Yes the vendor did screw me but it was in such a way that if I had paid through a real bank or credit card service I wouldn't have been bent over.
I'm over being sour about it and moved on. I just reiterate that my experience with PayPal was that they could do anything. The situation was that I paid for certain items and the vendor sent the wrong stuff, refusing to accept that they were in mistake because "their records" showed everything correctly (shipping screwed up). When I contacted PayPal the agent said that I was out of luck because the vendor only has to provide a proof of shipping to refute any claims I had against them. The agent supposedly tried to contact the vendor but received no response and then said "well, I guess that's that."
Again, all fairness to you, the agent was very helpful and kind. You deal with numerous issues daily and I can't expect my hand to be held along the way (shit happens) but I was upset with the response of "they provide shipping notice -> you lose". There was no "acceptable" record of what the items I was promised was because the contact leading up to the transaction was not on ebay and was done though a web forum.