Gearbest refund issued as payment, paypal steals money

[Mojca]

I have purchased an item off Gearbest.

Gearbest has refunded me the money, since the item was not OK.

They have issused the refund as "payment".

After 1 month, they have disputed the payment, with "no item recieved".

I did not sell anything.

I have provided all the evidence to Paypal, however it got declined as it is not proof of sent items.

HOW THE <Removed> IS ONE SUPPOSED TO SEND IT, IF THEY DONT SELL ANYTHING.

WHY IS PAYPAL SCAMMING PEOPLE LIKE THIS

[kernowlass]

@Mojca 

As they didn't 'refund' you using the refund option then you should be able to open a paypal dispute on the ORIGINAL transaction.

How do I open a dispute with a seller when a purchase goes wrong?

You can open a dispute in the Resolution Centre of your PayPal account within 180 days of payment if:
•You don’t receive the item
•You receive an item but it’s significantly different than the description on eBay or on the seller’s website

By opening a dispute, you can communicate directly with your seller to work out a problem transaction.

If you reach an agreement with the seller you can close the dispute. If you're still not happy with the result, you can escalate the dispute into a claim. We'll review the claim and decide on reimbursement.

These steps apply to Personal accounts. If you have a Business account, please log in to see the steps that apply to you.

To open a dispute:
1.Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click on the transaction and use the resolve a problem option at the bottom of that details page.

Note:
•Generally buyers must wait at least 7 days from the date of payment to escalate a dispute for an item not received
•Where an item has not been received, please ensure you have given the seller enough time before opening a dispute

https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/first-dispute

DO NOT CLOSE THE DISPUTE UNTIL YOU HAVE A CLEARED REFUND OR YOUR ITEM WHATEVER THE SELLER SAYS. ALSO DON'T FORGET TO ESCALATE THE DISPUTE TO A CLAIM WITHIN 20 DAYS IF THE SELLER DOES NOT REFUND.

If that does not work then if you funded your paypal payment via a card then contact your card issuer and see if they will do a chargeback for you.

[Mojca]

What original transaction?

The item was bought over 1 year ago, so original transaction is way over 180 days.

The item stopped working within warranty period of 1 year.
Gearbest said they cannot fix or change item and offered a refund 10% refund.

Argueing continued for 2 months untill we got to 50% refund.

They then proceeded with a refund of 50% but sent it as "payment" not "refund".

After a month, they disputed the payment as "no item recieved".

Paypal declined my appeal, as I did not provide a shipping recipt.
I did however provide them with evidence from Gearbest chat and Gearbest's picture of the "refund" that they sent as "payment".

Paypal ignored all evidence.

I appealed, however my 2 only options were: "i have a recipt of shipping" or "i have sent the item differently" or something like that.

[kernowlass]

@Mojca 

Well it helps to give all the information in the first post, nowhere did you say the original transaction was over a year ago.

That is why the seller did not use the 'refund' option, you can only refund up to 180 days and after that they use the 'send money' option BUT should have sent it as a friends/family payment as it was not paying for goods.

But they didn't they must have sent you the refund using the goods/services option meaning that they could open a dispute for item not received later on and as you would have no tracking number then you would lose.

Sadly nothing paypal can do for you because you got refunded AFTER 180 days and the seller chose to refund in a way that they could get the funds back again later.

[Mojca]

So basically what you're saying is, this is a way anyone can scam you and paypal supports scammers and criminals?

Amazing

So all a criminal/scammer has to do, is wait over 180 days, and issue a payment instead of a refund for a fake/broken item.

Then dispute the payment, that they never got anything, and get all their cash back, since the victim cannot provide any evidence of sending item.

While the innocent buyer gets scammed and paypal doesn't help them, and the victim loses on fees also.

And this is 100% legal and would work 10/10 times.

Perfect.

Criminals have it better than everyone else, again.

[Sandbox77]

You need to send them a copy of the shipping label or receipt of the damaged item you had originally purchased and sent back to the merchant. That is the proof they want.

[Mojca]

What shipping label or receipt of the item sent back?
I never had to send anything back, as this was a deal between me and Gearbest.

I keep the damaged items and only get 50% refund.

I have no receipts of sending anything as I never sold anything or had to send anything back.

I have receipt of original purchase.

I have full chat history with Gearbest.

I have their screenshot of payment that they did when they said they have refunded me, and it states "payment sent".

I provided it all to paypal.

But paypal keeps declining the appeal as:
"We were unable to grant your appeal with the information you provided. It was not granted because we did not receive valid proof that the item was delivered to the buyer."

OFCOURE NOTHING WAS DELIVERED TO THE BUYER, I NEVER SOLD ANYTHING OR SHIPPED ANYTHING OUT.

[kernowlass]

@Mojca 

Of course you lose out sometimes, shopping online is not a 100% protected venture.

You were refunded as a payment so you had a chargeback of that payment.

Nothing paypal can do about it as that is the way the refund was made.

If you want to take it further then thats fine but thats between you and Gearbest and not paypal.