Refund for international defective item

[Fyrefilled]

Buyer protection doesn’t exist it seems. Need advisers please. A Chinese merchant sold me 2 defective costumes and it costs more to ship the defective products back and there’s no option to ask for a partial refund and it’s only allowing me to select to upload tracking as an option for a refund once the seller gets them back which would be ridiculous to pay more to ship them back and me lose the all money and costumes, defective or not. The merchant won’t answer any emails but did respond to PayPal to say they’d refund once the item were shipped and in their hands. What can I do to at least recover some of the $93 loss? PayPal rep suggested to “sell them.” 🤦‍♀️ They’re defective!!! Ugh pls help. Thx.

[kernowlass]

@Fyrefilled 

In the event of a dispute you choose your seller and not Paypal so you need to bear in mind possible return trackable costs before you go ahead and buy from that seller / country.

Paypal state this >>
IMPORTANT: You may be required to return the item to the seller or other party we specify as part of the settlement of your claim. PayPal Buyer Protection does not entitle you to reimbursement for the return shipping costs that you may incur.

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https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/FAQ3544 Until November 27th when that option is going to be withdrawn.

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.

[sts_66]

I had the same problem - here's what I wrote in my complaint to Paypal and the Chinese seller:

"Seller used a bait and switch method on his website, I did not get the handheld IR camera I thought I ordered, what I got was just an IR camera on a circuit board with no enclosure and no instructions. This is what I ordered:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804925106004.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.order_detail_item.3.69fe...

You have to click on the image of the small camera on the right side of the page to see what was actually delivered.

I first contacted the seller for a refund and he said I would get a refund if I returned it- but the USPS wants $118 for shipping to return a $72 item to China!

I tried to use the unit I did get - it's broke, probably damaged during shipping because it's just a circuit board with components mounted to it - the picture constantly changes, all you can see are wavy vertical colored lines.

The camera takes photos, but it's impossible to upload them to a computer - it is not recognized as a portable device the computer can access, and there's no way to pull up previously taken images and view them on the camera's display - this unit almost useless even if it worked properly.

I have been exchanging messages on the seller's aliexpress.com page, and thought I was speaking to the seller - after much back and forth the person, I used my cell phone to take still images and a video of what I was seeing on the IR camera's display and sent it to this person - they replied "There is no abnormality seen from the video", I told them was 100% wrong, then they admitted they were just a customer service rep. I am a former NASA thermal engineer and have used IR cameras many times, I know exactly what images are supposed to look like, and the unit I got DOES NOT WORK - it has multiple flaws/failures, it's junk. I want Paypal to reverse the charges - I am not paying $118 to return a broken IR camera that's not what I ordered."

After being stonewalled by the seller, I filed a complaint with Paypal - they got in contact with the sell and he's insisting on me returning the item to get a refund, which will COST ME $50 more than my refund! They didn't pay any attention to the unit I got being defective - I should not have to pay for something I didn't order, and the device I got instead in the bait and switch is defective. Looks like I'm going to have to get the charges reversed by my CC company, which means Paypal will be out $72 - seller is not going to refund Paypal.