Mercari scam steal ripped off mistreated app stole fraud poor customer service Internet

On February 2nd, 2016 I purchased a Breadmaker from a seller on the Mercai App for $40 plus $15 shipping, for a total of $55. On February 11th it arrived damaged and I contacted the seller to let her know. She instructed me to not ship it back or throw it away as she was going to open a USPS insurance claim and told me she would be contacting Mercari to get my refund issued to me. I went ahead and contaced Mercari as well and submitted photos of the damage, the box it came in, and the shipping label. I also provided these same photos to the seller. Finally on February 19th I heard from Mercai and they issued me a return label to ship the broken item back to the seller.

Since the seller had requested I not ship it back, I asked them promptly what I should do. I made sure to mention that I was more than happy to ship it back if needed, but that I was concerned as the seller had requested I not and that it could mess up her USPS claim. I did not get a reply until February 24th, 6 days after the label had been issued to me, and that reply was only to tell me that they needed to forward my message to the correct department and to not ship back or rate the purchase until I heard back from them.

Finally on February 27th, 4 days later and a total of 10 days after I first contacted them, they replied telling me the seller only needed to contact them and tell them to cancel the order and refund me and that she did not need it shipped back. I told the seller straight away, and not even 8 hours later they closed the order, giving my money to the seller claiming I didnt ship back within enough time. That did NOT allow the seller enough time to reply to me, nor give me any time to ship had I needed to after all.

The seller replied 3 minuted after I contacted her to tell her that they had closed the order and asked her to please tell them to cancel it and refund me, and she told me that she had ALREADY told them to cancel and refund me from the begining but that she would do so again right then. 

I then conacted Mercari again, providing a screen shot of her telling me this, and they replied back stating that since I failed to return the item within 3 days that they closed the order and too bad. So I messaged them again and again as they were not reading my message and clearly were not reading the sellers messages to them.

Finally Mercari replied and told me the seller did NOT contact them to cancel but instead contacted them and told them to close the order and give my money to her. I told the seller this, clearly upset, and she said that it was ridicoulus and that she never told them to do that and that they were lying and that she would contact them yet again to tell them to issue my refund to me. 

I contacted Mercari AGAIN and sent screen shots of everything the seller had told me and asked for an explination. Again they refused to help and sent generic replies regarding that I didnt ship back in 3 days, which had no grounds to stand on as the seller requested I not ship back and since they never even allowed me any time to ship back since they took 10 days to reply to me and then closed the order right after, despite telling me not to ship while I waited for their reply. 

I messaged my seller again and at this point she was mad at them as well given that she had now told them 4-5 times to refund me and to cancel the order and that they were still refusing. She told me that she would message once again to tell them as well. All that took place between February 28th and March 23rd.

Since then Mercari has still refused to help and refused to issue my refund. They will not tell me if it is my seller that is lying to me or if they are lying to me, and can not provide a proper answer as to why they will not issue my refund when I have proof of the seller stating she wanted it sent to me and never wanted the broken item back. As of today, Mercari has begun instantly closing any corresponandance I open with them and refusing to provide a reply before doing so. They are refusing to issue my refund for the broken item and have either allowed a seller to scam me and steal from me (if she indeed never told them as they claim) or are stealing from me point blank.

I have poured countless hours into trying to deal with this and even offered to ship the item to the seller if they would issue me a new label so that I could get my refund since they did not allow me any time to do so the first time per their instructions. I have exhausted every effort I could think of to have this resolved, and unfortunatly will have to go through my bank to get my refund, which is something I did not want to do as Mercari instantly closes anyone's account that files a bank inquiry or chargeback and bans them from ever creating a new account. However I will not allow $55 to be stolen from me, and given that they are refusing to provide help or correct the issue, it leaves me with no choice. I have had many fantastic transactions on their app, and bought from many kind and honest sellers, so it is a true shame that their lack of customer service will now ruin that for me.