Who is Liable with Defective Unit

The damage could definitely have happened in transit, but good luck getting the transport provider to pony up. There needs to be physical evidence of damage to the product and/or the package. If not, they usually tell you to pound sand.

I think a reasonable solution would be for the seller to pay for half of the repair costs.

Just to play devil’s advocate here.

I’ve heard of situations where buyers take the paypal protection route claiming that an item is not as described when they either

1) Don’t like the way it sounds

2) Broke something after it’s arrival

So does PP do any due diligence to investigate these claims in order to give the seller the benefit of the doubt? Or is it just an automatic refund to the buyer just based on information he provides? 

It’s not always just the buyer who needs to beware.

I'm in no way claiming that the OPs situation is anything like this. I'm just curious what the process is.