on the 82nd day from my purchase. I felt even though I've miscalculated it, I would still not be able to activate the card even if I travel on the 89th day from my purchase date. Therefore, I've proposed to the seller that I'm happy to deducted 11 days (12.2% of the sale value) from my refund but the seller has failed to inform the buyers so both sides should pay for some lessons. At the end, the seller has stopped responding so I've requested Paypal to step in, however I've been requested to return this to the seller with unopened condition and at my own cost. From that moment, I was only able to put in a valid tracking number with courier's name and some notes to my next response to my dispute. The seller is based in Hongkong (yes, he appears to be selling on eBay AU as a local seller) and I would be paying more than what it has costed me in buying this sim card. Therefore, I've responded "NA" as the tracking number and explained in Notes where expressed that I would not know the expiry date if I hadn't opened it and also would not accept the return postage with tracking number out of my own pocket to an overseas address which put me in a lose situation even if I had full refund. Paypal has then passed the response to the seller who has halted my dispute for few days now. Tomorrow is the deadline for seller to respond, and I'm pretty sure I'll lose in my own dispute because I'm not willing to do what I've been requested to do.
This is where things are at and I'm unable to escalate it further within Paypal, even I had mentioned I would go to Consumer Affairs if the result of my case was in favor of the seller tomorrow. I'll wait and see but I've started preparing my statement to Consumer Affairs today.
