Seller tricks with PayPal

[Lol-x]

One needs to be careful in 2 ways that have hit me this week.

1. I purchased 2 pairs of '100% authentic' RayBans for a friend. Paid $25 for express 'interstate' shipping.
Paid by PayPal. Sent 2 messages to the seller......no reply. After 4 days no good received so I initiated a PayPal dispute.
The seller makes excuses for not contacting me and sending the goods (all rubbish).
The seller then offers to give me a big discount and part refund. So I wait. Nothing happens.
I say to the seller 'well the ball is in your court.'
The seller says, I have to cancel the PayPal dispute before he can do anything.
In good faith I initiate the cancellation of the dispute.
Just as I'm about to hit the final 'cancel' button PayPal has a window saying 'do not cancel the dispute unless it has been resolved'.
So I go back to the seller and say he has to make good before any cancellation.
The seller then gives me $30 partial refund, and says he is sending the goods out straight away.
So I wait another 2-3 days (not overnight) and the sunglasses arrive.
The sunglasses are 100% fake.
There is no address to return the goods.
The seller is contacted and I ask for a return address and articulate the problems.
The seller refunds the total purchase price, but does not otherwise respond.

LESSON: Do not cancel a PayPal dispute until the entire transaction is completed to your satisfaction. Once you cancel a dispute it is cancelled FOREVER, never to be reopened, and the seller gets off saying 'well you cancelled the dispute.............."

The second one was a purchase of an electronic component for GBP110 from 'Scotland'. I send the money through PayPal. The seller refunds the money and says, "PLEASE MAKE YOUR PAYMENT AS A GIFT AS PAYPAL CHARGES EXORBITANT FEES"

Once you make the payment as a gift, you are relinquishing all rights to the transaction. So if you don't receive the goods, you loose all your money.

LESSON: If you are buying something from someone don't make your payment to that untrusted person a GIFT because that is what it will truely become, a gift, and you will have no rights to get any redress with PayPal.