China “sending wrong item” scam

Starsky72
Contributor
Contributor

So....

 

1) item advertised on Facebook

2) You buy two of them, pay via PayPal $29.90

3) Item arrives, nothing like as described and is damaged

4) Seller offers small percentage as refund, I refuse.

5) Escalate the complaint in Paypal

5) PayPal state I need to send back, tracked, and the seller has to confirm delivery before a refund will be issued, before 4 January

6) Tracked postage costs more than I’d get in a refund

7) Seller wins..

 

I end up out of pocket with a broken item that is different in every way (size, materials, quality) from what I ordere, plus I ordered two and didn’t receive them

 

Paypal are allowing this scam to happen.  I should have lied and simply said I never eeceived it

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171 REPLIES 171

Danimal4821
Member
Member

If the money goes through there system and the bank decides its fraudulent they will hold PayPal accountable.  

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Papa_Bear
Contributor
Contributor

Alas it would appear I have fallen victim to this as well. A pair of Timberland boots that turned out to be cheap knockoffs nothing like the originals. Had the paltry offer and now faced with £25 postage bill to return. Surely this can't be legal? Surely this can't be allowed to happen by PayPal? Can nothing be done?

 

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kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

@Papa_Bear 

 

Its legal to sell fakes in China so if you buy from China expect fakes or tat.

Cheap means normally fake.

 

Paypal does give you 'some' buyer protection but its not a warranty or insurance and does not cover you for everything.

All they promise is that if you get an item misdescribed then they will get you a refund on return of the item.

 

If you didn't have to return the item then lots of buyers would just yell fake with no proof and keep item and money.

Thats why you have to bear in mind where you purchase from and what country knowing that paypal only give you 'some' of the return shipping costs if you have activated the below link.

 

  https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/returns

 

Also fund your paypal payment via a credit card for a second layer of protection, BUT even some credit cards are requiring return of the item first.


Advice is voluntary.
Kudos / Solution appreciated.
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HammYY
Contributor
Contributor

Yes, you should expect and likely receive 'fakes' when expensive items are sold at way too low prices from another country.

 

However there appear to be a problem when the purchase is $30-$50 and the seller sends the WRONG item and then offers a partial refund saying it would cost you over $20 (at your cost) to send it back tracked. There is then some suspicion that they then never issue the refund(?)

 

ADVICE: if you receive any item at all (e.g. a couple of pencils instead of a teddy bear) then DON'T raise the dispute with Paypal as 'Item Not Received' as the seller will provides delivery/receipt and your claim fails - despite the fact you did not receive the item ordered.  You should raise the dispute as 'Significantly Not As Described - even then Paypal will insist you pay to return the wrong item to 'hopefully' get a refund.   I believe(?) that sellers in China can make use of very low cost tracking deliveries not available to us the buyers.

 

So you need to decide if paying $20 to get a possible refund of $30 is risk worth the risk of losing $50!

 

BUYER BEWARE ! --- check out the seller --- DON'T rely on Paypal offering much protection.

 

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Jeffreykfackler
Contributor
Contributor

But when sending the item back "with tracking" as they require, then it costs more than the item to send it back than the original cost of the item.  The last 2 issues I had cost $30 more than the item I bought ($50), so a total of $80 to send it back.  This incentivizes Chinese sellers to send the wrong items on purpose, because they know that American customers are not going to lose out more money to make a point.

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leo9dis
Contributor
Contributor

Still going on 4/24/20.  bought from a store listed on google, store said it's located in california.  now i have to ship it to china?  pay $1000 for this scammers name.  Paypal is worthless, every opportunity you get get, bash it.  never use paypal again.

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Papa_Bear
Contributor
Contributor

I have actually had a lucky escape this time, it cost £20 to send the boots back of which Paypal paid £18. I shipped the boots back to the address the seller and Paypal provided and no surprises no answer and no one went to collect them from the local delivery office. Perhaps the seller thought if he did not collect them he would not have to refund me, **however, because I had fulfilled my part of the bargain Paypal refunded me in full** and the boots are now on their way back to me *undelivered* so although not the boots I wanted I am getting a pair of boots for free!

I don't feel guilty in the slightest, the seller tried to defraud me and deserves everything he gets!

 

I will never be buying off Facebook marketplace again though, it is not regulated properly and too many scammers on there!

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Apricotsmom
Member
Member
I didn't review the online company before purchasing a $73 item, but had I googled matastore.club, I would have immediately found how fraudulent they were. But I ordered a full sized bicycle. When I reported them to PayPal, matastore immediately sent me a child's plastic green whistle. When I reported that, I received an email from PayPal that I need to mail it back to the company, which was in China, then they would agree to refund my $73. All they would do is deny they received anything, so I'm out the shipping cost as well. They found a legal loophole. The best thing I know to do is cancel my complaint.
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Papa_Bear
Contributor
Contributor

" All they would do is deny they received anything, so I'm out the shipping cost as well. They found a legal loophole. The best thing I know to do is cancel my complaint."

 

NO! Don't' cancel your complaint!

First of all, Paypal will pay up to £18 towards the postage, secondly, it doesn't matter if the seller denies getting it back or the postmen get no reply at the address you post it back to, as long as you have sent it back *international tracked and signed* and Paypal can see that and can see there was an attempted delivery of the item to the address the seller gave you, you WILL get your money back from Paypal. I did!

 

Regards

Tony

 

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surlybill
Contributor
Contributor

There are several websites that can help verify if the company you're ordering from is "real" or not. Scamvoid.net is a good one. And there is a Facebook page called "what I ordered, what I got" that has a running list of scam companies (almost all from China).

 

I learned my lessons; first, anything that is 50% or more less than anyone else is selling it for is probably a scam, especially from some odd website. Second, don't trust PayPal to help you. They seem to work for the thieves, not the victims. Lucky for me this lesson only cost me $52.

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