Phone unlock scam and Paypal's strange behaviour.

[jerry12x]

Hiya, I recently paid money to a phone unlocking site on the internet through Paypal's mastercard.
The site looks impressive. Unlock within 5 minutes. 60 day money back guarantee.

I can't go wrong.

In five minutes I can use my new to me iphone.

I followed their instructions but the download links they supplied did not work.
I got straight back on to paypal and filed a dispute requesting a refund.
As I clicked the button to complete the dispute I saw the immediate refund notice for phone unlock sites, but too late.

I tried another unlock site a few minutes later which also failed to do what they claimed.
I got an instant refund by pressing the right button in the paypal dispute process.

After that I went to a high street shop. My iphone is now working.

I have just heard from Paypal that I have lost my dispute to the first unlock site because...
"I purchased a digital or intangible item which isn't covered by buyers protection." 
Exactly the same as I bought from the second site where I got an instant Paypal refund.

I have seen on the internet that the unlock site does not honour their 60 day warranty.

So, I want to put a chargeback on the amount paid.

I paid $24.99. 1 cent less than the $25 required for a 3 day cooling off pereiod.

I didn't know, I'm English, we have a 7 day cooling off period  with no minimum.

After three days going round in circles I have not yet found out how to email paypal and request the chargeback.

I know I can phone them but my hearing is bad and I want to email.

I would also like to know why they changed their policy so quickly.

[jerry12x]

This is not going away paypal.

I want answers to youre strange behaviour.

[PayPal_lucy]

Hey there jerry12x,

Welcome to the community.

If you received a refund through PayPal and it says refund in your PayPal account transaction details, this means the seller issued a refund to you, not PayPal.

If PayPal returned the funds it would show as “reversed”.

The dispute you opened, it would be closed as there is no buyer protection on virtual or intangible goods.

For this I would advise continuing to contact the seller to try and come to a resolution. 

[topaxian]

What an absolute joke, they are setting up thousands of these websites and selling non-existant services stealing north amercia's money everyday.


They clearly claim to provide a service, and they bill you for that service. If what they sell you has no value they are scamming you and should be stopped.

[RueBarak]

Actually what PayPal should do is simply not allow for these unlocking sites to use PayPal as a form of payment if they are not willing to protect the purchase. As everyone knows, you can file a claim to get a refund through PayPal if there's a problem, not assume that someone is gonna read some policy that's buried someone on their site , before someone makes a purchase. I personally think that's dishonest.