5% fee for PayPal refund - should I stand and bang?

Mr Badger · 21 May 2020 at 15:36

I made a purchase on AliExpress at the start of April using a credit card. The item did not arrive and after some confusion the seller has now confirmed that it was never actually sent and has offered to refund my money. However, they want to do this via PayPal and want me to agree to being charged a 5% fee. Admittedly this will cost me less than £1, but it seems a bit cheeky as I paid by credit card and as far as I'm aware the PayPal rules are that you shouldn't pass on charges to customers.

So, what next? Do I meekly accept the charge rather than do battle with a (presumably) Chinese company, or stand my ground and threaten to report them to PayPal (or something)???

Yas786 · 21 May 2020 at 15:39

I’d let it go for that amount but if you feel aggrieved by it then by all means fight it.

wedrum · 21 May 2020 at 15:41

Send over a pic of your Gucci belt, then they will get the mesaage.

zophiel · 21 May 2020 at 15:43

why not use the request a refund bit in aliexpress? then open a case against the supplier in there?

Mr Badger · 21 May 2020 at 15:51

zophiel said:
why not use the request a refund bit in aliexpress? then open a case against the supplier in there?

I actually did that yesterday as it was getting close to the deadline. So far I've been corresponding with the seller through the AliExpress message centre who has today offered the PayPal refund.

zophiel · 21 May 2020 at 15:52

they should just refund back via the same method paid.

Diddums · 21 May 2020 at 15:55

Chargeback via credit card, this has nothing to do with Paypal.

Puzzled · 21 May 2020 at 19:02

Chinese sellers are perfectly happy to send us dangerous poor quality junk so I wouldn't feel sorry for them. Why should you lose out for their mistake?

Gray2233 · 21 May 2020 at 19:16

From an AliExpress order I'd just be happy they'd offered to refund.

If you really don't want to do it that way charge back via your credit card company and inform them of what you're doing.

kaku · 21 May 2020 at 19:25

AliExpress have their own buyer protection system which it seems like the vendor is trying to circumvent.

[FnG]magnolia · 21 May 2020 at 22:28

Just LOL if you don't start a personal trade war with the Chinese Government over some trifling amount you wouldn't even stop to pick up if you saw it lying in the street.

Noobs.

Angilion · 22 May 2020 at 00:21

That's not a bad way to run a scam if you can do it at a large enough scale:

1) Accept orders and money for items you don't have and which cost a relatively small amount.
2) Apologise for not sending the items and offer a refund of 95% of the money the person has already paid you. Many people will accept because the remaining 5% isn't enough money to be worth the hassle. May as well just let it go.

5% is a small profit margin, but since it's all online it could be almost entirely automated and costs would be extremely low since nothing is being sold or moved or stored anywhere. With a high enough volume of "sales" it could bring in a fair bit of free money.

Maybe I'm just being cynical.

MikeTheNative · 22 May 2020 at 09:59

Angilion said:
That's not a bad way to run a scam if you can do it at a large enough scale:

1) Accept orders and money for items you don't have and which cost a relatively small amount.
2) Apologise for not sending the items and offer a refund of 95% of the money the person has already paid you. Many people will accept because the remaining 5% isn't enough money to be worth the hassle. May as well just let it go.

5% is a small profit margin, but since it's all online it could be almost entirely automated and costs would be extremely low since nothing is being sold or moved or stored anywhere. With a high enough volume of "sales" it could bring in a fair bit of free money.

Maybe I'm just being cynical.

Isn't that 5% paypal fees though? I think in this case the 5% has already go to pay pal and the company doesn't want to be out of pocket so making OP pay for their mistake.

booyaka · 22 May 2020 at 10:53

Less than £1....

Jesus - take the refund and move on. Don't waste your time with opening a case etc.

Have a dig down the back of your sofa, you'll probably be better spending your time doing that to find £1 than chasing up a case via paypal/aliexpress.

People will say "it's about the principal" etc - but seriously take a look at the situation in the world just now and is it honestly worth the time and hassle to get a few pennies back

zophiel · 22 May 2020 at 12:50

kaku said:
AliExpress have their own buyer protection system which it seems like the vendor is trying to circumvent.

this is the way i have done it never had any issues. just takes a few days to sort.

DJai · 22 May 2020 at 13:43

There are bad sellers out there. You stuck to your end by paying for something listed and they didn't. Therefore, you don't pay for their mistake.

Sounds like you got your money back, great!

Kaeo · 22 May 2020 at 14:44

Obviously the correct answer is take the paypal refund then do a credit card chargeback anyway. Duh.

Diagro · 22 May 2020 at 15:03

Aliexpress.... The sellers are just con artists.

I ordered 10KG 3d printing filament. They sent 8kg.
2KG I did get are 10% off in terms of dimensional accuracy. As in 3mm thick filament has an advertised 0.02mm variance. 2 KG actually has a 0.32mm variation in size....
This means the printer can't use it. So it's just scrap plastic.

Their response.... "that's normal m8"

Will they refuns or accept that I'm missing 2KG as well? Nope

DJai · 22 May 2020 at 15:04

Kaeo said:
Obviously the correct answer is take the paypal refund then do a credit card chargeback anyway. Duh.

Surely you can get into trouble doing that?

DJai · 22 May 2020 at 15:05

Diagro said:
Aliexpress.... The sellers are just con artists.

I ordered 10KG 3d printing filament. They sent 8kg.
2KG I did get are 10% off in terms of dimensional accuracy. As in 3mm thick filament has an advertised 0.02mm variance. 2 KG actually has a 0.32mm variation in size....
This means the printer can't use it. So it's just scrap plastic.

Their response.... "that's normal m8"

Will they refuns or accept that I'm missing 2KG as well? Nope

Outrageous!