Recourse for internet fraud on goods never received? Paypal investigations?

[brittone2]

I'm finally back online and only have a second as we're busy unpacking, but I need some help and I figured I'd ask here.

Two months ago, DH ordered a digital video camera online from a company called Onsavings. It had good feedback on paypal, etc. so he placed the order. They sent us the wrong camera. They told us to ship it back and they'd ship the correct camera. We sent it back insured as per their instructions, and it disappeared in the mail for a while. We had a claim number, etc. and after about 2 weeks the company finally received it. They told us they were sending out the correct camera. It never shipped. We've had numerous phone conversations with the guy who runs the company...he constantly promises to make things right. The week of our move we called to let them know we still hadn't received the camera. They always say it was shipped, it was UPS's fault, Fed Ex's fault, all kinds of things and that they'll ship out a new one. Never happens. Before the move he assured us they'd refund us in cash plus send us the camera after all we've been through. It was supposed to be here almost 2 weeks ago. We've made several more calls saying if the $$ wasn't refunded we're reporting them to the better business bureau and filing a claim via paypal. He will not call us back.
Stupidly we paid through paypal so we can't refute it w/ our credit card company. From what i've heard it will probably take a while for Paypal to do anything.

What else can we do? Is it possible to make some sort of criminal complaint? Something is definitely shady going on. We've been so so patient just wanting things to be made right, but this company has fallen through on their promises many many times and now I don't know what else we can do to get our money back. Can we contact the attorney general in their state or something like that?

I'm curious if anyone else has been through this and what you did?

[Momof3Labs]

I hear all the time of people filing claims with their credit card company for Paypal transactions gone bad. Why do you say that you cannot do that?

[brittone2]

We paid via paypal linked to our checking account...not through a debit/credit card, so we lost the protections that would provide.

I just checked paypal's site and it says to allow a "resonable" amount of time for the seller to fix things, but also that claims for items not received MUST be filed within 45 days. We're just over that now. It stinks because all along to the best of our knowledge, the company was going to make things right. Our package was temporarily lost in the mail in transit to them, their package to us was supposedly "lost" (although now of course I don't believe this at all...)...a replacement was to be sent, on and on and the days went by more quickly than I thought. Of course, with the move, etc. I wasn't entirely focused on the situation either or I would have been more on top of it.

Dh is feeling badly because he did the transaction...he made several more calls today but we can't get them to return our calls, and now I'm wondering if we can even get our money back with paypal since we are over the 45 days. It is infuriating.

[saschalicks]

I would still contact paypal and tell them the timeline and why you didn't do a claim within 45 days. Maybe, there's still something they can do.