Bike Bandit

Bought a part that I could not find in stock because it is discontinued by the manufacturer. Hoped to find some replacement, either old stock or aftermarket clone, but did find this website which listed it as "on sale" and even offered price matching as though they had it in stock.

I had hoped I had gotten lucky when I was charged for the item plus tax and shipping, and it went into processing.

Shortly afterwards, I got an email which stated the item was unavailable due to being discontinued, so they would remove the item from my order (not cancel the order, mind you, despite that being the only item on it) and provide a refund "in a few days". That was June 18, a day after placing the order. Come July, no refund.

Opened a claim in Paypal as "Item not received" expecting that I would see the credit for the full $120 spent on this order in about 2 days time. Instead, I found there was a delay while they were "awaiting seller response" and then surprisingly it took another few days to change status and I got an email saying they were altering the reason for dispute from "not received" instead calling it "missing refund or credit." This apparently has a different timetable in the resolution center as suddenly the case review time was extended to a projected date of SEPTEMBER 2!

I don't understand why it should even require their answer to resolve, as the initial payment was made with my Paypal balance, not a third party credit card or anything.

The entire transaction is handled by Paypal, and I have already provided the email that notes the unavailable nature of the product, and the promise of a refund that very clearly has not occurred. Not only that, but the order wasn't cancelled, which has somehow made that refund amount only for the listed purchase price of $98.35 when Paypal finally just offered a provisional credit until the decision is made in the resolution center! Why should they keep tax and shipping on an item that they cannot provide??

It would be one thing if the company was responsible enough to prevent this item being purchased by some other unsuspecting dupe, but it's still offered on the website for sale, where it can lure people into giving them money. Why not at least alter the sale page to indicate it is unavailable, since they obviously know it is, or else disable the ability to actually buy it?

Why not cancel the whole order and refund everything instead of "removing" the only item ordered and keeping the tax and shipping on an open order that will never be filled?

This is a clever one, and I bet that they might even get over on Paypal with this one. I expect that will eventually be a policy shift that lessens the protection offered by Paypal in the long run, which is a shame.

The only reason I trust a lot of sites is that Paypal has my back and will usually come through for me as long as I follow their rules and verification. But I'm shocked that the resolution for this is so long and I think they have exploited a loophole somehow such that it is possible I may end up eating at least part of this purchase in the end if they won't cover the tax and shipping part of my nonexistent order.

This did not happen