I live in the US and decided to purchase a couple items from a company called Light In Box located in China.. The items I purchased and received was two Ham radios. I paid for 4 day air express shipping but unfortunately the items on arrival was discovered to indeed be counterfeits. The items can not communicate with the programming software nor can the firmware be updated! In plain terms not usable in any fashion.. I know fraud and counterfeit goods are clearly against Paypal terms of policy, so I requested a dispute with paypal and immediately and adamantly described the items as fraud and counterfeit.
I asked paypal if I could upload photos or proof of the claims. I offered videos as well. I was told that in the beginning there is no use for this information and I should wait for the seller to reply. If the information was needed then I could supply it but only if asked.
Paypal then opened and listed the dispute as "items not as described". However, In the notated description the term counterfeit was used. Paypal has now asked me to pay return shipping which will be extremely expensive if I choose to return the way I received. If I choose to stay close to the $30 range paypal will refund for shipping, I will be forced to pay economy shipping which takes 30 days back to china..
I called multiple times to paypal and stayed on hold more than 45 mins at a time trying to discuss this issue.. Twice the reps refuse to patch me over to a supervisor. They put me on hold then disconnected or hung up on me.. The reps were robotic and scripted with answers which were not even relevant! In the discussion with the reps, I explained again and again that it was fraudulent and counterfeit which is against their own terms of policy and ILLEGAL in the US. I begged to supply evidence but to no avail. With the items being counterfeit and illegal in the US, shipping it back is also considered illegal. furthermore, this would be aiding the seller in retrieving and reselling the fraudulent merchandise again!
Even so, I would in fact return the items if the seller would simply provide return shipping or allow me to pay return at their cost the same as I received. I really consider it foolish to think that I have to invest even more money trying to get my money back from the fraudulent seller! Even if I did pay and wait, what would the seller claim once the package arrives.. What are the unforeseen consequences or claims of such a seller? The seller has contract agreements with shipping companies which made it relatively cheap for me to purchase the freight through the company.. Now that I am forced to individually purchase shipping on my own it's very costly. Paypal only covers $30.00 in shipping! I asked if they could discuss this with the seller but of course they refuse. I am sure its a dirty tactic and loophole sellers use to move this junk and skirt return disputes. Paypal seems to be harboring this activity!
I asked paypal reps for a form of paypal email or at least some form of avenue to send paypal these photos of evidence of my claims.. Since they are choosing to be the arbitrator of claims and funds it only seems fair to base their decisions on facts. Paypal will not give me any such info or consider any such evidence.. They claim no form of communication exist. So my only option is to VERBALLY communicate over and over with ordinary entry level reps! Its takes ZERO regard to situation. Paypals response is predetermined and cookie cutter in design. Of course there are no ways of written communications right!! No paper trail of conversation!
At this time I have absolutely no way of responding or communicating with paypal to discuss my claim other than phone calls that take hours on hold! This also makes it impossible to communicate with the seller..
Does ANYONE have information on how to communicate with Paypal or deal with such disputes????
