Had a bad experience with a direct from China purchase. Seller was Vango Group or Mayorwell. Both names were used in correspondence.. Seller advertised one thing, sent something quite different and far less quality. Asked for a refund. Seller said I had to ship back at my cost. The item I purchased was $59.38 with "free shipping". When I contacted the USPS I found return shipping cost was $36. Seller warned me that, even if the shipper said the package was delivered and the seller said otherwise, I was not going to receive the refund. Also said the package must be received in the same shape that it was sent to me. Guess who was going to determine that.
Anyway I told Paypal that I objected to the terms and the Chat agent said I could apply for a refund of shipping costs up to $30. Considering the two months to get to China, the likelihood that the seller will say it never got there or was in too bad shape, it does not seem worth the effort. If I paid myself $1 an hour for the time I've invested in this purchase, I'm well over the $59.38. And that is the strategy the Seller planned on. In all my time on web purchasing, I've never had a vendor require I pay return shipping on their errors.
And another thing. I spent a half hour getting the runaround from the Paypal chat agent. When I asked her how to get a copy of the chat, she said do a screen dump. A few seconds after her reply, the chat window disappeared and the dialogue disappeared.
Lessons learned:
1. Be careful doing business with direct from China vendors. They go by several names but I notice the format, font, and graphics from these companies was the same. Also, don't expect to get your order quickly. Maybe two months if you're lucky. In December, I ordered a item thru Amazon that came directly from China. Projected delivery date of Feb 11. I'm still waiting. However, since I ordered it from Amazon, they gave me a refund.
2. Don't look to Paypal to protect you. Like the chat agent told me they have 286 million customers. They have some pious phrasing about integrity and how they police people for bad behavior. But you can't talk to a human being. When I asked to file a complaint on their negotiated settlement, I was told to go to the feedback page.
