First, do not assume everything on line is a scam. This might just be an unknowledgeable seller.
Key here is that the eBay Money Back Guarantee (MBG) is one of the best buyer protections available with on line shopping. Don't believe me? See the forum for sellers and see how many complaints sellers have. You are well protected by the MBG.
That said, in order to stay "protected" by the MBG you have to follow eBay's procedures and do them correctly. Mess up those and you will loose the protection. What we see is buyers that are often not sure, but guess and do something anyway, end up doing the wrong thing and loose their protection.
First thing you need to do is see if you can file and appeal of the closed case. If you selected a reason for the return as "remorse reason" (didn't like, etc.) then yes, eBay was within its rights to deny the return. If the item was truly "not as described" (NAD) and you selected a remorse reason, the this would be an example of messing up the process. If you can appeal, make certain you state this is a case of NAD. You may need to talk to a live person at eBay. Call when you can get a USA rep, be calm, stick to the facts, leave out any emotions, be persistent.
If you can't get eBay to reopen the case and you used PayPal the perhaps you can file a return with PP. All of that fails you can always appeal to your CC issuer and see if they have a program for chargebacks. But again, you will need to follow procedures to get a refund.
The one thing that many sellers do not know is that a "no returns" policy does not mean no refunds in a NAD situation. Many sellers will use a no returns policy such that causal users or lookers will steer away from their listing. It costs money to pay for return shipping and you the buyer certainly don't want to pay that, do you? So small sellers, if they are giving you a good price, don't have enough profit to absorb return shipping costs. So they use a no returns policy. That stops those who like to "try it on" and then decide if they want to keep it. So if that is you, avoid the sellers with 'no returns' policies. Make sure you check for that in the listing. But if a seller does provide something that is NAD, then the eBay MBG protects you and you will get a refund. But again, gotta follow the process correctly.
One thing I do when shopping on eBay is to read the description carefully and look at the pictures closely. If I can't blow up the picture and see details or the description is light, I either ask for more info OR move on to the next seller. If the description contradicts the picture, I move on to the next seller. I don't mind paying a couple of bucks more for a good description, pictures or highly rated seller. I also look at a seller's feedback score (%) anything under body temp (98.6) is suspect and I generally move on. Any seller with a FB score in the 80's or below is on the way out - likely to be kicked out by eBay soon. If things come down to two sellers go into the FB comments and see what is said about the seller. Often there are FB from people who don't understand the process, but often FB shows consistent problems with a seller. I think we make these kinds of 'evaluations" IRL when we walk into a store, one just needs to use the tools here yo do the best they can.
Sorry if I missed the mark with all of this, just hoping that hitting everything, in there is something helpful?
