Got scammed, beyond frustrated.

[HelpMe2020]

I was scammed on ebay this month. I bought an item from a listing that looked to be for an individual unit, but was really selling several units. The seller did so to avoid needing to list specific faults with the units. Mine arrived with a crack on the back, with no mention of such in the ad. I am not the only one they have done this too, looking at their ebay feedback. I had to pay 20 euro customs. I opened a dispute on paypal, because I bought from Irish ebay (ebay.ie) I am not entitled to ebay buyer protection (????) They agreed to a refund if I send it back, but that does not get me back my 20 euro+shipping back. I can't dispute this, there is no option for me to rebut their counteroffer as it's crappy. There is only an option to send a tracking number. They are gaming the terrible user interface and automation of ebay and paypal. This store has other negative feedback with the exact same complaint. I cannot reach a real human. There is no paypal live chat. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.

[kernowlass]

@HelpMe2020 

In the event of a dispute you need to 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 this at some point before you made that transaction.
https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/FAQ3544

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.

[HelpMe2020]

I'm not looking for paypal to eat the 20 euro customs cost, I am looking paypal to force a refund without myself having to ship it back so I don't lose money, the scammers do and think twice about keeping their scam running; especially as I'm going to have to but this product again undamaged. How do I get a real person at paypal to help me out?

[kernowlass]

@HelpMe2020 

The answer will be the same, you have to return what you received back before you get a refund.

Click help / contact bottom left of Paypal pages for options available for your country.

Or have you considered contacting Customer Service via Facebook or Twitter?
You can send them a personal message from their facebook or twitter pages.
It's: https://www.facebook.com/PayPal and @AskPayPal for Twitter.

[HelpMe2020]

I'm not eating 20 euro because I was scammed. Surely paypal is aware of internet scammers, can simply look at their feedback on ebay and act? It's this what they're for? Preventing scam transactions online?

[HelpMe2020]

This is really ridiculous. Still have not been able to get a single real human at paypal. Keep getting the 'covid19 so whoops' email, even though customer service are 100% able to work from home surely? Like all other companies? This was the last day I could object in all the time since I started it, late April, not a single real human from paypal has reached out. Not even on here! Why aren't there paypal representatives posting here??? The email they sent me ages ago says this;

If you have additional information, please send it to us
Please provide the following documentation and any other relevant information to support your claim to us. Please note that if we don't receive the information, we may be unable to resolve this dispute in your favour.

Next steps
If you have this information, you can send it to us via your PayPal account. To help protect your information, we don't accept files that are sent as email attachments.

To send us your information, go to the Resolution Centre. Click the Case ID under Resolution Centre cases. Click Upload file under Case actions you can take, and then follow the instructions to upload the files.

We'll email you after we receive and review your information.

Except that's not what the actual website says at all! It says 'upload tracking', not 'upload more info', because these scammers know exactly how to game paypal's bad UI/UX, and simply filed for a return, even though my issue is not that simple as it would still leave me out money! WHERE ARE PAYPAL'S STAFF????