As someone who used to sell a lot on ebay, both paypal and ebay normally go with the buyer, did you not raise a disupute via ebay rather than Paypal?
Slightly longer version of the story is that the seller originally offered a replacement unit. I waited very patiently for a month. Seller did naff all on that front and today is 1 month and 1 day!
I may be mistaken but I think Ebay only care within 30 days whereas Paypal is 6 months? Also I think there was something in the back of my mind (perhaps from
@stuss 's thread lol) about Paypal usually siding with the buyer. I'm pretty confident Paypal will side with me but I was more interested what people thought from a mora standpoint, hence pointing that out in my OP.
Seller did say it was untested (by him) but the crucial thing was listing it as 'certified refurbished'. My genuine interpretation of that is that it should work and if not and the item proved to be faulty I would think a reasonable person would refund. If the seller had no intention of refunding if faulty he should have listed it as spares or repairs/faulty. His interpretation is that he put it was untested in the listing, therefore he doesn't need to refund, as it could have been faulty.
Saying the item is untested is not a description of it's condition in my opinion (just that he hasn't tested), particularly when's it's officially listed as 'certified refurbished'.
So I do understand where he's coming from but I think the mistake was his in listing it as 'certified refurbished'. I was interested to see if people thought the same me or the same as him, rather than which way Paypal will swing.
'Certified Refurbished' definitely gives the impression it's been tested and is in full working order
He did say it was untested in fairness. That's the conundrum - but that was in the description, not the condition it was listed as, which was 'certified refurbished'.
As above, that did make me aware there was no guarantee it was working but I would assume a reasonable person would refund if it turned to be faulty. Obviously an item cannot be 'certified refurbished' and 'faulty' at the same time, that's mutually exclusive.
He's been a bit of a dick by offering a replacement and not providing it a month later, essentially lying about that. I may have been willing to compromise on a part refund if he'd tried with that. As it happens I do expect to get the full refund.
For all I know he may well have known it was faulty and pulled a fast one. I don't actually think that's what's happened but fair point I feel.