I bought a pair of items from a website last week, paying by PayPal. I had telephoned the seller to ask questions beforehand, and it took a bit of detective work to find their phone number as they had no contact details on their website. When I asked them about this, they said that they didn't want people calling them all the time. I thought this was a bit odd, but he seemed like a nice chap and it's a specialist item I couldn't get elsewhere. The items turned up and were of very poor quality, unfit for use. After the red flag set off by the lack of contact details, I decided that it would be safer to request a refund through PayPal, just so that there would be a record of everything right from the start. So I opened a dispute, and explained in the message included what was wrong with the items. 24 hours later, the seller rang me, sounding quite irritated. He complained that this had been escalated to a claim involving PayPal and the credit card companies, and wouldn't listen when I explained that it was just at the seller-buyer communication level at present. He also claimed that he hadn't received the message and thus had no idea what was wrong with the items. When I explained that I'd done this via PayPal because their lack of contact details had set off red flags and I felt it was safer this way, he said that of course they have contact details on their website, it's illegal not to, and everyone else manages. (I have since rechecked their website, and while they now have a "contact us" form that wasn't there last week, they still don't have a phone number or email address listed.) My explanation about the poor quality of the product was also treated dismissively, and he said that as other people didn't have this problem, "it must be you". However, he did agree to a refund, and said that he'd send me a self-addressed envelope for returning the goods. There was something about "we will check their condition", which had me rather concerned - under the Sale of Goods Act, I should be able to return items bought online simply because I don't like them, rather than being restricted to faulty goods only (which is a matter of opinion in this case). After this I rang PayPal to find out what was going on. The PayPal agent said it wasn't true that it had been escalated to a claim involving PayPal, and that the seller would have received my original message, so if he hadn't, that was his problem. She recommended that I escalate this to a claim, however. She said that if I just sent the goods back as agreed with the seller, then there was no guarantee that I would get a refund unless I escalate the dispute to a claim. Does anyone know more about this? I don't want to kick up unnecessary fuss, and I certainly don't want to be receiving more aggrieved phone calls, but on the other hand I'm not sure how much I trust this business. As it is, I'm going to have to send a care worker out to the post office for me to post the item recorded, as I'm housebound due to severe disability, and that takes quite a long time.
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