HELP— Seller trying to force me into returning counterfeit items

[zoe1112]

I opened a dispute against a Depop seller for a designer item I purchased from her that I found out was counterfeit. The counterfeit item was one of two items I bought from her in the same listing— the other item was fine and I plan to keep it. I have an abundance of proof that this seller is a serial scammer as she has been caught selling fakes 3 times on Depop already and that the item I purchased from her is a replica from a Chinese website called Taobao. According to Depop buyer policy, a buyer cannot return a counterfeit item to the seller because selling counterfeit items is illegal. I asked for exactly what the buyer policy states: a full refund for the counterfeit item ONLY and not to return the item for this seller to scam someone with for a second time. The seller refused to give me a refund without returning the item, which I refused. Now the seller has attempted to force me to return BOTH items by escalating my claim to Paypal and offering the full amount that I paid for BOTH items back (NOT the amount for only the counterfeit item like I requested) once she receives both items back. I also messaged another buyer who opened a claim against this seller for the same reasons and she told me this buyer pretended she never received the returned item in order to withhold the refund money. How do I reject the seller's offer and get what I originally asked for?

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@zoe1112 

In the event of a dispute you need to bear in mind possible return trackable costs before you buy from that seller / item / country because....

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 would need to send trackable and then you would get your refund once paypal saw tracking showed delivery of the item back to the seller.
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.

You are correct in that you should not have to return a counterfeit item BUT you would have to get documentation from trading standards or similar citing the item was counterfeit and supplying that to paypal. Otherwise every buyer would just shout counterfeit to save themselves having to return items to sellers.