PayPal Community

That's good to know! ... View more

It's an expensive lesson to be sure. Everything is based on the fine print within the legalspeak of every EULA we accept. They know full well that it is impossible for us to read every word of every EULA we accept and expect us to understand them. Even lawyers don't have the time to read long EULAs every time they want to try something new online. So they get away with stuff like this. The old adage still rings true: follow the money. If it makes them more money, they will very likely go that route. Shareholders have become much more important than customers. Customers are tolerated as long as the desires of shareholders are met.    We're not the first people in history to be hoodwinked. We can chalk it up to experience, costly experience, and vow to ourselves not to trust any deal that seems too good to be true. ... View more

This is the standard operating procedure of many companies in China (and probably elsewhere) too. I was scammed out of $50 and found myself in the same situation. PayPal would not fight for me, as I thought they might. I trust wish.com but can't think of another company in China that I would  trust to deliver what they promise. The tell-tale sign is seeing a high quality product at a very low price being advertised on Facebook (in my case), the same product under several different company names, all of which are in China. In my case it was a slide out flat second monitor that attaches to the back of a laptop, for only $50. I feel foolish now having purchased it because the retail for a similar product is closer to $250 - $300. What I ended up getting was a knock-off Chromecast thingie, cheaply made, that attaches to an HDMI port, worth probably $10 if that much. PayPal said the company would refund me the money if I sent the product back to the vendor, a product that they definitely would not want back. The clincher was that the cost to send it back to China was $137!  So no more responding to ads on Facebook when I'm half-asleep looking at my phone in bed at night. In fact, no more Facebook on my phone at night period.  ... View more

In a moment of weakness, I fell for one of these scams. $50 for a monitor that you can attach to the back of your laptop that you can pull out when needed to extend your desktop. I should have known better. Sure enough, after a few weeks, I got a piece of crap wifi video receiver, a cheap knockoff of Google Chromecast. This is definitely not what was supposedly being sold. I contacted the seller who ignored me. A couple of weeks after that, I asked for a dispute resolution. After PayPal contacted the seller, I was told I'd have to send back TO CHINA the piece of crap they had sent me to get a refund. I received an email with an address in China to which to send the item. I called PayPal and said I had spent $50 for the product and now I would need to spend more to ship it back with no guarantee that they would accept it. They were nice enough then to say they would reimburse me up to $30 for the shipping. I tried to follow the directions at Parcel Monkey, the link that they gave me, and it was both confusing and aggravating. I called back today and asked if I couldn't just take it to the UPS store near here to ship it. Yes, I was told, and to get the tracking number. So off to the UPS store I went. First, they said they couldn't ship it without the recipient's phone number, something I had brought up before because Parcel Monkey also required it, but was told the seller hadn't provided it and it would not be needed. Second, the UPS store told me that the minimum cost to send back this light package was $126! OK, I know that UPS charges a lot but I doubt that USPS would charge less than $30. I'm in the United States, by the way. It seems the seller figured out all the angles. Dangle a great product at a low price, then make it nearly impossible to return the product without spending a ton more. I chose to go with PayPal, a service I've been using for years, because I knew they would back me, but I didn't know that the process would be so painful and frustrating.  Losing $50 is not going to bankrupt me but I was pursuing this for the principle of the matter. I know many others must have fallen for this because the comments on those Facebook ads showed people were practically drooling to send their money. However, I now give up. They win. And I'll never order a product from a Facebook ad when the business isn't proven and already established for some time. I'll also warn others when I can.  ... View more