After paying in good faith via PayPal for a "brand new" eBay item, I was sent the wrong item (and not new) by a Hong Kong seller. After notifying the seller of his mistake, he insisted that I pay the return shipping back to Hong Kong before he would issue a refund. Since shipping the wrong item was not my fault or responsibility, I refused to pay return shipping for something I did not purchase. Why should I be financially liable and penalized for the seller's error? Besides, if I paid the return shipping I would actually be losing money from this failed eBay transaction, despite the refund!
So I decided to escalate the dispute to PayPal's "Resolution Center."
In my view I was the injured party. I had paid the full price and received nothing in return, except the added hassle of repackaging the item, taking off work to go to the Post Office and paying to send it halfway around the world. Ridiculous. So I proposed that the seller have the item retrieved by UPS, FedEx or DHL.
But PayPal's deliberation was swift: they sided with the fraudulent seller, stipulating that I should pay for the return shipping.
Apparently PayPal is biased towards vendors and sellers. The moral of the story is: if you buy something on eBay and receive the wrong item or not as represented and insist on a refund, you will lose money. This is a completely hostile and antagonistic e-commerce transaction strategy for innocent consumers acting in good faith, and the PayPal Resolution Center policy supports it!
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