Seems like India is pumping our more than it's fair share of dodgy freelancers I got ripped off nicely by some dodgy freelancer who said he would convert my psd to Drupal... the deal was $250 once it was completed. initially told me that he would take 2 days ended up 3 weeks and still a half assed job.. about 75% was done and even that was crap. After 3 weeks he tells me his had an accident and that his going to have spinal surgery so he can't finish the job!! what's with Indian freelancers constantly dropping dead or having accidents?? So stupid me thought if I discounted $50 and take what was done already and fix it up with another coder it would add up, but the work was so crap that my new coder just re-did the whole thing from scratch. So the $200 I gave him was for nothing, I paid via paypal... can i do anything about it?
You can make a claim through paypal. State that you did not receive what was agreed upon and that what you did receive was unusable. Because this is a digital good, you probably only have a 50-50 chance of recouping your money, but starting a claim wont hurt you at the very least.
Agreed with Jestep, start it as soon as possible and try to gather as much information and evidence as possible. I would also recommend getting the other coder to write an email to Paypal outlining the problem.