Fraudulent sale - yet I am out of pocket

[Diverdown2005]

I bought 3 items stupidly advertised through a Facebook link. The images of the products depicted full metal screen props. 2 of 3 items were delivered and those were $2 shop plastic pieces of junk. Items shipped from China and I waited 4 weeks. Now to get a refund I must provide proof of returning items to a US address from AUSTRALIA within 9 days. Shipping is horrendous and significantly more than the shipping was from China to Australia. Given I can prove the items were part of a fraudulent sale why am I to be out of pocket

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@Diverdown2005

Your best bet is to read up on paypal buyer protection before you start buying so you know what is and what is not offered.

In the event of a dispute you nearly always have to return the item back to the seller so you bear in mind possible return trackable costs before you buy from that seller / item / country.

Paypal state this >>
PayPal is not obliged to reimburse you for any costs that you incur to comply with any of PayPal’s requests for cooperation for the purpose of resolving the problem (including, without limitation, costs that you incur to return a SNAD item to the Payment Recipient or another party as PayPal requests), although sometimes it may reimburse these costs.

Although they will compensate you for some of the cost if you have activated the 'return shipping on us' link in your Paypal account at some point before you made that transaction (if available in your country).

https://www.paypal.com/us/selfhelp/article/what-is-return-shipping-on-us-and-how-do-i-activate-it-fa...

You also have the option to do a chargeback via your card issuer instead of a Paypal dispute if you funded your Paypal payment via a credit card.