Paypal ask me to return the item to seller at my own cost, but the cost exceeds the refund value

[nikolacm]

Ordered the item from a facebook ad. Paid with Paypal. Later on I found out that the seller fooled many buyers like me and sent the item which looked nothing like the item he was advertising, and of a lot less value. I tried to cancel my order but one of the seller's e-mails was non existent, or on the other (provided by paypal) he did not reply to my emails. After some time I also received the item that was nothing like the one advertised and of maximum third of the value I paid. I opened a dispute in the Paypal resolution center. 

Now Paypal is asking me to return the item to the seller at my own cost to China to receive the refund!! The cost of returning the item from my country to China is more than the refund value, and a lot more than the item is actually worth!!! Paypal gives me only two options to respond to this claim. One is to cancel the claim and the other is to return the item and provide tracking number. 

Since this seller is obviously committing fraud in this elaborate scheme, he is counting not sending the item back, and Paypal is of no help, and is obviously on the side of the seller for who they must have numerous complaints. Plus the seller has provided the address to return the item in Chinese!!! No one here can read Chinese and the post office does not know exactly where to send it! In any case I am loosing money for sure, whether I return the item at my own cost or don't return the item and don't get the refund.

Is there any chance I can get my refund without returning the item? I am prepared to provide any evidence that the seller is a fraud and that the item he sent me has nothing to do with the item he advertised. 

Please help.

[marcmansell]

Absolute joke. I have exactly the same issue. Payed for a tent from China, got a cheap rubbish kids tent. PayPal don’t seem interested, even though they know it’s clearly a scam. There must be someone who can make PayPal responsible. They are responsible for sellers using them for scams, so PayPal should be paying refund in my opinion. I was quoted £70 to return the tent, and who’s to say the seller will actually be honest and say it’s been received. PayPal should close them down. The woman I spoke to just kept saying don’t worry, absolutely useless. PayPal should be getting their **bleep** kicked for being so useless.

[jersanpat]

I fell for the tent scam .I tried filing for a refund on PAYPAL and their site wont respond. paypal used to stand behind their buyers. will think again before using paypal .

[Temp20201227a]

Same here.  PayPal seems to be skipping scam investigations and making them all simple 'return-the item-and-get-your-full-refund' cases.  I am hearing cases that are obviously scams are not taken seriously and we, the PayPal users, ended up with a loss.  eBay on the other hand offers better route for victims to submit more information before a decision is made.  Since I opened the case I see no way to upload screens of the web store with false advertisement (now someone has removed that web page and isn't accessible) or photos of the actual item I received.  Asking for the link to the web store obviously wouldn't have helped them figure out this was a scam instead of a 'simple mistake shipping the wrong item'.

Clicking through their Help pages always ends up in the same first page listing the high-level topics.

PayPal Resolution Center is intentionally designed to be of no value to people dealing with scams.  When I clicked 'Pay with PayPal' I always see that '...your purchase is protected by PayPal...".  That by itself seems to be false advertisement as well.

[nikolacm · Accepted solution]

Dear all, I am glad to inform you that PayPal has decided to rule in my favor and send me the full refund. I was lucky, because when I contacted PayPal by phone this morning I got a very nice lady Annaline who heard me out and personally advocated to relevant departments until the issue was resolved in my favor. What you need to do is to present your case in detail over the phone ask the agent to contact relevant departments to explain your case and ask for the best possible solution for you. I think if the seller has scammed many people, as it was the case with me, PayPal will rule in your favor and send full refund to your account, without any cost to you, like sending the item back to the seller. I really hope that this post will help you in getting your refund from the seller through PayPal, if you are a victim of a fraud like I was. Best, Nikola

[marcmansell]

Excellent news. Well done. I tried explaining yesterday, but the agent has sent seller a message, asking for a UK address, which he won’t have, if he even replies. I’ve been told that he has 3 days to respond, so if I don’t hear back, I’ll phone them again, and hopefully get that person you spoke with. Hopefully I’ll be successful too. It seems that they’re now looking at it differently now then eh. I’ll post again once I have an update. Thanks again. Marc

[marcmansell]

Good news from me too. I spoke with Daniel at PayPal today, explained everything, and without any hassle, he decided to refund my full money too, and I don’t have to return the tent. So I’ll look forward to burning the cheap rubbish tent in the next few days. 😀 Happy with result though. Good luck to you lot, sure you’ll get same result. Cheers all.

[ReggieG]

My issue is the same.  I am hoping that I will receive some resolution.  My item came from India, not working and Paypal has stated that they will refund my purchase price when I send them a tracking number.  Shipping is more than the cost of the item.  Since my item is more expensive, (+400.00), they will not refund the money until the item is returned.  They will contact the seller and ask for a shipping return label so that I can return the item.  I will post after I hear back from Paypal representative.

[PalmettoJoseph]

Having a similar problem, this company WowThingsNow.com sold me games shipped from Merced, CA, both crushed and stuffed into a padded envelope. The games are unusable, yet now to get a refund I have to ship them back to Vietnam? They acted in bad faith, do I have to call PayPal to get this resolved?

[Mothersloveof6]

Same thing. I even provided PayPal the emails that the seller sent to me saying they ran iutnifnthenitem I ordered so they sent me something else instead. They admitting to sending something different than what I order, and worth far less than what ordered. And yet I have to pay to ship the incorrect item back to China to the seller, which I would be happy to do, but not at my expense.