You may recall that a while ago I purchased an ultrasonic cleaner from a Chinese company on eBay, the 11th July to be factual. It was delivered on the 14th July but was a 2L one, not the 3L as shown in 12 of the supporting photos on the listing. I raised return request via eBay, which the seller accepted on the 15th but postage was down to me, even though they mis-sold it to me. I spoke eBay, and they told me not to return it until either they sent me a prepaid returns label or sent me the postage costs. That started a long-drawn-out discussion between me, the seller and eBay, who found in my favour that I should get a full refund on the 27th July. The seller paid the postage cost to my PayPal account on the 27th and I returned the cleaner on the 28th by recorded delivery.
The item was delivered back to their dept on the 30th July and a signature obtained and the seller gave me a full refund on 1st August, great that was the end of it or, so I thought. On the 13th August, seller opened a dispute directly with PayPal pretending to be a buyer and claimed that the item that they paid for was never received and therefore claiming a full refund. They also used a different account name to the one I purchased from (it seems that all the industrial ultrasonic cleaners in the UK all come from Chinese sellers in the same town, and is about 4 or 5 company names and all the same prices, so the same real company hiding behind other names
)
Anyway, on the 13th August I provided PayPal with all the relevant eBay transaction and case numbers, along with my statement and copies of the receipt of postage and a copy of the proof of delivery, all of which they passed onto the "seller" who never once responded following their first claim. Today I get an email from PayPal who said that they had found in the
buyers sellers favour and requested that I pay the amount claimed £10.91 into my account ASAP
I saw red, checked the case details online and found out that even though, I had responded instantly when the claim was raised, the seller had not replied to my counterclaim in all that time and yet PayPal still found against me claiming that my evidence was invalid
After a real struggle I managed to get past their automated telephone system and spoke to a human, who transferred me to the disputes dept and within a few minutes they had pulled my case notes and promptly reversed their ruling and cancelled the claim against me
So my advice to others when dealing with a dispute over an item is to always get it documented with eBay through their system as it might well be required as evidence in your favour further down the line, even if the seller seems to be nice to you, the chance is always there for them to come back at you via other avenues as I discovered.
I think that Chinese companies can hide behind the language barrier and some claim falsely hoping that you will give up and let them win, bastards. Of course always YMMV, but be on your toes and watch out for similar scams as this.