Hello,
I understand my situation is probably beyond help, but I might as well give it a try, perhaps I'll receive good advice.
I am a fan of Korean music and in Korea a lot of fansites produce goods, such as photobooks, to sell to inland and overseas fans. I used to order and buy from a website called Shining Star (from now on: SS), run by a person I knew and used to chat with. I had never had problems with them.
Numerous people I know, myself included, placed an order with SS when they produced a new photobook in March 2012. Personally I was in charge of a group order for 10 people and paid a total of about US$400. Half of this money was mine because I covered shipping for everybody and also helped a couple of friends who couldn't afford it back then.
Up to this day I haven't received the goods, nor has any of the people in Korea or elsewhere in the world. It's been over a year. I waited and tried to be faithful, I didn't want to insist because I myself have had trouble with shipping in time before. I and all other buyers kept inquiring the person in charge of SS and always got the same answer: she'd apologize and say she had been busy. She also kept giving us a new shipping date each time. So I tried to be patient.
Eventually, about half a year later, I got fed up with her lies and asked for a refund. She said she had my package ready and was going to ship it the next week. Of course she never did, and whenever I'd ask for a refund, she would ignore me. I sent messages, emails, tweets, anything, but got no reply.
The person in charge of SS got reported to the Police by a Korean fan a couple of months ago, but it doesn't seem like they're going to take action because they have more important cases to deal with. Upon hearing about this, the SS admin started posting again on their twitter, asking people who wanted a refund to fill in a form. She also posted a picture of boxes which were supposed to be filled with the goods she produced.
I asked for a refund again, but it's been two months and she hasn't refunded me yet. She also hasn't shipped anything. Now she has disappeared again. Sometimes she comes back to post pictures and I point out she should update people on refunds and shipping. So she deletes everything she posted and pretends it never happened. This has happened a few times already.
This is all very ridiculous and childish.
My question is: what are the chances that PayPal helps me get a full refund if I provide evidence? She openly admits on her twitter and website she hasn't shipped anything to me, nor refunded me yet. If I can't receive any help from PayPal, then how should I proceed?
Please help, I really need my money back.
Kind regards,
Gaia
