Paypal Dispute - Help Please?

jumpingjack751 · 21 May 2007 at 2:25PM

My daughter bought a computer off ebay, via paypal, costing £500 just before christmas. To cut a long story, very short, the seller took the money & ran (after giving a fictitious tracking number & assurances on delivery) A dispute was opened but nothing resolved. We also contacted the police who were going to look into it but have heard nothing back from them although we did find out the seller used a false name. We spoke to the bank as soon as it became clear that this was a scam (the seller sold this computer 3 times, took 3 amounts of money but no computer arrives) The fraud advisor at our bank advised my daughter to file an "indemnity claim" & break all ties with ebay & paypal. The bank explained that the ruling may go in favour of my daughter or paypal & she would have to wait approx. 3 days to hear the outcome. Within a couple of days the £500 was back in my daughters a/c so she was happy & we thought that would be an end to it but no..... Since that date, someone claiming to be from paypal have been ringing my daughter ever day. She now does not answer the phone. She has also received 2 letters from "Intrum Justicia" telling her to repay the £500 to paypal. After posting on the website "paypal sucks" my daughter was told to ignore these letters which she has done. This week she has had a solicitors letter telling her to repay the money otherwise they will commence legal proceedings. We are now unsure of what to do about this. Should she continue to ignore these letters? If the bank have credited my daughter should paypal not seek their money from them? We really don't know which way to go on this. Please help!
Thanks in anticipation

frivolous_fay · 21 May 2007 at 2:38PM

Paypal sucks is a great place for scare stories but not ideal if you want an unbiased opinion.

I'm a bit confused - did the bank get you the money back? Was the original payment made with a debit card? If so, this is quite unusual (which bank is it?) and so I'm not sure exactly how things have been done.

In the event of a credit card chargeback, the money goes back to the buyer and the seller gets hassled by debt collectors. I'm not sure how it's been turned the opposite way around in your daughter's case - can you clarify?

Another good source of paypal / ebay knowhow is here:

http://forums.ebay.co.uk/forum.jspa?forumID=7

It's a bit scary but there are some very experienced and sharp people there.

jumpingjack751 · 21 May 2007 at 8:22PM

Hi & thanks for trying to help.
Firstly - My daughters a/c is just a normal current a/c with HSBC. No credit cards but a debit card comes with the a/c. When my daughter signed up for paypal she had to give an a/c where, if she was to purchase anything, paypal took the money from.
In this instance she had no money in a paypal a/c so they took the full amount via her current a/c.
The seller, at that time, had pretty positive feedback (surprisingly enough)but as I said in my previous post, this seller had 3 computers for sale & all three people paid up but no computers arrived.
Anyway, after going through the normal ebay channels by opening a dispute etc. things seemed to be taking a long time. After contacting the police my daughter spoke to the bank to see if there was anything they could do. To her surprise they said that she could file an indemnity claim & explained that HSBC would look at the "case" & if they felt that the claim was justified they would reimburse the money! So thats what they did & to our delight the money went back in her a/c two days later. We thought that would be an end to it but due to the debt collectors ringing my daughter daily & now a letter from a solicitor it appears that the bank must have taken the money back from paypal.

digerati · 22 May 2007 at 12:43AM

jumpingjack751 wrote: »

...My daughter bought a computer off ebay, via paypal, costing £500 just before christmas. To cut a long story, very short, the seller took the money & ran (after giving a fictitious tracking number & assurances on delivery) A dispute was opened but nothing resolved...

As long as you opened a PayPal dispute you will be covered. You should have some supporting paperwork from the Police such as a crime number of your Police report of the fraud.

jumpingjack751 wrote: »

...This week she has had a solicitors letter telling her to repay the money otherwise they will commence legal proceedings. We are now unsure of what to do about this. Should she continue to ignore these letters?...

Don't ignore them, but don't respond to them either. Rather go to a local CAB or free legal advice clinic for help. In any case you are the victim here and you would most likely win in any court case PayPal should bring. You should probably contact the other buyers who were victims and ask if they recovered their money. If they did - that would likely strengthen your case against PayPal.

Paypal Dispute - Help Please?

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