Originally Posted by
gugi
Here's where the seller is completely wrong. It is his responsibility to deliver the goods in the described condition. Those are simply the rules, and he has agreed to abide by them as a condition to using ebay.
So, what you should do is dispute it with ebay. They will evaluate the situation, but given that the seller is in the wrong about their policy and has misrepresented it, and has admitted that you have not gotten what he promised in his listing in writing you already have a huge advantage. Ebay will 99.9% rule in your favor (the seller already agreed that you received them damaged, and not as described, and you should include all this information in the dispute). They may require you to ship back the stones if you want your refund (you can decide not to do so if it's too expensive but you'll be no worse than at the moment). They may just take the $20 from the seller and give it to you, or they may decide give you the $20 from their own pocket just to make you happy.
In any case your proper course of action is dispute through ebay, not paypal, and when that's concluded you're likely to get something, and if you don't you've wasted less time than writing and following up this thread :)
And yes, the ebay and paypal protection coverage is a complete joke, but in a lot of cases like yours you'll probably get some benefit.