Item not as described, but shipping is restricted

[khrys79]

Hi all,

Hope you can help.

I bought a fragrance.  It's vintage, and I expected to get the one in the pictures. Seller did a switcheroo. Sent one with a different batch code. Which is not cool. With perfume and especially vintage, batch is important. Item smells kinda off too and I think it's a counterfeit.

Seller accepted my return request but has not been helpful with return shipping. So I escalated and seller is now a bit more cooperative. However, I realize on hindsight, I'm taking all the risks here.  Not allowed to ship liquids internationally (seller is in a different country). Even if I manage to fudge the declaration and seller receives the item, I'm worried he will mess around with it.  I only tried it once. Believe it's fake, so I dared not retry. What's to prevent the seller from making it look more used, and trying to deny the refund. Like a reverse of the item not as described situation.  He already showed a lack of ethics by intentionally shipping a different item.

I considered telling Ebay I can't ship it back. But I don't know what will happen, either to me or the seller., and to the refund. What is the best course of action here? 

In case the package is rejected for shipping, I will have to come clean anyway. 

Please help.

[khrys79]

Just to add, I think I should tell the seller that it has to go by shipping which allows liquids. So it will reach him. It's not worth the risk if it gets confiscated and destroyed. Have not received the rates yet. But it'll be exorbitant I believe. More than the item costs. And hope the seller realizes it's not feasible. Or I could just tell Ebay the same. Either way, I'm not sure I can get a full refund or only a partial one. There was feedback from another buyer against this seller about something like this. They had to settle for a fraction of the amount because return shipping was too expensive. I want a full refund 😞

If any one knows how this might work with Ebay, and the best course of action, please enlighten me.  I don't want to get the seller in trouble, either. They sell other stuff too, but mainly perfume, and they're able to get the items to people, but probably not the legit method.