Item purchased but it's broken (cannot be opened). Seller is no longer active, how to dispute the purchase?

[Witching]

I have of course tried contacting the merchant but no response, and they have also seemingly not been active for quite some time. The item cannot be unpacked (it's broken, not an issue that could be resolved through restarting or anything. It's just an empty box) and I'm not sure where to go from here. 

Any help would be great, thank you. 

Merchant also does not have a redelivery terminal as they are a smaller creator with an unfinished shop. 

[Fionalein]

far shot, but have you tried looking inside sublinks?

[Wulfie Reanimator]

Assuming it's literally just an empty box:

There's probably nothing you can do to directly "dispute" the purchase or get a refund.

If it's a Marketplace listing, you should report it as "item not as advertised."

If it's an in-world purchase (sounds like it), you should report the vendor object you paid as "Fraud > L$ or USD $." Remember to explain the situation like you did here; you got an empty box instead of what was advertised. This should get a Linden to come check it out, and possibly refund you or at least remove the vendor.

[Fionalein]

you can always redeliver if it was Caspervend, just use any other shop's redelivery terminal and on website "purchases from other stores" button - but my guess: you'd get  another empty box

try another sandbox though, sometimes object inventory is wonky

[Lindal Kidd]

If you bought an item and received an empty box, it could be a deliberate scam. You can Abuse Report the seller for Fraud.