I bought a proton pack from doorwaystoadventure on eBay. I paid $900 plus $100 for shipping. It came in broken. The seller at first offered $200 back to me and I could tape it back together, but it was insured against damages through FedEx. That's part of my $100 shipping charge. I called FedEx to file a damage claim and they sent a delivery person out to pick up the broken merchandise and bring it to their claims center for inspection. I chatted with the FedEx delivery guy for a good ten minutes about damage claims as he helped me tape up the original package and he took it away.

The next day, another FedEx delivery guy showed up at the house to pick up the package, but I had my wife tell him it had already been taken away. About a week later I got a letter from a FedEx claims agent denying my claim for refusal to present the merchandise for inspection. Didn't they just take it away? I was livid. So, I took my call tag receipt from the first driver and put the tracking code in at FedEx.com. The signature confirmation was from my seller. The package was at his house. FedEx inspected nothing and simply returned the package to the sender. So, I called FedEx and navigated through the beaureacratic BS until I got the claims agent on the phone who had denied my claim. I also shot an email to the seller with my cell number asking him to call me.

The claims agent said that customer service must have issued the first call tag, but they made a mistake. It should have been for damage claim, but instead just returned the merchandise. The merchandise would have to be picked up from the seller for an inspection before any damages would even be assessed. At this point, it was out of my hands. FedEx could do nothing without word from the seller.

I sent another email to the seller asking him to call me, then I began the process of submission under the PayPal Buyer Protection Program by filing a claim through PayPal. Almost immediately after I got off the phone with PayPal, I got a call from the seller. The seller said when the package arrived at his house, he assumed an inspection had been done, so he discarded the packaging (needed for the damage claim) and the broken parts (also needed for the damage claim) and that he no longer had the merchandise. He said I would NOT be getting any refund from him or his PayPal because he had no return policy. (His listing simply had no policy on returns -- not a no return policy.) He said he had just drafted a handwritten letter waiving his claim to the damages at FedEx and wanted me to drop the PayPal claim. I just said, "Uh huh." I wasn't dropping anything.

A few days later, PayPal ruled in my favor and returned my full $1000 from the seller. I first found out about the closed case from a livid email from the seller saying I'd screwed him. He said he received a bill from FedEx for the return shipping. Well, if you're reading this dude, you shouldn't be getting billed anything from FedEx because that call tag was supposed to have been to bring the merchandise in for an inspection -- not to your house. I'd call billing and dispute that. Also, the damage claim is still open. FedEx did receive your waiver giving me the claim. I called that claims agent back at FedEx. He said they were not going to honor your waiver. So, you still own the claim at FedEx. You can at least recover $900, which likely won't be leaving you in the hole. And, if you are telling the truth about not having the merchandise any longer, I did take pictures of the damage and I emailed those to that claims agent. He said that an adjustment can likely be made in light of FedEx's mistake if you call and speak to him.