How do I recoup my money lost to an authorized ebay thief?

[lactifluorum]

Purchased an item on eBay and paid for the item, shipping, and customs fees on checkout via PayPal. Seller shipped completely wrong item to me so I was asked by seller to ship it back to seller and would be refunded cost to do so via PayPal. Then seller did refund me the cost to ship the wrong item back to him but then opens a dispute case and refunds me part of the original costs...? Now I'm out near 100.00 and eBay says case is closed and that they ruled in my favour and I got a refund.. **bleep** gives here ?? Are they really this incompetent even with a complete record of what transpired in eBay mail? Blows my mind(:

[pjcdn2005]

If you paid custom fees at the time of purchase this must have been a purchase sent by the global shipping program.  The seller wouldn't have received all of the money that you paid as the gsp would have received the import fees and international shipping portion. The seller should have refunded you the portion that they originally received and the gsp should have refunded the rest to you. I doubt that a real person has had anything to do with the case so far as it was probably decided by a bot so the best thing would be to phone ebay and talk to someone there. Be persistent.

[reallynicestamps]

Keep in mind that the seller did not handle the 'import fees' at any time, and may even have been unaware of them.

He refunded you the money that he received.

EBay needs to add to the Resolution Centre a new problem "Handled through Global Shipping Program" with sub-problems of "Not as described' and 'Never received.'

Then those problems could automatically be handled by the GSP specialists*.

As I understand it, when GSP gets a 'not as described' complaint, they just refund without requiring a return, since the seller got the item to them (in Kentucky) without a problem. Or is this only for damage in transit?

*Who else imagines these poor souls as chained to the walls of a deep dungeon fed on bread and stagnant water, with slop for a Sunday treat, while subjected to the confused and outraged complaints of buyers? What sins must they have committed to be given such punishment?