FINALLY refunded. Here's the timeline.
1. Scammed, I contacted eBay, PayPal, and UPS. Unable to speak with a live PayPal agent. eBay immediately shuts down scammers account.
2. Filed PayPal Claim, stated my case, money put on hold. (June 20th, 2020)
3. Claim Denied, money given to thief. Negative -$700 PayPal Balance.
4. Contacted eBay, extremely understanding, no questions asked, they attempted a refund, but transaction denied by PayPal.
5. Appealed PayPal's decision, with info from eBay and UPS about fraudulent tracking number, claim reopened.
6. Claim Denied, again, no further explanation, felt completely ignored.
7. Appealed, stated the same case, spoke with an attorney, claim reopened.
8. Claim Denied, for the 3rd time, no explanation.
9. Appealed, AGAIN, after reporting PayPal to IC3.GOV (FBI, Internet Crimes Division), threatened lawsuit and punitive damages, claim reopened.
10. Refunded, with in a couple days. (August 20th, 2020)
A good person, a mystery person, working for PayPal or eBay, understood my issue and made sure the money never left my bank account from the very beginning, although, I did have a negative PayPal balance for 2 months, this was helpful financially and showed that someone cared, while my claims were in limbo. I believe PayPal has a 3rd party claims consulting firm, outside of the US, UK, or Canada, handling claims. These people may have to use a computer translator to help English speaking customers. I can tell by their responses that they speak limited English and frequently use generic copy/paste responses. This could be the reason why I was never able to speak with a live agent on the phone, and had to repeat myself several times during a single conversation, using the internet chat feature (which all the 1-800 numbers told me to use, if I wanted any customer service at all). Now, I'm not sure if this is normal or due to the pandemic, but this type of service FOR CLAIMS is inadequate and losing the company money and customers. If PayPal would have investigated my claim, properly, the first time, they would have saved themselves and myself a lot of money and trouble. The main issue was that their claims division REFUSED to contact UPS, and requested information from me that was impossible to obtain, or obtain legally. I felt like I was talking to the scammer himself, when speaking to their claims people. In the end, there was no reason why PayPal's claims division could not contact UPS to verify the FULL addresses, in the same confidential way they did for me.
If you are having trouble getting a refund for the same issue, report PayPal to IC3.GOV, insert PayPal AND the scam artist as the individuals who victimized you, contact an attorney, and be persistent with the claims and customer service. If it happens again for a different order in the future, DO NOT contact PayPal, contact eBay first, eBay will handle the situation with no issues, they are more than aware of these scam artists and I don't believe they will present a problem; because, when the problem is handled appropriately, neither you nor eBay loses any money, and the scam artist is shut down.
