Please HELP!! Seller Wants me to Close the Claim In order to make a partial Refund? is this true?

[nirolk]

Hi,
in order to understand the complex nature of the problem I'm facing ,
im sorry i had to write quite a long post, but just the essence of the issue is as this
the seller says a partial refund has been issued on pressing them for details they say its actually failed because 
" the refund has failed because there is an open claim on the transaction" i iwll have to contact PayPal as its their issue  apparently .
PayPal say its not  and the seller has given me incorrect information but they are not willing to do anything further
i just want to know which is which please 

the story so far  goes as below,

I Made a purchase of a shoe cabinet  through a well known website,  cheaper options were available but I paid significantly more for this item as it was described as having a closed back, item didn't arrive on the day advertised or few days afterwards the courier confirmed the item may have been lost , and to contact seller , as i didn't receive  a helpful answer from the seller other than asking me to wait another 2 weeks for a reply, i contacted paypal the gent on the phone opened as he thought it may prompt the seller in to action .this worked i took delivery in 3 days time, how ever it was severely damaged  & not as described ( no back panel ) so it was just the Significantly cheaper version. i mentioned either they take it back or send me replacement parts or make a partial refund to reflect the cheaper item

having uploaded the pics the sellers replied back  and said replacement parts were ordered , and further asked me to dispose of the damaged parts , i re-confirmed this the same day . this is all recorded in our  negotiations in the dispute notes .
A week i get an email outside of PayPal  saying item does not come with a back panel and the part is cancelled and if i want to return they will charge for it, and they want it in original packaging. how ever during this time i anticipation of the replacement and missing parts i had got rid of the damaged parts along with the packaging !! as this was agreed on paypal . I reply saying i ill not pay anything and to reply on paypal.
but also i get an email from PayPal saying  the dispute has been escalated to a claim!!! apparently this has been done automatically  .
fast forward , paypal reviews and asks me to  return the item for  a full refund , how ever , by now i dont have any packaging and the faulty part has been disposed as advised on paypal by the seller itself as they said i would be receive replacement parts , to make things worse the return address is in Ireland !! not UK as shipped , even if i could return it and PayPal fully refunded me i would be out of pocket by at least £33 due to the size of the item and shipping cost( paypal only cover £15). i feel royally done over , as I believe the seller deliberately dragged this on knowing this would happen.

I have since started a complaint process  with the CMA  and trading standards as the item is still being sold on their website with A false representation and the fact that they have been constantly misleading me.

as soon as i let them know i get an email reply stating that they have made a partial refund  and the refund will be credited to my credit card soon, since i have been given multiple false statements by this seller , i ask for proof , then they say  " the refund has failed because there is an open claim on the transaction"
i contact paypal on messaging who say 

 "your merchant can still issue you a refund whilst a dispute or claim is opened we do not stop the merchant issuing refunds. I hope this helps"
 
so who is telling the truth does the claim need to be closed for them to refund, PayPal says no, seller says , with a claim open the partial refund will not go through

Thanks in advance for your help in unravelling this