If you’ve got £400 lying around that you don’t care about, could you write me a cheque please?

Yeah, because that is what I said. I would write it off as it looks to be in the more trouble than it is worth category, i.e. if it takes weeks of my time to sort if out is it worth it for £400? (the answer is no by the way).
I certainly wouldn’t be happy about it but we clearly have different ways of looking at effort versus return unless you really have nothing else to do.

I’d also still complain through pp mind – they have not protected you here.

PayPal made it clear in my recent dealings with them that they do not offer payment protection. The single solution they offered, which couldn’t work and they refused to deviate from was offered “as a courtesy”

I still can’t believe £400 for a trampoline. I mean it’s not like you’ve looked at it and seen that it’s of twice the quality of a normal priced trampoline, it’s off Ebay ffs! Bonkers.

For £4 I’d be willing to let it go, but for £400 smackers I’d chase them to the bowels of hell, but thats just me.

@DezB, yes £400 for a trampoline, you do realise people can buy whatever they want, I think until you can take this on board your going to be wandering around swearing at random people as you believe they may have spent more than you think they should have. It’s going to very tiring for you, I’m a little concerned you may become unwell. Still you are probably a really nice guy and don’t spend any more than £2.52 on any single item. what ever you do don’t look at the price of bicycles!

Still you are probably a really nice guy

Wellll, unfortunately..

Hope you get a result out of ebay anyway. I do apologise for being annoying.

I certainly wouldn’t be happy about it but we clearly have different ways of looking at effort versus return unless you really have nothing else to do.

I was rather thinking, it must be nice to in a position where you can just shrug and write off £400. Someone who spends £400 on a trampoline could be loaded or could have spent the last 11 months saving up for little Timmy’s birthday, we don’t know.

If it were me I’d be spewing that I’d just had my pants pulled down for that sort of cash and would be aggressively pursuing it on principle, “effort vs return” be buggered.

@minley1

Have you appealed a decision using the online process with ebay?

The evidence you seem to have is exactly what they’re asking for.

Link to eBay page

Stop talking to ebay, stop talking to paypal and stop talking to the seller, its just going around in circles.

The law will never allow you to be out of pocket, and allow someone to make 400 quid where you have nothing to show.

Small claims court- Small fee but it cuts through all the pretend power ebay et all think they have.
Soon as its legal they know they dont have a leg to stand on and you are willing to act on principle.

Worth considering using chargeback on your debit card – contact your bank.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/visa-mastercard-chargeback/#reject

It may take a while as the seller is likely to dispute it.

Good luck with whatever approach you take

What a bloody mess op.

Doesn’t matter what the item was, £400 is a lot of money and I would also be seething!

Good luck with sorting this out mate.

If it were me I’d be spewing that I’d just had my pants pulled down for that sort of cash and would be aggressively pursuing it on principle, “effort vs return” be buggered.

I will say it again, we clearly have a different perspective on effort vs return. Nothing wrong with that but I personally could see a lot of time and hassle that to ME is worth more than £400 in order to get £400 back. I am a very objective and emotionless person (I have condition you know)

If the small claims court thing is very simple and efficient then I would go that route.

What I would also do is learn the lesson of looking into who I buy from and look at what courier they are using when buying anything I deem as expensive. Maybe even buy from an actual shop to really make sure you get the item.

Time for an update, and it’s good news.

after PayPal found in favour of the seller, I again emailed the Uk MD of eBay, we got an email back today saying that they could see we had provided everything and as a gesture of goodwill they are giving us a full refund.

They did say that normally it’s not a good idea to open a Paypal case until the eBay one has concluded as PayPal are their financial arm and they normally won’t override a Paypal decision, I had just assumed that opening a paypal case would help, but obviously not.

By the wording I get the impression that the seller is not paying the refund, as they were very clear that this is not normally something they do.

Main thing is we are getting our money back, hopefully Karma will visit on the seller in some way.

Thank you for all the suggestions and ideas.