Sorry but this makes no sense. Once you open a case, it remains open until there is a resolution. The passing of 45 days is not a factor, and the item does not sit waiting to be delivered forever (it should have come back to you if not picked up in a reasonable amount of time).
If you can show it was picked up, or that it was not picked up over a period of reasonable time, you should have been refunded your money. If you know that the product was eventually picked up, then you did not press the point with paypal or with ebay.
Some information is missing here.
Hi, there was indeed a resolution. The resolution was that the seller was to return my money as soon as he received his item back.
Paypal requests the item to be returned to the seller using a trackable courier service. I don't remember how long the deadline is but there is a deadline. If Paypal has not checked your item as "delivered" through the courier company, then they will close the case.
What the seller did was wait until this deadline was over, so paypal had already closed the case, and then he picked up the parcel. I guess he was lucky enough to have a small window of opportunity between the paypal deadline was over and the parcel was about to be returned to me. I don't know how he did it… normally in Spain if you don't pick a parcel in 15 working days, it goes back to the sender.
The problem was that the post office refused to do anything since it had already handed in the parcel to USPS.. so according to them it was all on USPS hands, eventhough I paid for the courier service (insured for 300$) and not a normal postal delivery.
Also talked to USPS and they refused to even listen to me because I wasn't their client (meaning that I paid the spanish post, not USPS for the delivery), blaming everything on the spanish post.
I talked several times to paypal and they kept on saying there was nothing they could do and even if the seller didn't pick it up, they couldn't keep the case open.
That's how Paypal (Europe) works.. at least here in the EU.
I haven't used ebay since.. I try to buy everything I need off Amazon or other accountable shops.
Ps: I re-checked my emails back and forth with Paypal and now remember exactly what happened and how he managed. Basically the parcel was kept at US customs in New York waiting for the seller to pay the customs taxes! Apparently US customs waits for a couple of months before returning the item, so the seller had plenty of time to wait for Paypal to close my case, then he paid the tax and get the item delivered.
When I asked Paypal whether the seller should pay the import tax, they said it was the seller's responsability to pay the taxes. I just couldn't get the post company to demonstrate or certify that the item was being hold at customs.
