Should I send the item back first, or get my refund first?

[tnguyen25]

I bought a memory stick and it turns out the memory stick was not authentic..It was a fake. So I opened a dispute with the seller and we have a conflict. The seller wants me to send the item back, then I will get my refund back. However, I believe that I should get my money back first, then I will send back the item. I am skeptical about sending the item back first and then receiving the refund because the seller is a fraud. He lied about the item listing saying that it was authentic when it really was not. The seller is a fraud and I do not trust his word. Therefore I believe that I should get my refund first, then I will ship the item back.

Any feedback?

[utopiaglass]

I'm an eBay seller and buyer and have been through the claim process as a buyer. 

First of all keep your eye on the calendar - you only have 20 days to escalate a dispute to a claim.  If you do not escalate to a claim your case will be closed.  You can escalate sooner than the 20 days if it seems you are getting nowhere with the seller.

If you have to proceed through the claim process, PayPal will make you send the item back before they will refund you.  However you MUST return the item by a DELIVERY CONFIRMED service.  If you cannot provide delivery confirmation to PayPal, you will not get your money back.  A delivery confirmed service such as Canada Post's regular parcel or expedited parcel can be very expensive so it is at this point you must decide if it is worth it to proceed.

If it is worth it after the cost of shipping to return the item and get refunded the initial purchase price including initial shipping, there comes a point during the claim process that PayPal will instruct you to return the item, but you may do it earlier if it sounds like the seller is going to cooperate.  Again, be sure it goes by delivery confirmed service.  You will not get reimbursed for the return shipping, unless the seller agrees to it, which does not seem likely in this case.

If you honestly believe this seller is being fraudulent, the only way to help prevent him from doing the same thing to other buyers is to proceed with the claim and have it decided against him.  Too many claims and he will get kicked off eBay. 

If you do choose to deal between yourselves do not close the paypal claim until you have your money back.  Once you close the PayPal claim, you cannot reopen it. 

I hope this helps....

[darkfigure]

Check out my post, pretty much the same thing happened to me only difference is Ebay told me to file the claim, and his ebay acount is already closed. Paypal wants me to send his garbage back to get a refund, thats all sweet and nice on the principle that this criminal signs and accepts the package.

But why would he? He knows he mailed out garbage.

[Areocat]

I have the same problem. I have just escalated my claim and got a response from PayPal indicating I have to send the item back with tracking service in order to get a refund.  I bought a camera bag and it was shipped all the way from Malaysia. I found the bag to be an imitation while the seller claimed to be 100% authentic.  The seller did not reply to my ebay messages and once I opened the case through PayPal, he asked me to send the item back for a refund.  However, I informed him that the return shipping cost (with tracking) would cost me over $100. I would only do it if he agreed to refund me the cost of the bag, original shipping cost, and return shipping cost.  He said he would think about it and get back to me.

Meanwhile, he took the time to remove his listings on ebay and even deregistered his ebay account!  Once I found out, I sent one more message to him through paypal before escalating it to a claim.  No response again.  Now it's in PayPal's hands and what I got was for me to return the bag to the seller AT MY EXPENSE!  Return shipping costs MORE than the bag!  All these messages went through PayPal so I would have a trace, but what I got from PayPal was totally absurd!  The seller has committed fraud and we're paying for it?!

[darkfigure]

It is total bull**bleep**. I wont be using paypal anymore because of this. I will just buy locally from now on and say **bleep** it to the convieance, because its clear these scammers know the loop hole. Paypal is not real people but an automated dispute program, the logic of the choices are so dumb there can not possibly be people runing it.

Interesting how paypal takes a cut of the transaction, and I suspect any refunds they give would cut into their profits. They don't give a **bleep** aslong as they make money on the "sale" even if its not legit.

Seriously I should start selling dog **bleep** on ebay, but package the auction to look like computer hardware. Then by the time the buyer complains and I got their money just say "oh well send me back my merchindise at your own expense" then when it gets here I just dont answer my door or pick up the packages. "Sorry the merchindise never arrived" no refund for you.

**bleep**ing idiots.

I recomend you call your bank, if you used a credit card they may be able to do a chargeback for you. **bleep** this paypal mickey mouse bull**bleep**.

[darkfigure]

Ok I feel its important for me to follow this up with this. Today I called paypal, and to my suprise I was treated very nicely by a female who spoke english. She was sympathetic to what I had told her (the information above) and she said she would have some claims HUMAN look at it.

Anyways PayPal listened, and got my money back from this crapy seller.