Hey All, Not really sure what I am looking for here in terms of a response. Possibly just a lesson learned and move away fro Paypal to something else. I am just not sure what. I recently bought an item online and when it finally arrived it was SIGNIFICANTLY different from what I paid for. I mean this is so different it's an obvious scam. I attempted to contact the company with no response so after some research I opened a dispute with PayPal. The kicker is, just days prior I advised a friend of mine the benefits of using PayPal as it offers some protection. I was wrong. At least in this case. Once I opened the dispute, I was asked to mediate with the company first. I did this and they actually responded. I was baffled at this as it was an obvious fraud but there was a catch. So, they would refund my money if I paid for return shipping. So I thought, ahhh.....this is the catch. They can continue to scam and fraud openly because they are willing to refund your money if you have an issue with the fraud. Maybe continued the pretence they are a reputable company and still need PayPal or other companies to continue the scam. Unlike, reputable companies they make you return the item to get the refund, however, the cost to return the item (to China) is costly, just as costly as the item, so why bother. I wrongly believed I had some protection with PayPal, I was wrong. I sent in pictures and invoice, clearly showing the item as advertised and the cheap knock off I received. Still, PayPal says I have to return the item at my cost....sigh. It seems odd that this would be allowed, this appears to be an opportunity for any such company to exploit and scam people with impunity. I was so mad with PayPal, I was thinking of taking a different route and dropping them altogether. After reading many such incidents from other community members, I became frustrated with the whole thing. One member with similar issue, I had about, seemed to have luck just not susing the PayPal resolution route and went straight to her credit card company and was refunded the entire amount. I thought, well maybe I can still salvage this. I called my credit card company and spoke with them today, initially they were willing to help but by the end I was left scratching my head as they said they can't help because technically speaking I got what I ordered as it was written on the invoice. In this case, I ordered an Ironman Mask. The invoice says Ironman mask but not like it was advertised. I had the picture of what was shown as well as the video link the company used to clearly show the cheap 50 cent mask I received was nothing like the one they advertised. My credit card company said they are not allowed to use pictures to settle disputes, just the worded description....so, if they sent me a cheap spiderman mask, I guess I could successfully dispute this. The credit card company agreed it was a loophole that scammers are exploiting. I laughed and said so, we the consumer just have to accept it? This is an obvious fraud through and through and both PayPal and my credit card company seem to be okay with this. Has anyone else experienced this and what did you do? I seem to be out of luck and I don't know how to protect myself from this. Any company can send you anything they want as long as they keep the description vague enough and demand you pay shipping back. My credit company did suggest I send it back, at least they wont get the money. They have a point but it only left me more frustrated. The scammers would be out nothing and I still lose. I doubt I will use PayPal again but not sure what else to do here.
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