Lucille

As others have pointed out, there is always a time frame of one sort or another dealing with either cards or Paypal. It costs nothing to open a case, I suggest you go ahead and open one.
If the seller refunds you can close it once you actually have the refund in your hands. As a side note, sometimes a seller will ask you to close a case prior to refunding, because sometimes those funds are frozen. NEVER do this.

The poor quality in this case is particularly egregious, because the protruding screws into the habitat area itself could cause injury. I'm surprised that anyone claiming to love reptiles could send out a cage like that.