SELLER CONNED ME- HELP!!

[sanibellady]

Item arrived nothing like pics or text,.

As it was a buisiness seller I nicely & politely asked for exchange rather than a refund.

He asked me to return it, so i did immediately recorded del.& paid  p/p cost to sellers paypal for replacement item to be sent.

Seller asked me to return it  'directly,' gave me an address.{ It was not done through ebays proceedure of "How to return an item" }

Now Seller says I've retained original item & he never sent  me the replacement! 

I opened " Item not received case" ebay not involved yet, Seller keeps sending pics of orig items recorded del receipt as 'proof ' signed for at my address.  

I'm following proceedure to resolve with him, & I 've noticed some parts of conversations re: return  appear to have disappeared!?

Item was received & signed for at the address he provided.

I 've exhausted all possibilities of trying to resolve it  nicely with an uncooperative untruthful seller. 

Despite the devious way I was asked to return the item  NOT through ebays system, am I covered by their refund guarantee???

My family suggested this may even be a criminal act of theft ?

Does anyone have any suggestions please as I would like my very hard earned money back !

[norseway53 · Accepted solution]

You should not have opened an item not received case; you did receive the item, otherwise you couldn't have returned it.  What you should have done was opened a case for not-as-described.  What you need to do now is leave the existing case open and in the morning when the lines reopen, phone customer support and ask them to change the case to 'not-as-described'.