Current purchases revolving around china

[Admiral_Damage]

Hello everyone, this is my first post so go easy on me heh! I figured I should warn you about the troubles I've had around this time of year, the amount of people that are taking time off to not produce products which I understand, and I see as fine, however theres a strange phenomenon of a LOT of distributors marking their retail spaces as having stock. Many on ebay and on other non-syndicated sites. Sadly I have had experience with both.

I figured it would be a good idea to warn you guys and I also came here for some advice. I am not too fussed about one of the purchases I made on ebay as the seller was kind enough to get in touch and offer a complete refund, however on another site, I bought three of their servo motors. Now I only really needed 1 but I figured I'd buy 3 as its handy to have spares and they had that exact amount "in stock" (You'll understand why thats in quotation marks in a minute), I made this purchase on 08/02/2015 for future reference.

Heres the problem though, an hour earlier from this post roughly, I received an email from them stating that they had changed my order's status from dispatched to processing-backorder, which instantly made me furious due to the fact I had paid for 3-5 days shipping, and they had it in stock. My question to you guys is, what would be the wise thing to do in my situation? I have emailed them asking why they had it listed as in stock, (they are in shanghai so at the minute its almost exactly noon for them) and I am waiting on a reply. 

If I am to take action, what can I arm my arsenal with, and how do I go about such things as failsafes? are there strategies in paypal for getting the refund on such a thing? as I'd like to cancel the purchase and rebuy it when they have it in stock or something. Also if I need to contact the retailer (which I think is kinda obvious), what I should mention and reference and how I would go about wording a request.

Kind regards
John

Edit:Thanks kernowlass for the top notch advice, and will remember not to use links, I wasnt sure by what it meant whether its just the title or what, but thanks for clarifying!

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

1. You can file a dispute on paypal for item not received or item received but not as described.

2. If you want the order cancelled you need to ask the retailer, just say you are not prepared to wait as you thought they were in stock.

3. If you file a dispute at any time for item received but not as described then the onus is on you to return the item back to the seller at your own expense trackable to prove delivery back to them.

If you are buying from China then that can be more than the item is worth so bear that in mind as we have lots of posts where people have bought "bargains" from China only to be disappointed.

4. Can you edit and remove that website as you are not allowed to name and shame on a public board.

Good luck. 

[Admiral_Damage]

Thanks kernowlass! and I will remember about the links rule, wasn't too sure about it to begin with, I am now working on getting in contact. Again thanks for the prompt reply! 

Kind regards
John

[kernowlass]

Your very welcome.