Who pays postage for returning a claim?

[Morverncallar7]

I filed a claim with PayPal over an item I bought that is not as described. They say I now need to return the item to the seller to get a refund of $14.95. However the postage to return the item to China is £8.35! There was no option to click to ask PayPal to cover return postage costs when I filed the dispute and then turned it into a claim.

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@Morverncallar7 

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/uk/webapps/mpp/refunded-returns

If you buy from a business in the UK then you can normally recover those return costs via the small claims court although most UK businesses would reimburse you anyway. (BUT if you choose to buy from a private or international seller you may not have that option).
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.