My claim is now 52 days old, Am I screwed?

[jhschonewille]

I ordered a cell phone lcd from HongKong on 10/10/2013 the first few replies indicated it was shipped on the 12th then the 15th, one came with an invalid tracking # another reply said it would be shipped but without a tracking #, eventually they settled on "item was shipped on the 15th", after 21 days and 5-6 conflicting updates I requested a refund (item not delivered/arrived) Of course it was refused because by now the item had been shipped on the 29th (not 12th or 15th) and had been shipped with the same tracking # as the 15th shipment, this time instead of being an invalid # it shows it is in the process of shipping to overseas, "in the process of" for 32 days. Paypal gave seller 10 days to respond which he did on the 10th day with the same tracking #. It has now been 32 days since the last shipping date, no screen, no refund, no word from paypal even after I emailed my concern about a "let us know what you want to do" msg to "contact us" which only gave me a bot written generic reply.

My side of this is,
read reviews on company site ( all great)
ordered screen right away.
started thinking all great reviews? sounds fishy so I did a general google search for reviews to find far too many people were scammed this way, customer orders, company delays shipping (not shipped) for 5-7 days, when customer inquires they are told "item was shipped" and "please to be patience" over and over until it's way past their 21 day delivery quote, then after several days days they'll reship asking again "please to be patience" over and over until transaction is way past the 45 day limit for filing a dispute/claim.
gave seller notice if I didn't receive a refund within 24 hours I would file a dispute. I was ignored.
After almost 48 hours I filed, paypal did their thing but was also ignored so within a second 48 hours I escalated it to a claim.
papal was ignored until the 10th (last) day to respond.
It has now been 52 days, am I screwed? did the company screw me with help from paypal?

[snowshoe]

Don't think that PayPal intentionally helped, it's more like the seller understands PayPal's policies and how to take advantage of them.  International orders are quite easy to scam, delivery takes more time, tracking can be a challenge and faked to stall for more time, etc.  Unfortunately it's common and customers don't take the time to research the sellers until after the fact.  A sad recipe for a bad experience.

If you did pay using a credit card, there's a chance your card issuer may be able to provide some assistance. 

[jhschonewille]

Just to update, PayPal refund system works.

I jumped on the company right at the 21 day delivery date, then after excuses I filed the claim escalated it within 1-2 days.

It took a while because the seller kept screwing with p/p.

Eventually after no response to my emails and useless phone calls I recieved a full refund.

I didn't complain, since emails and phone calls are never replied to with anything more than an automated response but just let the system run it's course I trusted p/p and they came through.

It was only $50. but at least I have it and a p/p scammer doesn't.

ALLWAYS make sure names of scammers are posted somewhere somehow so everyone knows.