Ebay item broken in shipping, who is responsible?
USPS insurance gives you the option to as the buyer to return the item in its packaging to the PO. They will ship it back to the seller at their expense so don’t pay for any return postage. Paypal will most definitely protect you on this as well. Take pictures of the damage and the packaging and open a dispute. They are very pro-buyer. I am an ebay “power seller” so I have had items arrive to buyers with shipping damage. I never argued with a buyer in these cases but paypal wouldn’t even hear of it if I had tried to. Hopefully your seller will be cooperative once the claim is put in. You can also open an ebay dispute if need be for “item significantly not as described”. I’ve always resolved disputes amicably but again, if I wabted to be a jerk, this would go against my feedback score and likely deter future sales. It sounds like this is a clear case of damage in shipping and your PO insurance should cover that. Whether or not the seller packaged it properly, is the only issue they take
When I’ve been in this situation as a seller, I always issued a refund (ideally on return of the item, but usually I let that slide). I however am tyrannical about maintaining my spotless feedback (451! with nary even a neutral). One piece of advice I would give you, at least with regards to feedback, is that if you leave negative feedback for them, they will most likely leave it for you. As such, don’t scream your head off in their feedback, just give them a negative with “item received damaged, didn’t offer to make amends.” This way, you will seem like a sane ebayer, and someone whom I still wouldn’t mind dealing with (plus, over time, if others do it, it could reveal that the seller has been shipping damaged merch, or at least needs to work on their packing abilities).
Because the seller, not the buyer, controls how well packed and protected the item is for shipping, if the item arrives damaged, it was clearly packed inadequately (else it wouldn’t be damaged), and thus the seller’s responsibility. IMO, as both a seller and buyer. I see it as similar to rear-ending a car, where the seller is the rear car, and the post office the front car – you can whine that the car ahead hit the brakes in an unexpected and unnecessary manner, but the fact remains that it was you that failed to keep far enough behind them to stop in time no-matter what crazy stuff they might unexpectedly do.
