My rights to return unwanted purchases bought online

[Guest]

I (foolishly) fell for one of those facebook ads during lockdown and ordered a couple of shirts online. They took a long time to come - over a month - and, when they did, they are much smaller than they should be, and simply do not fit. I, therefore, contacted the seller to arrange to return them for a refund. I didn't know the shirts were coming from China!

After a lot of toing and froing, during which the seller said I could not return them, and then offered me a £3 refund, then a £5 refund, then a £7 - I paid £39.98 - I got in touch with paypal, since I believed that they had a dispute mechanism which would assist.

They tell me that they have "found in my favour" in that the seller will need to give me a full refund, but that I have to return the shirts to an address in China in order to get that refund.

And now the seller is back in touch offering to refund me half of the value instead of me returning it.

Clearly, I am hoping to minimise the cost to me of this foolish mistake.

Any advice? I know that I have the right to cancel within 14 days of receipt of these items, and I am still in that time, but I do not accept that I agreed to pay shipping costs to China as part of that.

[Guineveretoo]

this is me. I didn't realise I was not signed in when I wrote the post....

[pt2537]

The trader is in breach of contract in my view, the goods supplied do not conform to the contract requirements and therefore you are entitled to damages including any losses such as postage. In my view they should refund everything.

[Guineveretoo]

That is what I thought, too, but how do I enforce it when they are in China? Paypal are saying that they have found in my favour, so no further action there.

Of course, I didn't know I was dealing with a company in China when I ordered these goods, or, frankly, I would not have bothered ordering them - they took over a month to arrive...