Paypal being VERY unhelpful in regards to buyer protection....

[SteveJWC]

Has anyone had any success with buyer protection from Paypal? It's my first time I've had to raise a dispute, with over 11 years of using Paypal and tens of thousands of pounds spent, I was expecting slightly better customer service. I am being asked to return a 60cm x 50cm x 30cm product weighing 6KG back to CHINA (when there fronting as a UK company, using a .co.uk domain and other factors on the website), from a very clearly fraudulent company as show by their trustpilot score (which I wish I had checked before purchasing).

The fact that they are choosing to side with the merchant over myself is ridiculous. They have stated they can reimburse me up to £70 for the return, but that does not cover the cost to return it (£90 cheapest quote so far....), the fact that it may not even GET there, I also firmly believe the company will deny even receiving the parcel, and then I will be stuck in the lurch. It also doesn't cover the cost of purchasing a cardboard box big enough to store the monstrosity of the product.

Rugshow Reviews | Read Customer Service Reviews of rugshow.co.uk (trustpilot.com) - Plenty of others have gone through paypal to purchase something from this **bleep** of a company, and I hope that Paypal both STOP taking payments for this company, and also reimburse anyone that was unfortunate enough to deal with them, WITHOUT having to pay the ridiculous transit cost of sending something to China.

Furious is an under statement.

[steveola]

Paypal has become a shill for the CCP.  I purchased two items through FB Marketplace and paid for them with Paypal.  One was a complete misrepresentation of a laptop holder (they sent a plastic frame that bends like spaghetti and you have to provide the pretty boards they showed in the ad,) and the other got left outside in my (bad) neighborhood and the porch pirates ran off with it.  I didn't realize these things were shipping direct from China or I wouldn't have purchased them.

Paypal is on the seller's side now.  When they were with eBay it was the seller that got **bleep** (I have horror stories about that too.)

[kernowlass]

@SteveJWC 

But they are doing EXACTLY what they say they will do in their buyer protection policy !!

In the event of a dispute you choose your seller and not Paypal so you need to bear in mind possible return trackable costs before you go ahead and buy from that seller / country.

Paypal state this >>
IMPORTANT: You may be required to return the item to the seller or other party we specify as part of the settlement of your claim. PayPal Buyer Protection does not entitle you to reimbursement for the return shipping costs that you may incur.

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/uk/webapps/mpp/refunded-returns

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.

[SteveJWC]

Well they have now refunded my item without returning it because they saw it was a scam company! After looking at the backend and all the purchases from this scam company, and seeing EVERYONE had complained and requested a refund, they refunded me no more questions asked... It was a front company at best, so yes, I'd expect buyers protection...

[kernowlass]

@SteveJWC 

Then you were lucky (or you funded your paypal payment via a credit card and so paypal didn't want you going down the chargeback route).

As for better buyer protection, paypal states what protection you are offered, if you want better and don't agree with their policies then you don't have to use them do you???

As it stands you read up on buyer protection and then risk assess your transactions using that information....avoiding these >>>

Chinese Web Sites or on Social Media ads easy to spot (once you know the below signs) so buyer beware.

1. No return address on the returns policy. 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 often 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. Rarely company address information.
4. Great pictures of items at bargain prices that turn out to be tat.
5. Fake reviews.
6. Google and you can often see previous company names as they change them once enough claims roll in and Paypal stop them using their services and start over.
7. Send fake tracking numbers to win item non receipt of item claims.