Partial Refund Offers - How Negotiable?

[rs999]

Seeking the wisdom of this group...

I bought a Chromebook from a seller. It had a disclosed defect , reported as a broken hinge, but othwise functional. It came in, working, took it apart and the hinge issue turned out to be that the whole LCD assembly ripped out from the plastic bottom case because the hinges (which were intact) were way too tight. So I fixed it with epoxy and now it is as good (better actually) than new.

OK, so I started using this chrome book and it is really pretty bad. Keeps stuttering and crashing when I have a few tabs open and try to run Pandora. So I put an app called ”cog" on it and it reported that this unit had only 2gb of ram instead of the 4gb as claimed.

So, I started a "Not as described " case, really only for the RAM issue, and asked to return for refund. The seller, who is a computer merchant, offered $15 back from the $43 original price. That's better than nothing, but in my mind before they offered I was thinking $20 would make me ok with it. 

I haven't answered yet, because I would like to explore what happens if I don't accept the offer. Can I ask for more?  Refuse and insist that they take it back? What is eBay's likely reaction if they get involved an a couple of days?

[hatchchil-75]

You altered it, so technically you're not entitled to anything

[rs999]

That thought had crossed my mind, too. But it was physically miserable to use as the screen was popping out of the base and I was afraid I was going to break the motherboard or the connector if I didn't do something. I didn't realize how gutless this thing was until I got to using it. And, of course it was gutless because it wasn't 4gb.

[hatchchil-75]

You should have filed a return case...

[zzydny]

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@hatchchil-75 wrote:
You altered it, so technically you're not entitled to anything

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This.  

Too many buyers expect partial remorse refunds which are problematic and often unfair for sellers.  You are fortunate that your seller attempted to oblige.  Why are you quibbling over $5?

[thereturners]

You were made aware of the issue before you purchased it and still chose to dissasemble it and tty snd fix it. For all the seller knows your tampering is the cause of it running slow. Anywhere else that would have instantly voided the return policy. You sre lucky you are getting anything back.

[rs999]

Yes, I did file a return case. The minute I confirmed that the seller had sold me an inferior 2gb unit. Had I known this was a 2 gb unit I would never have bought it. I also would not have bought a charger that did not come with it for another $7 that I needed to power it up to determine that I was sold something that I did not want to buy.

[rs999]

I 'm not quibbling yet . I may take the $15 and try to sell it honestly to someone else who can use this thing. But I'm not sure I want to make it my problem either.