I ordered some bags from China, making it very clear that I needed a particular size and quantity by a certain date. These were to form part of an order I was fulfilling in the UK. Two days before the goods were due in England the company contacted me to say they were 150 short. I told them this was no good and not under any circumstances to dispatch and then had to spend the day searching for something similar in the UK and paying way more than I'd budgeted for. Then I got an email from China saying that the order was actually the right amount. I told them it was too late and to cancel and refund. Two days later the goods turned up but on opening were in fact short anyway. I raised a dispute with paypal, kept logging into the disputes page to see if there was any response from the seller (there wasn't) and if there was anything required from me. I responded to everything as soon as I was asked for it.
Then, just before xmas I think, I got an email asking me for tracking info from when I returned the item. I hadn't returned it, I hadn't been told to and I didn't have a return address plus it's heavy and would probably cost a couple of hundred pounds. I responded to this via email explaining the situation and the next thing I knew I logged in over the xmas period to see if there was anything in the resolution centre and the case had been closed in the sellers favour. I immediately went to call Paypal but it was too late as their lines were closed. Then it was New Year. I made it a priority to call early on 2nd Jan and was told the case would be re-looked at (there was no Appeal button for me to press in the resolution centre). Didn't hear anything so called again today.
I was amazed to be told they wouldn't be overturning the decision and escalated it to potentially the stupidest woman I have ever spoken to, a supposed escalations manager called "Haz". Apparently they had sent me an email telling me to send the goods back over the xmas period (I think she said 27th December) and then another on the 2 Jan saying the case would not be reconsidered. I have received neither. She kept saying that they wouldn't look at it again because I had had plenty of time to send the goods back. She said the email I sent them saying that I hadn't been asked to send the goods back and was confused by their request for tracking was to an address that wasn't monitored (???) and I should have rung them so it was my fault!
I pointed out that it was only by chance I had logged in and seen that the case had been closed and I did try to ring immediately but the lines were closed and that my business was actually shut down for xmas (as are many) so it could well have been that even if I had received their emails then potentially today might be my first day back at work and my first chance to even see a return request. I asked her if they didn't take into account that it had been Xmas and New Year and that it wasn't always easy or appropriate to deal with business issues at this time but it was like talking to a brick and she essentially just kept repeating the same thing til I felt like I was beating my head against a wall.
She would not escalate my complaint further and refused to give me the name or address of a senior person to write to. This is not a small amount of money we are talking about - it was $708 that I cannot afford to lose plus the extra money I had to spend sourcing the item in the UK. I cannot beleive that paypal will not reconsider this claim. I'm happy to send the goods back if someone can tell me where to send them to - better to lose a couple of hundred on postage and get something back - can anyone give me any advice on this? I'm willing to take it to small claims court and I'll be very wary about purchasing any large value item through paypal again as clearly you don't actually have the protection you think you have. Would have been better using my credit card.
