Would anyone be able to offer some legal advice with regards to my original question about sueing the parcel reseller? Many thanks in advance.

The reseller is the one that I pay to provide the courier service. For example, you can book a parcel collection in with parcel2go, and DHL collect the parcel. I am a customer of the reseller, who is in turn a customer (account holder) with DHL. I understand about making the seller responsible for delivery, but I often purchase heavy/bulky goods, and where a seller can charge £15 or more for delivery, I can get the same goods delivered for £6.50 or so..

Hey all, To cut a long story short, I had a parcel collected from an eBay seller, to be delivered to me. So I paid the costs of collection to the parcel reseller. The parcel was fairly well packaged, but about half of the items within (video games) had smashed/cracked cases. I sorted out a claim with the parcel reseller, I provided everything required, including pictures of packaging, picture of each smashed/cracked case, with a big red arrow pointing to the damage in case it wasn't easily seeable (most are). I made the claim for the cost to replace the games. Since they are Japanese games from the late 1980s to early 1990s and come with special cases. Each case has a sticker on it pertaining to that game, and whilst they are the same size and shape as CD cases, the inside part is different as the games come on credit-card sized cards. Cost to replace damaged games would be approx. £100 I included a PDF doc of the cheapest prices for complete games on eBay.com at that moment in time. Plus it would cost a lot to have them sent over mostly from Japan and the USA. Anyway it has taken weeks and weeks, I've emailed the parcel reseller many times, it is a real saga. It has gotten to the stage now where they claim the files I sent them included viruses, so they don't have all of the pictures. They say DHL have refused the claim, saying that the parcel was well packaged and damage couldn't have occured (yet I imagine if the parcel wasn't well packaged they would decline the claim on the basis that it was not packaged well enough..!) It is pretty clear that the package was dropped or thrown. I've had to send the parcel reseller the documents 3-4 times as they claim not to have received. The email contained a listing of the files.. it is funny how they wait until weeks later to claim they didn't get all of the files and some had viruses? I am at the end of my tether. The reseller advertised £50 insurance, so I guess this is the most I can get at the end of the day. Would I be able to take the parcel reseller to small claims court for the £50?

buzby Please be sure to PM me your eBay User ID so that I can add you to my blocked bidders list. You are entitled to your opinion on the matter of PayPal disputes as I am to mine. I have offered advice to gurj001, whether they heed that advice is their prerogative, please keep the discussion on track.

buzby Are you referring to my post? or another? I am not saying that gurj001 should cancel their PayPal dispute, nor am I saying that it is "the right thing to do" to ask a buyer to cancel a PayPal dispute. I am merely stating the reasons as to why the seller may be asking them to cancel it, before a replacement can be sent. There is a window of 45 days from sending payment to open a PayPal dispute, this is quite a lengthy period of time, hence my statement that it should be used sparingly, as a last resort when all other reasoning fails.

gurj001 Unfortunately filing a PayPal dispute so soon after sending your original email was not the best thing that you could have done. Speaking as an eBay business seller myself, there is nothing worse than when someone files a PayPal dispute - it is a really good way to get a sellers back up. Now the seller says that they didn't receive your message, well, I note that he is a Titanium PowerSeller - the highest level, and obviously does a lot of business on eBay. It is likely then, that your message may have been overlooked, and you should give him the benefit of the doubt. Lately I have noticed that messages which appear in eBay "my messages" sometimes do not get relayed to my email address, perhaps the same may have ocurred for the seller in question. What I would do if I were you, is send a to-the-point, and polite email, via eBay, and also the same email directly to their email address as listed on their "about me" page, simply stating that the glass diffuser is missing, you contacted them on xx/xx/xx at xxxxam/pm via eBay, you understand that the message may have gone awry and you will give them the benefit of the doubt, you understand that you shouldn't have been so hasty to file a PayPal dispute, but you got worried as to the lack of reply, and would they please be kind enough to give you the benefit of the doubt send you a replacement glass diffuser, then you will close the PayPal dispute immediately upon receipt. You ARE fully covered by Distance Selling Regulations due to it being a "Buy It Now" purchase from a business seller. I would not report them to eBay just yet.. perhaps after you get the matter sorted, if you want to waste your time doing that (eBay do not react in most cases to reports of violations on their site..) It may also be a good idea to request the sellers telephone number, and discuss the matter on the phone. You can do that by going to "advanced search" on eBay on the main homepage, and then on the left hand side, near the bottom of the list under "Members", you can choose "Find contact information", simply enter the User ID, and the eBay item number (found at the top right of the original item page), and you should get their telephone number emailed to you by eBay. Also, I don't agree with you, the_grey_squirrel. I think it is understandable that the seller may ask the buyer to close the dispute. After all there are many dishonest buyers out there (I'm not saying gurj001 is one of them) but if the seller sent out a replacement, and the buyer didn't send the original back, and then PayPal refunded the buyer etc, the seller would be out of pocket indeed.. Hopefully you get the matter resolved amicably.. there is always trading standards as a last resort, but you should be able to resolve through simply communicating with the seller, either by email or telephone.