I bought a bangle as gold plated silver but after a few hours it went black

[kayhiewinkle]

I bought a bangle as gold plated silver that went black inside after a few hours and left black marks on my wrist. I went to clean it with gold cleaner but the black went pink and discoloured. Gold plate shouldn't do this and there is nothing on the bangle to say gold plating.The seller has offered me £12 but I paid £28 plus postage. I can't get in touch with ebay to step in, although I am willing to compromise with seller, I think I am too much out of pocket. The instructions on ebay keep directing me to return only - she doesn't want it back - not 'ask ebay to step in'. There is no mechanism I can find to get ebay involved despite their directions to 'ask ebay to step in'.

[m25jet · Accepted solution]

You don't say when you purchased the item, but eBay only give buyers thirty days to open a case so if you haven't yet run out of time to do so open an eBay Item Not As Described Case now.  If the seller gets awkward and won't resolve the matter to your satisfaction within the allotted timeframe then escalate the matter to eBay as soon as you get the chance to do so and they should issue you with a full refund.

If you've run out of time to open an case via eBay then open an Item Not As Described case via PayPal.  PayPal allow buyers one hundred and eighty days to open a case against a seller, so you should have plenty of time to do so if the eBay option has run out.  However, should you need to go down the PayPal route, make sure that you escalate the case after two days and before the twenty day cut-off point if the seller proves to be obstructive.  PayPal tend to look into cases far more closely than eBay do, so if you do have to get PayPal to sort the matter out for you then so long as you escalate the case to them before it can time out on you PayPal ought to issue you witha total refund.