Get money returned.

[Alliant]

I had a vendor ask me to prepay for an item using their PayPal account. After I paid, he refused to provided services!

I've tried contacting PayPal to talk to a real person.  But they put me on hold, then hang up after 15 to 20 minutes.

[DPCreations]

What do you mean by "pre-pay for an item".  Did the seller send you a PayPal invoice?  What was the seller actually selling?  Was it listed on a web site?

Exactly how did you pay?

[Quandary]

How did you pay - if you chose the send money feature and selected the "friends and family" feature - you were scammed.  You won't even be able to open a dispute.   If you sent the money and chose "good and services", you can open a dispute with the seller or if you paid on the seller's website or page.