Received a not as described AS-IS item, what will Ebay do?

DoNotInsertIntoMouth · 2013-11-23T12:11:35.000Z

So I am pretty certain what will happen but wanted to make sure I am not missing something. First off, I buy a lot of as-is items. I would say about 70-80% of them work out. I really just like the "thrill" of taking a chance to score (this is my life...). So for that other 20%-30%, if the item is not complete, etc., I let it go. The Ebay user said as-is, etc., and you lose some you win some right? So in this case, I bought a Batcave that was listed as new. It was open box and the seller wrote in the description that it was sealed up with scotch tape, but was new - however they could not tell if all the bags were there but the weight was right. So my thinking: It was 50$ which is about 40$ under the Ebay normal. It has some sealed bags at least - from the description it made it sound like they looked inside, saw the number of bags, but didn't count them. And the weight is about right. So I purchased it. Before paying, I sent the seller a message asking if they could peer inside before hand to just make sure it wasn't obviously missing anything huge. I said I would still buy it since I purchased it already, but I just wanted to know before hand so I could plan on what I got (Obviously if it was missing a bag or something I would just part it out). The seller said they already had it packed up so they couldn't do that. I said I understood and paid. Fastforward to yesterday night: - I got the package and opened the box. It is straight up a used set. No original bags, stickers have been applied in some places, half of it is built. There are only two bags in there, so its obvious they never even looked in the box like they insinuated in the listing. - There are definitely some parts missing as well as some figures from what I can tell. So I contacted the seller - ebay likes for you to open a case which is annoying - and apologized for opening the case, and explained what had happened. I didn't accuse them at all - I just said it was completely used, looked to be missing pieces, etc. and from the listing is said it was "new" and made it sound like they had seen some factory sealed bags (honestly if there were some and then a ziplock bag with the parts that had been opened, I would have given them the benefit of the doubt). I said I thought maybe they just hadn't looked or maybe they sent me the wrong item - nothing accusatory. I also said that if they want, I could go through the set and see what kind of value was there and it might still be worth keeping. Basically asked, what do you want to do? Seller responded fairly indignant - She said she listed it as-is, so I knew there may be missing parts. She said that I could have asked a question before buying (which is somewhat fair except she answered the question after I bought it with "I don't know I can't look right now"). She said she could possibly give me a small refund, but that I could have done something else rather than open a case and this is why they put as-is in the listing. Honestly I thought about letting it go if they responded like it was an honest mistake, but her response was pretty arrogant. She did a lot of the I AM GOING TO GO ALL CAPS HERE SO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS MEANS stuff. So I have two feelings about this and naturally I want to get others opinions: 1. She definitely violated listing policies and I am fairly certain that I would win a SNAD case. She is also not being very helpful and I gave her a chance before hand to save herself. In reality, this box was not "sealed" with scotch tape - there was one piece on it. She could have taken 5 seconds to peer in and know it wasn't new. This could be a seller scam. You have a used set with the box, you list it as "new" and as-is and then act surprised when someone else says its used. 2. as-is should basically trump the rest of the listing, no matter what it is. I don't think I believe this, I list all as-is items as "used" (and I check them), but maybe others feel like as-is kills everything else. I am not talking about this from a viewpoint of whether or not I should have buy it. Obviously, when you do get legitimately burned, you learn from it. I definitely do - and I do because I like the thrill - there are probably a lot of us here that do. So I am really trying to separate the "should I have expected this" from what does Ebay say about the matter. If the seller offers a refund and changes here tone, I will take it assuming its 10$ or more. I asked for half, just because looking at the pieces I could probably break even with that. I am not opposed to taking a loss, more just don't want to let someone off the hook for poor listing practices. Thoughts? And I would rather keep the listing out of it. I do not want to drag anyone's Ebay id through the dirt until I am certain they are a jerk.