Warning: This may turn long, but I'll try to keep it as brief as possible while retaining all the pertinent facts.
I was in the market for an Oculus Rift for a project I've been working on, so I hopped on eBay and found one that came with the TF2 hat code, which I thought would be a nice thing to have. It was originally an auction, but I asked if they had a BIN price in mind. They did, I agreed with it, they added the BIN to the auction and I used it. The item was listed as being in "new, unused" condition, and there were no caveats to this in the listing description.
The item went out last Monday and arrived on Thursday, and I signed for it and set it aside for 24 hours at which point I opened it up and started setting it up. Once I got it up and running, I discovered that there were two bright spots on the LCD screen inside the Rift which looked really weird. I started poking around online to try and figure out what they were, and I shot off a message to the seller and one to the Oculus VR support team (makers of the Rift). The seller's message was letting them know that there might be an issue, that I was contacting the manufacturer to see what it was and possibly get a repair, and that I would be in touch with them when I had more info. I got a couple of basic suggestions from Oculus (spray out dust, make sure it's not the computer/cable/etc) and the weekend rolled around before we could continue.
Through some more research and careful examination of the damage (which turned out to be physical both to the LCD and the LCD plastic coating/covering), I started to realize that the damage was LCD burn. Because the rift has two magnifying lenses over the LCD, sunlight or bright overhead lighting can be focused onto the LCD screen, resulting in irreparable damage. I was at a loss for how this could have happened until I happened to glance at the listing again and realized that the seller had taken pictures of the Rift and accessories outside in bright sunlight.
I immediately contacted the seller and then Oculus again, letting everyone know what I had discovered. I informed the seller that I still was hopeful that Oculus would repair the damage (despite them not being obligated to do so), and if not, I would have to return the item since it was damaged before it arrived.
I then received a long message from the seller accusing me of having buyer's remorse, violating a "warranty" by performing the "unauthorized" action of contacting Oculus and a whole host of other things. Their end statement was, essentially, that they had no intention of giving me a refund and to take it up with eBay. I did just that and opened a dispute claiming that the item was not as described when it arrived. In the message I had to send to the seller, I summarized my original message and points.
Since then (it's been under 24 hours since I opened the case), the seller has escalated their claims to saying that I'm trying to scam them, that I admitted to damaging the unit myself (reviewing my messages, I can definitively say that I did not say anything of the sort, and I have been denying those claims in follow-up messages) and again that I did something wrong (indeed, so wrong that it means she cannot refund me even if she wanted to) by trying to contact the manufacturer about the issue, an action I took to try and minimize this type of situation in the first place.
Here's the interesting thing. As an 8-year, 100% positive feedback score (with around 45 transactions), I expected a 10-year, 100% positive with 100+ transactions to act rationally and politely, which is why I was being nice and keeping them informed with what I was finding out about the damage during my research.
What's my likelihood of winning this case? She claims that because she had another person look at the Rift with her and they both didn't see any issues (which I completely understand, since they likely did that before taking the photos of the Rift where the lenses were in direct sunlight) there couldn't be any damage and I'm a scammer. I have a photo of the damage here which isn't super great, but is time stamped on my phone.
My current actions are simply to reiterate my points (I received damaged goods when I was promised goods in new unused condition) whenever she responds, since my trying to explain what could have happened are falling on deaf ears. It'll be 3 business days before I can escalate the case, but is there anything else I can do in the meantime? I haven't used eBay in a while, but when I last did, it was a good experience. This pretty much sours me to the whole thing.
Thank you in advance for your help!
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Ebay/comments/1eljri/seller_sold_me_an_item_that_was_damaged_and_is/