David Ahoubim Paris Fashion - ClothingIsland.com Sent wrong order; avoided me first then tricked me into sending merchandise back and never refunded me money. Los Angeles California

On Feb 14, 2008, I made an online purchase through PayPal from ClothingIsland.com for $170.39. When I received my order on the 21st I saw that the more than 75% of the order was incorrect. I attempted to contact the sellers via email and by phone on 21, 23 Feb and 7, 14 March to inform them that a lot of the items that they sent me are not what I ordered. I finally spoke with someone on 14 March and she tried to help me, but after being on hold for 15 minutes, she came back and said that she could not help me and that she would leave a message for David to call me the next day. Because of the time difference, I gave her a specific time to call. Three days went by and he never called. At this point I was frustrated so I went to PayPal to see what I could do.

According to PayPal Policy this was my option:

When you open a dispute, you'll inform PayPal about the type of problem you are having and then post a message explaining the situation to your seller.

PayPal sends an email to the seller letting them know that I have opened a dispute.

The seller will review the message and respond by posting a message in the Resolution Center.

To help ensure that problem transactions are addressed within a reasonable period of time, you must close or escalate your dispute to a PayPal claim within 20 days. After 20 days, your dispute will automatically close.

This meant that I had until April 3, 2008 to resolve the matter or escalate it to a claim. The Seller, Mr. David Ahoubim did not respond to the dispute until 26 March 2008 therefore leaving me only 7 days to work with. At that time he posted that he was willing to refund the money for items that were the wrong size, but not color because his website states that sometimes you might not get the color that you ask for. On the same date I responded to the post and told him to please guide me and show me the policy on the website where it stated that, otherwise, I would like a full refund. He failed to prove the policy.

On the same night (26 March) I received an email from Mr. Ahoubim directing me to give him a call on his personal cell phone so that we can resolve the matter. I called him, and at that point we came to an agreement, that I would return all the things that I did not want, and for those things that I decided to keep, he would give me a 40% discount and refund the difference. He also informed me that I would have to cancel my dispute so that PayPal would release the money back to him so that he can give me my refund.

At this point I only had 4 days to work with, so I kept one item and overnight expressed the rest back to the company by USPS. (The package was signed for by the company @ 1000hrs on 31 March 2008). I checked with Paypal and they recommended that I not cancel until I got my refund.

I sent an email to Mr. Ahoubum on 1 April 2008, with the delivery confirmation info from USPS and inquired about the refund and how long it would take. He did not respond. I called the number that he gave me and got the VM, I left him a message with all of my contact information; still nothing. So checked at that point I had no choice by to escalate my dispute to a claim (April 2, 2008); I had no time left. I got an automated message back saying that my claim does not qualify for a refund under PayPal policy, because or wrong color or size, completely disregarding the fact that I returned all of the items, like he asked. I also email PayPal to get an exception because I sent the items back before the time my 20 days were up. All I was told was that I was pretty much out of luck. They told me to get me a lawyer and sue. But I can't afford a lawyer.

In attempt to try to get my money back, I continued to try and get in contact with the Seller by sending numerous emails. At one point, I told him of my plans to file fraud charges against him. Low and behold, it worked, because he emailed me back. He told me that he send me a check in the mail over a month ago. I told him that I did not receive anything and that he would get with his financial institution to see is the check was stolen/cashed. He said that he would. He emailed me and told me that the bank told him that it would take 24 hrs. I emailed him to find out what his bank said and to this day, I have not heard from him.

This is why I am writing, because Mr. Ahoubim deliberately tricked me into sending his merchandise back and keeping my money. He knows what the policy is and he intentionally did not respond to dispute against him until 12 days later, leaving me not much time to work with. He got me to send the items back, by promising to refund my money. He got the merchandise back and since then has been unreachable and uncooperative

Kim
Temple Hills, Maryland
U.S.A.