Floating Delorean Scam

[Andieboy]

Dear Community,

my case in short:

- Facebook offered me a Floating Delorean model for $39,99

- I have ordered it (seller: <removed> ) one for me, and one for my friend in different country (paid with Paypal)

- after 1 month we've receive a $2 worth HotWheels car

- looked after the seller: a huge amount of scam posts. Original ordering page is no longer available

- started a dispute, want back my 2x $40 or at least the difference (40-2)

- seller offered me $20 - not accepted - offered $24 - not accepted - seller wants me to send back the cars

- went up to Paypal dispute

- they offered me $28 - not accepted

- now Paypal wrote me, that I have to send back the Hotwheels cars, and IF the seller reports back the package arrived, then I got the whole 39,99 back.

Well, I have 2 problems with that:

- sending back such a package from my (and my friends) country to China is around $20 - noone will give me this money back, even if...

- absolutely no chance, that the scammer seller will report the package back. Why would they do that? they will loose all the money.

What should I do now?

Till today, I believed, PayPal will protect me from these scams....

[kernowlass]

@Andieboy 

In the event of a dispute you need to bear in mind possible return trackable costs before you buy from that seller / item / country.

Paypal state this >>
PayPal is not obliged to reimburse you for any costs that you incur to comply with any of PayPal’s requests for cooperation for the purpose of resolving the problem (including, without limitation, costs that you incur to return a SNAD item to the Payment Recipient or another party as PayPal requests), although sometimes it may reimburse these costs.

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/selfhelp/article/what-is-return-shipping-on-us-and-how-do-i-activate-it-fa...

if available in your country.

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.

[Andieboy]

Thank you for your answer.

Well, worst case scenario - I'll start a chargeback in my bank.

But in this case, I will not need Paypal in the future. I'll do my orders directly from my bank account. Since paypal won't protect me in case of these obvious scams. If not, I'll loose my money in both cases...

[kernowlass]

@Andieboy 

Sounds a plan, but banks and credit cards do not give you 100% coverage either and some posters are saying that their credit card companies are asking them to send the item back first before getting a refund.

The best thing is to risk assess your own transactions before you buy and don't buy tat from China.

Chinese Web Sites or on Facebook easy to spot so buyer beware.

1. No return address on the returns policy............thats because the site will look as if its in your country (where they despatch goods from) BUT they will ask for returns to go back to China (returns depot) at a shipping cost nearly always more than the item is worth.
2. No contact telephone number............if you click on contact the most you will get is webmail or an email address.
3. No company address information.
4. Great looking items at bargain prices that turn out to be tat.



 

[JMcDougall]

Same thing happened to me. In my case, it's a "different" named company. I bought the Back to the Future car, and got some cheap Chinese made toy Lamborghini. I'm in the dispute process now. So far they offered me a 20% discount saying they're sorry I was unhappy with the product. They also agreed to take the product back, but at my expense. That's insane. This is obviously a scam. If PayPal does not have my back in this, I will no longer use their services. The whole reason I used them was because I was under the impression I was protected. What a joke. I've read several complaints about this particular company and for some reason PayPal still continues business with them.

[Andieboy]

I advise you to start a Chargeback in your bank. I did the same and they gave my money back. PP will not help you in that case. As you said: what a joke... 🙄

(in the meantime I plan to start a webshop, selling houses but sending only a brick - accepting only PP - well, another joke, I hope you laughed 🙂 )

[JMcDougall]

More like selling a house and shipping a cheeseburger. "Oh, I'm sorry you're not satisfied, I can give you a 20% discount and you can just keep the cheeseburger" "I sent you something, and even though it's not what you ordered or what you wanted, I still sent you something and you still need to pay for it" I feel like I'm on a Saturday Night Live Skit. What the actual F@#$ I'm **bleep**. If I don't get my money from these **bleep** (the sellers), I'll call CNN, I'll call a lawyer, I'll call anybody and everybody I need to. Sounds like a story to me. Sounds like they scammed a lot of people. This can't go on. They messed with the wrong one this time lol

[Artah]

I'll be happy if PayPal don't protect me from this scam since it's a very low amount.  This just means I will minimize my use of PayPal or stop using it completely.  At least it's not thousands of dollars like I usually charge on PayPal.

[Artah]

Got news for you.  CNN is the <removed>, they will do nothing about any of this or anything that can hurt China.