I had a ongoing issue with an auction that finalized today, not what I expected as far as outcome, here's the story:

I bought a 5 piece Rogers kit on Ebay with some cases and cymbals that had free shipping. I have two Rogers kits already, as well as 4 Dynas. The main reason I bought the kit was for the cases and bonus....Free shipping. After I was declared the winner, the seller asked me if I wanted to insure the items for shipping. Of course....well, the Seller who was very classy through the whole deal took about 2-3 weeks to ship, she told me up front, no biggie.

Well, when the drums arrived, all was good except for the fact that the Shipper (UPS store) didn't box the big case and put the bass drum inside (packaging for the drum was iffy at best) Needless to say, the bass drum case was damaged.

As I had paid insurance on the items, I filed a claim with UPS. They denied the claim on the basis that the drum wasn't damaged ( it was damaged, I just didn't want to be so petty about 4 or 5 bent T-rods), the case was damaged which was the shipping box and the case wasn't protected from shipping. After several conversations with the owners of the UPS store, who said they called UPS and said that UPS corporate told them they could ship the case as-is and the Store's unwillingness to take responsibility for the damaged case, my last straw was a claim against the Seller.

The Seller was working two jobs, very busy and in need of money, so I felt bad opening a claim, but I did. I insured it, she had it shipped, UPS store packaged and shipped it and wasn't taking responsibility, UPS denied claim so I had to. Needless to say, they found in favor of, to my chagrin, the Seller!!

Long story short, I made a call, not an email, hours after the decision came down, talked to a real person, who transferred me to a Claims Manager, who when it was all said and done, refunded me $150.00 for the case. The amount I had originally asked for. The case was a custom made Anvil case, used, so I compromised on my original claim, as new are $200.00 or more.

All I wanted to convey is that PayPal paid the money (I don't think it came from the Seller because it showed as refunds of listing fees) and I am totatlly satisfied and got better service on the phone and a surprisingly quick end to a troublesome past month.