Received wrong item from Ebay seller - how to handle?

I contacted the seller who apologized, said they’d look into it, and gave me an address to return the wrong item to. My highest priority is to get the item I ordered (rare antique, probably can’t be found again).

I’ve never handled a situation like this before and have a few questions:

  1. Should I ask that the seller pay the return shipping? Insist on it?

  2. Should I wait until I get the correct item before sending the wrong one back or send it back right away? (I’ve purchased from this seller before and had good experiences.)

  3. This is an international order. Anyone happen to know what shipping method I need to use to prove to Ebay/Paypal that I sent it back? It’s not expensive enough to warrant registered mail, unfortunately (I paid about $25).

Thank you so much.

Just for fun I went to the USPS web page and looked up international priority mail. I looked for a small package, added “certificate of mailing”, and the total isn’t that much - 15ish dollars.

Ask the seller if that would be sufficient to satisfy him/her.

  1. yes, yes

  2. no

  3. what Mama Zappa said.