Anyone understand paypal disputes or the law around faulty items?

[IDontLikeItMuch]

I bought a nest thermostat system on eBay back in August and paid using PayPal. I paid an electrician to fit it etc and discovered a key part of it was broken when I went to set it up in October as it was getting cold. The company I bought from insisted that I had to get it removed, return to them and they would send a replacement which would have cost me 2x electrician fees and all the while I was without heating. Speaking to google, they also didn’t recognise the serial number from the faulty device so I question if it’s genuine.

So I decided to just cut my losses and buy a whole new system and get it fitted so we could have the heating back. I disputed the purchase on PayPal for the first time in the years I’ve been using it under the ‘not as described’ category. However, they’ve made a decision not to refund me. I’m furious! This cost a lot of money and is useless! Lesson learnt, I won’t be buying anything expensive off eBay again and I probably won’t bother with PayPal either.

Anyone know if there’s anything I can do please?

PayPal are wankers, I haven't used them or ebay for years because of this kind of thing. I doubt you'll see any money back from them unfortunately.

Thanks @CalistoNoSolo. I’ve never had a problem like this before but I’m surprised they’re allowed to get away with selling faulty goods. I guess I’ll just have to sell the working units at a loss. Lesson learnt anyway.

If you want a refund for something you've purchased online you need to return it if asked to do so. You wouldn't walk into M&S and say I bought a dress in August, it's faulty, I left it at home but give me my money back.
If doing this causes you additional costs you're recourse would be money claim online..what used to be called the small claims court.

Thanks @amylou8. I’ve offered to return the whole thing for a refund but they don’t offer refunds after 14 days. They were offering an exchange for the part but it would have meant waiting for my electrician and the parts coming in the post which I thought was unacceptable given I had no heating or hot water. I might take them to small claims in that case.

Was it not tested when first fitted to see that it worked?

I assumed my electrician had tested it but evidently not. He’s also refusing to take any responsibility. When I bought the new system, I had a nest pro install it because they could come quickly and he set everything up for me, including on the app on my phone and showed me how to use it.