Posted By:
LauraThese situations are always a pain. The couple of times I've had to return, I never received a refund for the amount it took to send the item back, only the original purchase and shipping.
If I were you, I'd send it back insured, with DC and signature. You'll be out your return postage, but at that point the seller is required to refund your original money (actually, I'm pretty sure PayPal does it for them.) Keep the tracking number, and enter it on the PP website in the dispute console. Once they verify that it has been delivered you should get the refund in a couple of days.
It irks me that the buyer is out the money to refund defective items. I had a seller send something that was damaged, and then tried to "false positive" me in feedback about it after I got the final refund. I complained to eBay about it and they removed the comments, but I was still out the money to return, which I think isn't fair. If the item is "significantly not as described" then the seller should have to eat the return, IMNSHO. And I say that as a buyer and a seller.
The only time I had someone complain about an item being SNAD, I did an immediate refund and told them to just keep it. Mind you, it wasn't an expensive item ($10 card) but I thought it wasn't worth getting negged over.