what happens when an ebay item arrives not as described

What happens when you buy an item from ebay and it arrives not nearly as described at all? Will the fully refund your money if you show proof of sending the item back?
thanks for any info or experience on this

In the past it has all depended on the seller, some are very accommodating and other think they are trying to rip off, and then there are the seller that are just trying to take advantage of a situation. Hopefully it's the first.

Good luck with it,

Lee

Well, if you paid with paypal you are covered. Contact the seller first. If he refused just a "not as described" claim with paypal and they will refund your money. It's a huge reason I hated paypal as a seller. paypal claims to investigate but they just take the word of the buyer. I've had several people use paypal to refund on items that were damaged in the mail and they did not pay for insurance on the item. When I do sell now, if I don't know you, they are required to have insurance. That way, if they try to get their money back through paypal I can let them know I will file mail fraud charges against them. The one guy that tried that after I started doing this changed his story real fast when I told him that.

Agreed that it all depends on the seller. I bought a $4 slabbed card the other day, arrived with a nice crack in the back of the slab. Card was packaged pretty well, so I didn't think it was damaged in the mail, but of course it's impossible to know for sure. Advised seller, and he refunded my money even before I was able to get the card back in the mail to him. Added him to my saved sellers list even though I've never had a successful transaction with him.

On the other hand, I've had experiences where the seller isn't so accommodating. As sabrjay said, that's when PayPal is a buyer's best friend.