Paypal dispute return shipping

scrappysphinx

Hi all, just looking for some info but I fear I already know the answer.

So in April I bought a new auto bed levelling sensor and glass bed for my 3d printer. I bought it directly from the manufacturer in China and paid by paypal. The total was $75 (about £57)

It was delivered about a week later from a UK warehouse. I followed instructions and even posted on their official Facebook page to get confirmation all was correct before using the items. Everything looked good and my post had positive comments so I proceeded to turn on the printer. I went through its auto bed levelling and setting the correct offsets for the print head and then proceeded to try a print. That's where things went wrong. The sensor failed and the print head buried itself into the glass bed gouging a huge scratch/mark into the glass. The sensor now does nothing and the glass bed is useless.

I tried to email the manufacturer but the emails keep bouncing back. I was left with no choice but to file a paypal claim.

I have been patiently waiting for the outcome of the case and today I've had a notification from paypal saying they've decided in my favour and will issue a full refund on return of the items. I must post the items back with tracking withing 10 days. They also say that I must pay for the return shipping myself and this will not be refunded.

They've given me a return address in China that I can't even read (it's in Chinese characters) and the cheapest tracked shipping I can find is £56 which means the return is pointless as I'll end up with approximately £1 back for a purchase which is faulty and not my fault.

They don't allow you to respond, the only option I have is to upload a tracking number within 10 days or they will close the case. I cannot get through to anyone on the
phone.

Is there any options for me here or do I just accept I'm loosing the money?

Thanks

Sandtree

How would you expect a chinese address to be written? Do you think all of their postmen have to be bilingual?  How do you think Royal Mail postie would deal if someone decided to write your address in Hindi or some other random langage?

That point aside, have you gone into the eBay system to print a return label?  Reading the helpfile it says if you are responsible for return it will give you a price and if the buyer is responsible its a prepaid label (or at least that was my reading of it). Normally for faulty items eBay would make the sender pay for the return.

ThisnotThat

No.

As you have essentially no consumer rights with a Chinese company you'll just have to take it on the chin.

scrappysphinx

@Sandtree, If you read my post again you'll see I said I bought it directly from the manufacturer (I.e. nothing to do with ebay) and the fact it came from a UK warehouse I was expecting a UK return address.

There is no option to print a return label and PayPal says that return shipping is on me. As I said its pretty much gonna end up with receiving £1 back for a faulty item through no fault of my own....

scrappysphinx

ThisnotThat said:

No.

As you have essentially no consumer rights with a Chinese company you'll just have to take it on the chin.

That was my fear

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

If the emails bounce back the return address may be fake as well. 

Sadly best to write it off in this instance. 

Sandtree

scrappysphinx said:

@Sandtree, If you read my post again you'll see I said I bought it directly from the manufacturer (I.e. nothing to do with ebay) and the fact it came from a UK warehouse I was expecting a UK return address.

There is no option to print a return label and PayPal says that return shipping is on me. As I said its pretty much gonna end up with receiving £1 back for a faulty item through no fault of my own....

Sorry, been bouncing between too many things today.

Too late for this case but may be worth activating PayPal's "return shipping on us" as they'd then at least contribute to the return cost.
https://www.paypal.com/uk/smarthelp/article/what-is-return-shipping-on-us-and-how-do-i-activate-it-faq3544 

scrappysphinx

No problem, i do have return shipping on us activated but the last time i claimed it (paypal account is in the wifes name) which was for £7.31 to return a faulty hdd to Western Digital they told me they would pay it as a one off but since i was returning items classed as faulty or damaged the shipping should be paid by the seller which is completely contradictory to their own terms and conditions so i figured it would be pointless trying it again. I'll just write it off as recommended above. 

theonlywayisup

Before you write it off it may be worth getting in touch with Paypal to see if there is any help they can give.  Anecdotally there has been a suggestion there is a slight shift from the rules and there are a couple of posts on the Ebay boards where people have managed to get Paypal to issue a refund without a return.  I will add the caveat that the posts I read were from new users and there is no hard evidence that this is a new stance from Paypal but it may be worth trying. 

scrappysphinx

Thanks all, just thought I'd give a little update. As mentioned above I managed to contact PayPal through their messaging system. I explained the issue that return shipping was going to equivalent if not more than the item was worth. I wasn't expecting much but to my surprise they agreed to close the case and issue me with a £50 voucher of goodwill. 
It's not the full refund but it's much better than odd couple of pounds I stood to get if I did return or the complete loss if I wrote it off so I'm happy with the outcome.