Consumer complaint received 2018-10-04
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: FL
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: International money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
To whom it may concern, During XX/XX/2017, I purchased two pieces of equipment [ about {$2000.00} ] in XXXX using PayPal financial services for the payment purposes, including shipping. I was confident under the two paramount principles that PayPal offers to their users ; 1 ) 180 days buyers satisfaction and money back warranty, and 2 ) the seller can not [ under any circumstances ] keep the merchandise and the buyers money at the same time.

The seller was located in a different country than mine. This means that the shipment needed to be properly documented, which the seller neglected to do. As a result, when the two pieces of equipment arrived to the intended location, two issues arose.

1 ) A discrepancy of the shipment 's weight showed an inconsistency from the time that was recorded during tis origin and when the package showed into its destination. In short, I was liable to pay the shipping difference on top of the initial shipping costs that I fully paid on advance.

2 ) Additionally, the two pieces of equipment were not documented properly ; that is, the details of the transaction were not explicitly documented. This lead the Customs Authorities to ascribe a disproportionated duty into the two pieces of equipment.

Collectively, these two issues made me responsible to pay extra shipping along with a disproportionate duties, [ basically, ordering a XXXX but paying the taxes for a XXXX for the same XXXX ]. 

Immediately, I tried to provide documentation to the Customs Authorities in order for them to revise the duty process. They told me, essentially, is faster to sent the package back to the seller, and for him to include the documentation and shipped back to me, than for them to revise the duty excise process. This interaction made me to contact the seller, who also I communicated the shipments weight inconsistency along with his negligence about including the documentation necessary for an international shipment to be fairly deliver. Both of us agreed that the package should be sent back, and a soon as the package arrived at the sellers location, a refund to the buyer [ me ] should be initiated by the seller. 

Eventually, the package reached the sellers location but the refund was never initiated. I contacted PayPal to notify them that a shipment was returned due to the lack of proper documentation and the shipments weight inconsistency, which caused me to pay extra shipping costs besides paying in advance for the full shipping service. As they verified that the shipment indeed was back at the sellers location, they assured me that I Should received my money back. However, they found my claim flawed because they said that no matter what, I am liable of the disproportionated duties of the shipment. PayPal refused to acknowledge the weight discrepancy too. 

This flawed reasoning caused me to filed a chargeback with my bank, which they denied, on the grounds that they can only be responsible between PayPal and me, and they couldnt be responsible with what happened afterwards. Moreover, I tried to contact the seller, who claims that after I filled the chargeback, the money of this incomplete sale was withdrawn from his account and never returned to him.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief