So I've been trying to get a response from paypal for days over a seller who is trying every dirty, underhand trick in the book to avoid refunding my money for faulty goods.
I bought something through aliexpress about 5 weeks ago, it eventually arrived and I immediately checked it out. First thing I discovered was that it was missing instructions. Without those instructions I can't build it, and they're not something you can find online... you can however purchase them at an additional expense that's roughly 1/3 of the cost of the item I bought... Those instructions are not owned by the seller... in fact it turns out that they've stolen and copied them themselves... or just had no intention of supplying them to begin with.
I contacted the seller through aliexpress asking for them and was ignored. After a further week or so, I opened disputes with aliexpress and raised an initial complaint with paypal.
Aliexpress moved quickly... paypal did not. So I escalated the complaint to a dispute... this is the only thing that prompted the seller to respond... after a delay of a further 10 days they finally tell paypal that I need to return the goods at my expense. Something that is prohibited under UK consumer laws in the consumer rights act of 2015 which replaced the sale/supply of goods act and offers more consumer protections for goods bought online. Paypal have given me until the 24th May to upload tracking information... there is no way for me to upload additional information, there is no way for me to even ask for the correct address as the seller added it entirely in Chinese and translate doesn't make any sense of it.
I have tried for days to get a response through messaging, I've tried emails and paypal simply cannot be bothered to respond at all. It seems that they are determined to let this scammer steal my money. And as I was getting the package together for return I was checking the contents and discovered other parts were missing too. I never noticed before because without the instructions I had no way to tell at first. But upon repackaging it I noticed all of the bags were numbered, so I checked with the community on reddit and discovered there should be 11 bags with the kit and I only had 10... Bag number 3 was missing. This not only makes the kit missing instructions... but actually faulty and not as described. Which strengthens my case under UK laws and means I can ask for a refund and it's the sellers responsibility to arrange shipping costs. They should provide return shipping details and labels. Whilst this was going on I also had a dispute going with aliexpress, now they allow you to upload evidence and I have done so... the seller demanded pictures of the outer packaging in the hope that during the weeks that had passed since being received... it had been thrown away with the rest of the rubbish... It hadn't. So I provided it.
Aliexpress have found in my favour and told the seller to refund me... They even ruled that I do not have to send back the item. Currently the seller has not refunded me at all... and I cannot get hold of paypal to pass along this extra information.
I can however pass it along to my bank and they can do a chargeback on the card used... One way or another I will get a refund, if paypal wish for this to be resolved correctly perhaps they should have responded appropriately and in a timely manner... rather than behaving like they want scammers to run rampant on their sites. If that means burning my account to the ground and going into a negative... then so be it. Paypal will be more than welcome to take me to court for the money... when the evidence clearly proves that they haven't acted in good faith and their failure to speak with me is to blame.
If anyone knows how to actually get them to respond... or can tag some one who actually works there into this thread... I'd appreciate it.. there are 5 days left before they automatically find in the sellers favour... and these scammers get to keep my money even after the site I used has found in my favour... but paypal refuse to allow me to send in evidence that supports my case.
I will get my money back eventually through my card provider... it's in paypals hands now whether they want to end up liable for the loss or not.
