Goods purchased through PayPal

GitaGr

Hi, 
I purchased natural gemstones from www.alibaba.com from India, full value incl. import tax: £421.11
Paid with my credit card via PayPal. 

Once the goods arrived I immediately opened a PayPal case as they were not as described and very poor quality. PayPal then insisted that I pay for the return delivery. On 13.07.2020 I paid £105.25 to www.dpdlocal-online.co.uk (aka parcel2go) for a return delivery, this included full cover. 

Today, on 26.08, Dpd Local Online have told me that the parcel has been destroyed by customs in India and that they are sorry but they will not issue any refunds to me. 
I really need some advice as PayPal won't refund until it is delivered, the delivery company is taking no responsibility and I have lost £526.36 even though I have followed all the steps PayPal and DPD have given me. 

Any advice would be highly appreciated. 
Thanks, 
Gita 

GitaGr

The parcel was destroyed because the seller won't provide his PAN Card to the customs. 

KatrinaWaves

I think this is going to end up being an expensive mistake, buying jewels from abroad.

It is not the sellers fault that customs destroyed them, nor is it DPDS. Is there some rules about sending gemstones to India? We’re they fake? Why did customs destroy them? 

GitaGr

PayPal specifically asked me to mark the parcel as Returned Cargo which I did. 

The seller did not provide his details on purpose so he would not have to refund me. 

They were fake, dirty, poor quality and there were no wooden boxes which were part of the purchase, hence the return as they were of no use to me in this state, some of them had moss inside, which clearly indicated that it was not jade as stated. 

Trust me, I will never make this mistake again, but I did not feel like I was taking a risk when paying by PayPal AND Credit card and I have evidence of everything. 

Sandtree

GitaGr said:

The parcel was destroyed because the seller won't provide his PAN Card to the customs. 

Do you have evidence that it was destroyed because of the deliberate refusal to supply their tax code/PAN card?

GitaGr

I have a few emails from DPD stating the following: 

The local clearing agency require the customer ID which usually would be their PAN card, in India.
They require a front and back copy of this. KYC or Know Your Customer is a process of identifying and verifying the identity of the consignee/importer which needs to be presented to Indian Customs during the import clearance process, without which the shipment cannot be cleared.

I have informed PayPal about this and reached out to the seller who has not responded. 
Today, it only states destroyed. And on top of that one of the tracking options says that it is out for delivery, when I asked to explain they said it was a tracking error and that they are sorry. 

Sandtree

That is only saying there is a process not that the vendor failed to follow the process and as a consequence the parcel was destroyed

GitaGr

I understand, however I have used PayPal that should protect me, used my credit card, and purchased Extra protection from the delivery company in case they lost my parcel so I would be fully covered. 
Yet it appears that no one is responsible and £500 package has been destroyed and they are sorry. 
Surely there is something I can do with all the evidence and companies that should make it all safe?

Spank

PayPal gives you less protection than a CC, your CC paid PP, so there is nothing they can do.

GitaGr

In this case PayPal has not given me any protection. They told me to send it back, which is exactly what I did. 

Sandtree

GitaGr said:

In this case PayPal has not given me any protection. They told me to send it back, which is exactly what I did. 

Clearly it is a somewhat unusual circumstances, had it been returned and the vendor had received it then PayPal would have refunded the monies already. In reality it has not got to the other end and you need to demonstrate to PayPal that is because of the fault of the vendor.

If for example you'd sent it back and it had gotten lost by the courier then PayPal would have found in favour of the vendor and instructed you to claim for the lost parcel from the courier (which is roughly what happened when someone tried to return an item to me)