Saw an ad on Instagram and ordered a puzzle online from Heavenzed.com. Received confirmation email and tracking info. Ordered my puzzle on 6/16 from and I received a package on July 13th, almost a full month later. It contained a completely different, inferior quality, puzzle. (some Montmartre landscape) When I tried to contact the seller, it turned out that it has deactivated its website, its order tracking feature and its email associated with the purchase, basically everything except their Paypal account, which belongs to Shenzhen Ozhuo Technology.
Filed a claim and the seller responded with a 50% refund. I declined. It started to look like a scam to me, and if I couldn't get the original item, I didn't want them to make off with half my money. Now the seller is offering a full refund, but it is contingent on me returning the puzzle I received to China within a week and in the original packaging, knowing full well that complying with the request would cost me more in postage than the cost of the purchase, as I would need to send it by international express. Even if I would do that, I would have no recourse should the seller (which already has shown itself incapable of ethical behavior) unilaterally decide that the packaging does not qualify as “original”.
It is clear that the seller never intended to sell the original puzzle, or to issue any kind of refund, counting on the buyer to discontinue the case by insisting on an economic Catch-22 as part of the refund offer. In the resolution center, I don't even have the ability to reply to the offer. I can either enter the tracking info or I can drop the case. Those are my only two options. It’s hard to believe that Paypal actively encourages and condones that kind of behaviour by refusing to put a stop to it.
I’ve used Paypal a lot over the years, mainly because I was under the, obviously false, impression that there was some protection afforded to me by using the service. After this experience, I will be looking for alternative payment options available to me. If you had a similar experience, I suggest you do the same.
