Seller sold me a stolen item, having trouble getting refund.

[metalone4]

I purchased a 23andMe DNA kit from a seller but the kit turned out to be unusable. When I went to register the kit online it had been deactivated and when I called 23andMe they told me it was because the seller had purchased it with a stolen credit card, so they deactivated it. Apparently, they do not back purchases from ebay.

The seller's eBay account had been closed by that time, so I called eBay to get a refund, but they told me to call PayPal for that. When I called PayPal all they did was open a claim, which I could have done myself online. Seven days went by with no response from the seller (no surprise there).

Then the claim was escalated to PayPal and the seller responded to them saying he'd refund me if I send the kit back. The problem is, the address I need to send it to is in Vietnam and shipping that I'd have to pay would cost more than the refund.

Why is it that PayPal is cooperating with a known crook? His eBay account was closed, so surely PayPal has encountered reports of this a-hole before. I'm surprised his PayPal account is still active. Considering the circumstances, that it's a stolen item that's now unsuable, they should just take the money form him to refund me. What are my options here, if any?

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@metalone4 

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

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/selfhelp/article/what-is-return-shipping-on-us-and-how-do-i-activate-it-fa...

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.

[metalone4]

Thank you for the response! I paid with my PayPal balance, so I can't do a chargeback. I guess I'll just have to forget about being refunded and chalk this up as a lesson learned. The thing that irks me is PayPal doesn't seem to have any system in place to deal with selling stolen items nor do they seem to care. Anyway, thanks again.