I need more details about eBay's time limit for buyer protection about lost items

[treeofwolf]

Please help me understand how eBay works. Correct me if I'm wrong. From what I know:

- eBay gives you 45 days to open a request, after that you lost your money and eBay won't help you. Why is there a limit!?

- Ordering from china can take longer than that. Especially when the shipping is free because it's slower. I ordered during the holiday and the higher amount of packages made the transit process slower. 45 days isn't enough.

- Opening a case "I didn't recieve my item" give more time than 45 days from eBay's protection. That won't happen if we message the seller without opening a case.

But how much longer do I get? Where is the timer? Can it hurt the seller if the case stays open longer than the 3 days he has to respond? I wanted to leave the case open until I recieve the item. To prolong eBay's protection as long as I need to. But the seller gave me a refund and asked me to pay again if I recieve the item... How can I pay the seller again? It was an unusual price from an auction...

Thanks... and eBay... you should make it longer than 45 days because international shipping can be slow and it would avoid a lot of panic.