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

Login to Me Too
171 REPLIES 171

joniwelch
Contributor
Contributor

I would like to say Pay pal needs to pay attention to the customer...many photo's were sent to pay pal in this resolution case... I had ordered a Lounge chair....A small envelope came to the post office with said TRACKING NUMBER on it,Inside was a PIECE OF STYROFOAM,so I reported this and opened up a case in the Resolution Center for Help !!...pay pal contacts Seller....Seller says Order was received with said TRACKING NUMBER on the package....What a JOKE,How in the hell are they going to cram a Lounge Chair /Cushion in that small Envelope....Yeah it had the TRACKING NUMBER ON IT.PAY PAL CLOSED THE CASE,saying I received my ORDER... They sided with the Seller...WOW....I really don't have any Faith in pay pal's help after this.....So I contacted my Credit Card company with a Dispute on this payment.....   THANKS ALOT PAY PAL FOR YOUR HELP>>>>WHAT KINDA PEOPLE DO YOU HAVE WORKING FOR YOU? Clearly you could see I was ripped off by looking at the photo's I had sent !!! Are your Employee's Blind ?

Login to Me Too

kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

@joniwelch 

 

Sounds as if you opened a dispute for 'non receipt of item'? 

Paypals dispute processes are mostly automated so you file non receipt and the seller has trackable proof of delivery then they win.

Why did you not open a dispute for 'item received but not as described' then you would probably have succeeded.


Advice is voluntary.
Kudos / Solution appreciated.
Login to Me Too

HammYY
Contributor
Contributor
My initial Paypal claim for 'item not received' failed as per the tracking. I complained and then had my claim re-submitted as 'significantly not as described' and was successful. So, if you receive anything at all then you should make the claim as 'significantly not as described'.
Login to Me Too

joegold100
Contributor
Contributor

Same here... I placed the order and never heard from the seller. I was unable to open a claim in PayPal for 30 days if I remember right. So I initially filed a item not received case. Paypal then allowed like 10 days for the seller to respond and he sent the China Post tracking number. They then gave the package 3 or 4 more weeks to arrive before I could move to the next step. Then I got the package and it was of course not what I ordered so I had to change the claim to item not as described. Then the whole dispute process starts all over again. So here I am 3 1/2 months later and surely the seller got his money 2 months ago.

Login to Me Too

joniwelch
Contributor
Contributor

I sent photo's of an envelope with said tracking number on it...had a piece of Styrofoam in it....

Clearly pay pal could see it was NOT a Lounge chair,yet they sided with the seller,

cause seller said I received the tracking number with Merchandise 😞

What kinda people work for them,I have no faith that pay pal is there for us !

They helped on ripping me off... yes I did turn to my Credit Card Co. for help !

Login to Me Too

joniwelch
Contributor
Contributor

 

I sent photo's of an envelope with said tracking number on it...had a piece of Styrofoam in it....

Clearly pay pal could see it was NOT a Lounge chair,yet they sided with the seller,

cause seller said I received the tracking number with Merchandise 😞

What kinda people work for them,I have no faith that pay pal is there for us !

They helped on ripping me off... yes I did turn to my Credit Card Co. for help !

yes you may be right,on wrong Item sent.

Login to Me Too

CatGoodwin
Contributor
Contributor

@kernowlass - this happened to me and I was NOT sucessful. Pure scam from the start to finish. Including PayPal's part. 

Login to Me Too

Jah59
Contributor
Contributor
I have been stung too. Ordered a telescopic ladder and received a cheap satchel. It’s a racket it happened to my sister too. If PayPal won’t refund me in full I won’t be using them again.
Login to Me Too

MissJan
Contributor
Contributor

Paypal will refund the postage to you. Go to the Activity Page on your account and select the item in dispute. When it opens you should see a heading on the left hand side toward the bottom that says Request a Shipping Refund. Select that and it will give instructions on what to do. Basically, you have to package the item, pay for postage, take a photo of the package showing the address it is going to and the postage price. Upload those photos and Paypal will refund in a few days.

Login to Me Too

Poorme2020
Contributor
Contributor

I have been stung by this too.  Bottom line is don't order anything from China, and don't expect PP to protect you. The modus operandi is to rip off some other website's content, video, pictures and post it on FB as their own but at a really cheap price. 

Once you click order, PP will refuse to do anything even though you immediately asked to cancel on the same day.  Don't trust all the money back or cancellation policies shown on the website or FB page, its also ripped from another legitimate company and the scammer has no intent to honor anything.

It just frustrates me that PP does not acknowledge the terms posted for full refund and cancellation and ask you to "work it out with the seller", they think the scammer will honor it?  Its so stupid, if the seller is honest we wouldn't be here in the first place. 

The scammer ship you some rubbish with tracking and use that as proof to PP that they have mailed the item. PP will insist that you either accept the item or mail it back.  I ordered a laser engraver and the scammer sent me a fake ring.

When you look at the return address, it is completely in Chinese and when translated leads to a village somewhere in the boondocks with no street name and building number.  

The seller will then say they never received it, and dispute the return. Or the seller will claim they sent you a real item and you are trying to scam them by sending back a fake ring.

It goes on and on until you give up.  

 

In a nutshell, DON'T buy from any Facebook advert, many of them are China scams and don't use PP.  Many of the shopping platforms like eBay or Amazon have better buyer protection. Use PP only to transfer money to family or friends, not for buying stuff.  I used Taobao.com the shopping platform in China (they don;t have amazon.com but this is much better) as well and use google translate to find many of the items resold on Facebook at 10x markup.  They have good English speaking customer service and act fast for any fraud.

 

Login to Me Too

Haven't Found your Answer?

It happens. Hit the "Login to Ask the community" button to create a question for the PayPal community.