I bought some goods as one lot from a seller on a forum (not Ebay), and the delivery was substantially short of what was promised. I contacted the seller who eventually agreed he had not sent everything but promised to do so. Needless to say items did not arrive, I was actually lied to by the seller who said he had not contacted by the date he promised to because he had lost his phone and did not have internet access for nearly a week (strange then that he was posting on forums after the date he said he had no internet access). It was at this point that I entered a Paypal dispute and then upgraded it to a claim when he again failed to reply to messages on FB and emails.
So the evening before Paypal were to decide the claim the seller aagreed via Paypal to refund my money. Paypal then said that my money would be refunded when I returned the goods to the seller AT MY EXPENCE! Swallowing this I sent the goods back to the seller by recorded signed for delivery exactly as they had been sent to me including in the original box they had arrived in. The parcel was delivered to the seller and signed for on Friday, today I check to see if my refund has been returned only to find the following message:
Status
A claims specialist is reviewing your case.
What happens next
We'll contact you with any developments or if we require additional information from you by 19 Sep 2015.
So why when Paypal had agreed that I would get my money refunded when the goods were returned have Paypal now changed this to 'A claims specialist is reviewing your case'? Further why does Paypal need 2 weeks to do this? And according to the wording this may not be even when the refund is made!
I tried sending a message to Paypal yesterday only to get an automated reply that had absolutely no bearing in any way to my claim for a refund. Instead they suggest that if my question was not answered to phone Paypal. There is a very big problem with that - there is no written record of what is said and agreed. I have always considered that a 'paper record' or 'email record' is always there and can be produced in court should the need arise, so why does Paypal not allow contact by email for the member to find out what is happening?
This whole thing is turning into a black comedy with the errant seller laughing his socks off at the hassle and agrevation that I am having to endure and Paypal making things as difficult as possible for me to get my money back - something they promised last Tuesday they would do as soon as the goods were returned to the seller!
Paypal service gets a big 0 / 10 for their handling of this.
