Paypal dispute over a cruise that got canceled due to Covid-19

[AmitBenAmi]

Hello,

Me and my girlfriend recently paid with Paypal to a cruise ship to Antartica.

The payment of the cruise was done with 2 transactions in Paypal - 50%-50% (each one of us made 2 transactions for half of the price at each time).

Due to the problems occurring in the world, the cruise was canceled (not on our fault), and now the company doesn't refund us the money, but let us reboot with no extra cost for next year.

The problem is that we can not go to this cruise next year because it is in Argentina (and we live in Israel).

I already opened a dispute but couldn't come up with a solution with the seller.

I'm not sure whether it is justify to get a refund through Paypal in this situation (Couldn't understand from the Buyer's protection of Paypal if a payment of 2 transactions can be refunded).

What do you guys think? What should I do now? I have until April 12th to file a claim and escalate this case to Paypal, but I'm afraid that if I do so and Paypal will decide to justify the seller, that the company won't let us rebook without extra charge (like they offering now). Furthermore, I'm afraid that in case that Paypal will justify me, they will refund me only one of the transactions and not both of them, which is only 50% of the ticket, which is a lot of money.

Looking for any help, since I cannot contact Paypal directly (no support center with phone due to Covid-19 and for some reason there is no way of talking to live person in live chat).

Thank you

[WarrenPink]

Hello @AmitBenAmi

I hope you are doing well. 

Please do make sure that you file the dispute as "Item/Service not received".

If the Seller's offer is not acceptable for you then you can escalate it to PayPal so we can officially take over the case.

For Item/Service not received, we will always dispute the full amount and PayPal will not let you receive just a partial amount of it. Hope this helps! 

[AmitBenAmi]

Hello @WarrenPink If I already opened the dispute under “Item is different than expected”, is there a way I can change its type? If not, what shall I do? Also, if I get the refund, I get it although the payment was made by 2 different transactions? And can I get a full refund if the type is “Item is different than expected”, as I already opened the dispute?

[WarrenPink]

@AmitBenAmi

If the case is open then follow this step and we'll see if it will let you change the reason code in your end. Here's How to change the reason of your dispute. If it will not let you change it then you will need to contact Customer service.

How to reach Customer service:

Click on the words "Help / Contact" at the bottom of paypals pages.
Use the phone option in the blue band at the top OR very bottom of page dependent on what country you are in.
Scroll down past the list of help questions and click on 'Call us' bottom of that page. Log in and get the code.
OR
You may contact 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

Stay safe! 

[AmitBenAmi]

@WarrenPink I tried to do it as mentioned in the guide but I do not have the option to change the dispute reason. I’m trying to contact PayPal for more than 2 weeks now but without any luck: - No support center calls since the Covid-19 problems - Emailing PayPal through the websites causes an automatic reply in the mail that just links me to the guide in the website (again, no human help) - Facebook messanger PayPal is with an automatic bot that, again, only results in automatic linking to PayPal guides - PayPal on Twitter still hasn’t answered me. @WarrenPink, do you know of any other way I can do it? I’m a little afraid since I’m talking about a lot of money on the dispute. Thanks

[AmitBenAmi]

@WarrenPink can you help?

[iAmStephan]

What's included in the terms and conditions?

I am in a similar situation, my terms and conditions said the the seller is not responsible if the cruise is cancelled by an act of God or government action.

So what can be done?