Beware buying via PayPal : eBay Guides

I saw some metal halide lights on ebay that were described as suitable for illumination of a fish tank  - Reef - Marine - just what I was looking for.

Only 1 light was advertised being up for auction, so I contacted the seller via ebay and asked if he had any more and if he would consider selling on a 'buy it now' basis.

He said that he did have 2 more lights and that he would sell them to me for £50 the pair inc. P&P which seemed like a good deal to me so I paid him £50 via PayPal.

The lights arrived - the first thing I noticed was that the ballast (control gear) was rated at 70 Watts and the lamps were rated at 150 watts, so there was no way that the control gear would light the lamps. Further, the lamp housing was designed for use in a department store to illuminate in-store products and should not be used anywhere near water - so totally unsuitable for the purpose for which they were advertised.

I emailed the seller on 2 occasions and received no reply so I raised it with PayPal under the 'Item Significantly Not as Described' category who forwarded an email to the seller. A week passed with no response, so I escalated it with PayPal to a claim.

I immediately received an email from PayPal saying that they would take no further action and had closed the dispute as they will only consider getting involved if the item(s) had not arrived.

So there's nothing more I can do..