That's pretty pathetic. I've had packages take longer than they should have, tracking data that didn't update until after I had received the package and, on one occasion, tracking data that was totally wrong (USPS gave sparkfun.com a set of bad tracking numbers, mine said that it had been delivered to Switzerland). So far, sending an email to the sender has always sorted things out.
I hope that you manage to settle the PayPal dispute in your favour.
Hans
