How to escalate return to a claim?

[cynicalcyndi]

I recieved a clearly damaged and defective item and initiated a return request last week, it says in big bold letters on my return request status page "If you have not agreed on a solution or the seller has not responded by Jan 27, 2016, you can ask us to step in and help." The seller has not responded at all to the returnrequest, so now that it is the 28th, I ask how to escalate this?  The only link on the return request page is to close the return request not escalate it, I tried to open a claim in the resolution center and it says there is already case open and refers me back to the return status page that is useless since I want to escalate the claim not see that the seller is ignoring my request...

Some more info, this is a 'Top Rated Plus' ebay seller based in the US, with nearlly 100,000 feedbacks, not some fly by night over seas seller that I'm used to having poor communication with...

I was hoping to simply escalate online as I dread an hour long phone conversation with Ebay just to escalate a case, but if that is what it takes I will go that route...