Returning a coral

[OceanSprayCranberry]

Question for any of you that have purchased coral off eBay.
I bought something and was sent a specimen that doesn’t look anything like the pictures. The seller denies sending me the wrong one despite showing him pictures of what I got while having the same lighting. Long story short they accepted my return request and said they’ll only refund if it comes back to them in the same condition. The issue is they sent me a return label for USPS First class package service which takes 4-5 days to get to where they are, so I’m guaranteed to not get a refund. What am I supposed to do now?

 

[dadnjesse]

It's not going to look the same as when they first shipped it to you after all the shipping stress its going to go through. That's going to give them a reason to deny your refund. I would just keep it and not buy from them again.

 

[Tired]

Yeah, that's not gonna work out for anybody.

 

[ScubaFish802]

I agree, unless it was a big loss - probably easier to keep and not buy from them again.
Otherwise you could try letting the seller know the resolution is not satisfactory because of the reasons you listed and/or dispute with paypal if you sent picture proof

 

[Hugster78]

Don’t buy from them again. Stick with TSA or other reputable vendors

 

[Dine]

I would deny their solution. If they do not make it right I would just take it up with eBay. Leave the appropriate review to protect others and call this an unfortunate lesson learned about this seller.

 

[Tired]

There are some good coral sellers on Ebay, but you have to check the reviews. Not just that they have good reviews, but that they have a lot of good reviews about, specifically, corals. Otherwise you might run into someone who's got good reviews from selling a lot of something like used DVDs, not from selling good corals.

 

[MoshJosh]

Maybe a dumb question but was it listed as WYSIWYG? If not. . .

 

[Tired]

I mean, if somebody put up an Ebay listing for a blue mug and then sent me a red one, I'd be annoyed, WYSIWYG or not. Unless the description clearly specifies otherwise, the display image is meant to be a reasonable indicator of what the buyer can expect to get, not a vague approximation.

 

[OceanSprayCranberry]

Maybe a dumb question but was it listed as WYSIWYG? If not. . .

It was a wysiwyg auction item. High end torch

 

[OceanSprayCranberry]

I chatted with eBay and they said their policy is if an item is not as described and it’s live or perishable, the buyer will be refunded without needing to return.
I don’t know who eats the cost, but I feel kind of bad cause he spent money to ship it.

 

[MoshJosh]

Likely the seller will eat the cost, eBay tends to side with the buyer in these situation, at least in my experience, though there will likely be a process where the seller has a chance to try and make things right. . . Seller should probably offer to pay for return shipping, he will lose money of course, but at least he will have the torch back. . . the alternative is eBay sides with you and he loses the original shipping cost AND the torch.