AliExpress refund purchases that require item return

[hmpls]

I purchased an item on Aliexpress vastly different than what i received  I filed a claim, and the ruling requires me to send the product back which is more expensive the product itself. after reading multiple threads on the forum I am not alone and many are out the purchase price and outrageous shipping cost to china.  how do i get the seller to pay for shipping back or have paypal refund the shipping as well. the seller is a fraud and uncovered this after hours of investigating their feedback. after reading so many discouraging experiences on paypal with similar situations, shipping the item back at my cost is not an option.  further why would i use paypal moving forward, there is no protection here. any advise or guidance where anyone had success in getting a full refund

[PayPal_JonK]

Hello @hmpls, 

Welcome to PayPal's Community Forum. I'm sorry to hear a recent purchase didn't go quite as expected. I certainly understand how concerning this must be. For a dispute to qualify for a refund, normally the item does need to be returned when the item is significantly not as described. However, I would recommend reaching out to our Customer Support teams to review the dispute to see if there are any other options potentially available. 

My apologies for any inconvenience this may cause, 

 - Jon K

[HomerJay]

I agree, why use PayPal if there is no support in a case like this.  I have been using AliExpress for more than 9 years and have done several hundred transactions.  In recent years AliExpress has been less agreeable to outright refunds and have been using the ruse of asking you to return an item at your considerable expense and the seller is required to reimburse you.  If the seller refuses AliExpress agrees to reimburse you with a store credit.  I have had three such transactions this year alone.  In all three cases I refused to pay for return shipping with a vague promise of reimbursement of some kind.  Instead I put through a dispute with my bank and won all three.  If PayPal won't help the answer is pay with your credit card directlty.