[UK - England] Pay in 3. Alibaba seller apparently shipped the wrong package. Alibaba and PayPal will not resolve. Outside SNAD window.
I will try and keep this as short as I can. I think I have the answers but I would like another opinion.
I bought a product through Alibaba's marketplace and paid using Pay in 3. The total cost was almost £340. The price was within the normal bounds for the type of product.
The product arrived in a used or refurbished condition despite being promised it was new (only opened for testing and firmware update) by the seller at the time of sale. There were obvious signs of use, damage (including an obvious repair), and there were missing accessories.
The seller did not want me to return it and kept offering partial refunds. They even admitted to sending me the wrong product, apparently sending the one that was meant for me to another customer.
Alibaba's trade assurance was not useful and when I escalated it they wanted me to pay the complete cost of the return without compensation and take all the risk of loss or damage. Or I could accept their not-guaranteed "discretionary credit" for use on their platform (which I did not want).
To further that, they also had a public holiday where they were out of office for two whole weeks, and the timezone difference also added a delay to the process, which meant I opened a case with PayPal about a week after SNAD deadline.
Given the deadlines in the terms, PayPal rejected the claim, rejected the appeal, and finally gave me an offer of a goodwill gesture to partially cover the transaction after I complained. I rejected it because I do not want the product - I want my money back.
I have opened a case with the Finacial Ombudsman against PayPal as I believe it was not reasonable for me to open a case with them within the timeframe given the public holiday that impacted the dispute with the seller/marketplace and because of slow communications due to timezone differences - I wanted to be reasonable and give them a good chance at resolving the issue. But I think they will take PayPal's side and it could take months.
Am I right in thinking it would be a poor decision in trying to initiate a chargeback as this is a credit agreement? My understanding is that it will just put it back into the balanced owed.
Other than FOS and disputing with the bank, is there anything else I can look into in the meantime?