Trouble with Groupon

[Jules44]

Hi can anyone help bought 2 ratten loungers from Groupon mid May paid 209 when delivered the box was opened I wrote this on the delivery invoice it was very badly battered and later when my husband came home we opened and discovered this was obviously a return from another customer several pieces were damaged and taped up badly. The following day I informed Groupon and sent pictures as requested I arranged a return 21 times with them and they failed on every occasions so they did not have to refund me disgusting. It’s now 2 months and I am at my wits end Paypal found in my favour but apparently I have to return them to Switzerland!!! I live in Wales it would cost a fortune more than the items I am returning. I feel totally let down has anyone else been conned this way ? I would appreciate any help as to what I do next

[kernowlass]

@Jules44

In the event of a dispute you nearly always have to return the item back to the seller so you 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/uk/webapps/mpp/refunded-returns

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.

[Jules44]

Hi spoke to my credit card supplier but under section 75 of the consumer goods act Paypal are the third party so they are not responsible but are very helpful they say I should report both parties to trading standards of which is my next step , I stress these items were extremely faulty and Groupon know this and still did not pick them up 21 times , so they don’t have to refund me ,this cannot be legal ? And why should I have to return these items to Switzerland it would cost a fortune. I think I have a duty to report this to the national press

[kernowlass]

@Jules44

Depends on your credit card company, loads of folks file 'chargebacks' via their credit card companies direct when they funded their Paypal payments that way. That is why Paypal has a seller protection policy to cover c.c. chargebacks.

Its also why I have advised that option in the 10 years I have helped on here and that advice has been successfully followed.

As for legality then trading standards only covers UK companies and not those that are based internationally.

You always have to return items back to a seller before you get a refund BUT if it was a UK seller and they refused to pay for that return shipping then you could issue a claim in the small claims court but you can't if they are an international company.

Paypal gives you some buyer protection but its not a 100% coverall unfortunately and thats why they help you with return costs if you have activated the link I gave you in the above post.