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I have had major problems with the seller of an item purchased via ebay. The seller: thelionsgarden attempted to get additional money from myself post sale and post payment stating that he had miscalculated postage. I informed him that had the postage been quoted at even a marginally higher rate I would not have purchased the item. He replied that it was "too bad - it's just the way it is."

At this juncture I requested a refund in place of having the item shipped. He stated that he had spent the money, had only $8 in his Paypal account and would not be able to refund me anytime soon. I said that would be fine but I'd expect he would refund within a reasonable period and maintain contact in the interim to notify me of when this would occur.

He then stated that he could not refund, that instead he would open a "payment not received" dispute via ebay using the pretense that buyer and seller had mutually agreed to cancel the transaction. This way he said, he could retrieve his listing fees and that would make up the difference in postage. Thus he could then post the item.

At this juncture he opened the dispute, I however did not agree nor intend to lie to ebay about the cancellation of the transaction, my suspicions were well past aroused. He said that he would not post it until I agreed. He commenced sending more and more aggressive emails insisting I agree to cancel the transaction so he could re-coup his fees or he would not ship the item.

This is when I opened a Paypal "item not received" dispute.

He posted the item and provided a tracking number as I requested within the dispute.

Throughout his communication with me he became increasingly har***ing. He was using threats and abuse to intimidate me into firstly giving him more money, then agreeing to the ebay dispute then finally he started sending me numerous e-mails whilst the Paypal dispute was open. These e-mails were heightened in aggression and contained threats about me ruining his business and how he would make sure to get even with me for the trouble I was causing him by having the Paypal dispute open.

I found that the threats and the abuse had become intolerable. To get him to cease and desist in this har***ment I closed the Paypal dispute. I felt I had little other choice as he was making things unbearable.

I received the item approx. ten days later. I opened it immediately at the post office to confirm the contents only to find that the item was broken in half . This renders the item worthless. It is a collectible movie statue made of resin and limited to only 100 pieces worldwide. It was very expensive and very hard to replace. I am so disgusted at the outcome of what should have been a pleasant transaction.

Paypal are hiding behind their policy that disallows the re-opening of a dispute even when the buyer has evidence and validity to the claim.

So much for Buyer Protection. The fine print really indicates how unprotected we are.