My apologies for the long post, and thanks to those who take the time to read it.

Recently my oldest niece was home for a visit and asked if I'd check out the display on her notebook as it was doing some strange things. I quickly diagnosed it as a bad LCD and went searching. I couldn't find anything locally (not surprising) and then tried online vendors. Most were in China (and I didn't have three weeks). A few others' sites looked a little odd, and when there was no phone number I blew them off. The ones with a phone number didn't answer and didn't respond to email inquiries. Ultimately I turned to ebay.

There are lots of compatible screens on the market. However, since my niece was leaving in a few days I didn't want to gamble on compatibility, so I looked for exactly the part number of her screen. A vendor back east listed it for sale, new, for $69.75. A fair price, and since I needed it very quickly, I sprung for two-day shipping at $22.90.

The unit I received was a different part number. And while it had the same connectors (one wire for the backlight was a different color, but it's polarized), the antistatic bag it was in wasn't sealed (the tape that had originally held it closed was just folded over itself).

Of course you know it didn't work. The backlight would not come on, so the display was basically black, though it was reading the signals from the notebook (looking closely you could see the display change). I contacted the vendor through fleabay and of course they wanted me to try some things, which I did without effect. Ultimately they agreed to take it back. So I paid ten bucks for priority mail to send it back. After they got it, they issued me a refund only for the item price of $69.75 and are balking at refunding the shipping, much less at reimbursing me for the return shipping, saying they paid the shipper, blah, blah, blah.

I've kindly replied to them that this situation was entirely of their own doing: they shipped a different part number from what they represented they were selling and they didn't bother asking me first. (Had they told me they were shipping something else I'd have told them to keep it.) My point to them is that since they unilaterally decided to ship a different part number, they're liable to make me whole again, at least financially.

They're still balking. I've not escalated it yet (not that I really expect fleabay/paypal to do much about it), but I'm just curious if I'm somehow wrong about this.

Thoughts?

PayPal takes the buyer's side more often than not IMO. I wouldn't wait. Shoot them one more email offering them the opportunity to correct the error by a specified time and let them know you'll file with PayPal otherwise. "Item not as described".

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You're right. However, I don't know how much hell I'd raise over $32 in shipping costs.

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And THAT is exactly what they are counting on. Makes you wonder how many times they have sold the very same item don't it?

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I agree - I had some trouble when I bought what turned out to be knock-off parts for one of my MBs a couple of years ago. They basically used the same tactic, until I got PayPal involved. After that it was resolved in an expedient fashion.

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Bad feedback, and create a Yelp page for them with their address and a one star review. Both will be amended when they rectify the situation.

YES!!!

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Are you right ethically? Of course you are. They shipped you a defective product and should absorb all costs to make you whole again.

But, legally, you have no case. E-bay simply requires you to send the item back to the seller and the seller is obligated to refund only the item price.

Imagine buying an IBM typewriter on e-bay (WTF was I thinking?). The DB packs the typewriter in a cardboard box without any packing material whatsoever. You can imagine that it was completely trashed by UPS.

I get to pay $30 to send it back to the seller at my expense. Thankfully, the seller refunded the purchase price and the outbound shipping (but not the return shipping). I'm still out the $30 because his staff are a bunch of idiots.

That's the fundamental problem with e-bay and the fleabag sellers that pervade that place.

You're missing the point, BC.

They didn't ship me what I ordered. You got a damaged typewriter. How about if you'd gotten a serviceable smith-corona?

Legally I am right. (Please trust me on this, I used to practice law and the UCC applies even in the armpit of the east.) It's not like I plan on going there to sue them, though.

My question was more about ethics and morals.

As far as the cost, it's almost half the cost of the wrongly-shipped item. And to me it's more about right and wrong, not the money.

I've already agreed on the ethics of the issue.

I do not believe you are right legally. E-bay has a very well defined set of rules that are clearly stated for all buyers. If you don't like their rules (and I certainly do not), you are free to shop elsewhere.

I doubt you will prevail legally, although I'd be very pleased if you did.

Brian, you'll have to show me exactly where in ebay's agreement it provides that the seller can send something other than what was ordered and then make the buyer pay shipping for it.

Because I'm not seeing it...

How did to diagnose the old screen? and what were the problems?

Most of the defects are eiher:

1. Broken wires
2. Worn CFC tubes
3. Bad inverter

A defective panel is very rare, usually caused by closing the lid with someting lying on the keyboard.

I have fixed notebooks thad have been dropped on concrete floors (5ft drop) and only the cfl's were broken.

If the backlight of your old screen worked the backlight of the new screen should also work, otherwise the new screen may be ok but the inverter is toast.

The inverter ususaly has a 5 pin conncetor (4 used: DC, ground, dimming control and on/of), there may be something wrong there.


Rob

Sounds like it's time to ensure that the seller doesn't have a gold star by his moniker.

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Of course, finding this information on e-bay is nearly impossible due to the method by which they have put forth their information.

However, I did unearth this tidbit buried under the "seller rules":

Receiving a returned item

If you reach an agreement with the buyer for a refund, the buyer should ship the item back to you.

Or if the buyer asked us to review an eBay Buyer Protection case for an item not matching the listing description, and we determine that the buyer is owed a refund, we'll put the case on hold for 10 days and ask the buyer to ship the item back to you.

We'll ask the buyer to use tracking or a Delivery Confirmation number so we know where the package is in transit, and we're able to confirm that you received it.

If a case was opened and we have confirmation that you received the item, we'll provide a refund to the buyer that covers the cost of the item and original shipping within 3 business days.

If we find in favor of the buyer in a case, we may seek reimbursement from your PayPal account or other reimbursement payment method on file.

Buyers are required to pay return shipping, except for rare situations when a buyer and seller agree to another arrangement or we agree to pay the shipping.


Note the statements in bold above. You do get the outbound shipping refunded. You do not get the return shipping refunded.

He didn't receive the item. He received a different item that he didn't order. Should he also have to pay shipping if the seller had sent him a rubber ducky instead of an LCD panel?