How long before raising a dispute?

[Flossie69]

Hi there - I hope that all you ebay experts can help me with this.
On the 17 Jan I purchased two items. Normally I pay immediately, but because these were from the same seller, I messaged her to ask whether she would combine postage. She responded later in the day and said fine, she would send me an invoice. I then heard nothing from her, so on the following evening, I requested the total from her, and she sent an invoice with the full amount of postage. I assumed she had changed her mind, and as it wasn't a huge amount, I paid by Paypal straightaway. So that was the 18th.
Since then I have not recieved the items, and have not heard from her. I have sent her two messages, friendly and not heavy, but nevertheless asking whether there is a problem. The items do not even show as having been posted.
So, when would you raise this with ebay / Paypal as a formal dispute?
Any comments / advice appreciated.
TIA

i would raise it now. I did the same yesterday with an item i purchased on the 16th. heard nothing at all from the seller so raised dispute.
very annoying as it was a new coat for ds2!

Do you do it through ebay or paypal? And how do you get things rolling?

You do it thru Paypal, I think. You've let 8 working days go by and that's enough.

Here is one set of guidelines. Go down to where it starts with:

"You can file an Item Not Received complaint at any time after you have paid by logging into your Paypal account and selecting the Resolution Tab in the Security Centre. Whilst Paypal complaints should never be initiated in an attempt to speed up delivery there does come a time when common sense dictates that you act promptly."

Thanks for that. Lets see how I get on!

i did it via ebay