Been screwed by ebay buyers and paypal - help!

Smirch_This

I sold a few items on ebay totalling £60. Unfortunately, due to my wife having a miscarriage, the buyers all got the !!!! having to wait a whopping 10 days (talk about impatient!) and opened claims for non receipt.

Now all the items HAVE been sent (I'm not a rip off merchant!) but I didn't get adequate proof of postage thanks to the idiots in the post office not knowing what it was and insisting that the cash receipt was adequate. Consequentially, all 4 buyers have decided to obviously keep the stuff and carry on with the claim knowing that they'll get their money back.

To protect my !!!!, knowing how bad they are, I cancelled my debit card attached to the account. My paypal account is now -£60.

Now I'm really not going to pay that as it's pretty obvious I'm being ripped off.

Having had a run in with paypal 2 years ago over sellers fees for a laptop which was repetitively a victim of "buy it now" from stolen accounts, with no fees refunded, I'm not confident that I'm going to get anything out of them..

Last time they set the debt collectors on me and I dutifully paid up as it was £30, but £60 is taking the !!!! so I'm not footing the bill.

Help! What course of action can I take? I really can't afford to lose £60 to them at the moment.

frivolous_fay

The printed receipt is enough for you to claim compensation, IF the items failed to arrive. How long after posting did they open the disputes?

Anything sent non-trackable over £34 isn't covered, unfortunately.

Smirch_This

I don't want compensation - I want the money back off paypal.

I think they did arrive which is the problem. I sent a lot of commercial post at the same time which has arrived fine. I think the buyers are aware that paypal is very lapse when it comes to protecting sellers and have made the most of it.

The disputes were closed off and processed by paypal in less time than it takes RM to acknowledge the items were lost.

I explained that items were non trackable and under the value of £34 so they I will not refund them. Paypal thought otherwise and refunded them giving me a negative balance.

StaffsSW

I thought the paypal seller protection was quite clear on this - send within 7 days, via a trackable or recorded delivery method, to a confirmed address - and even this latter is not so much of an issue now.

Regardless if you decided that they were not getting a refund, it was not your decision to make, since you used the services of Paypal, and therefore they call the shots. You did not adhere to their terms, therfore they are in no position to give you the funds back.

If YOU were the buyer and did not receive the item, would you take it lying down? You "think" they arrived, but can you prove it?

Hopefully you still have the proof of postage slips - get a bundle of P58 forms from the post office, and start making the claims that way.

Call this experience part of the learning curve. I send most low value items by standard 1st class mail, but I have a degree of loss/shrinkage worked into my pricing plan, and therefore accept that a few will go missing, or fraudulent item not received claims will be made.

StaffsSW

Actually - just re-read the first post.

After your previous experiences with paypal and debt collectors, I'm surprised you have not been ultra-cautious with your transactions since then.

I'd kiss the £60 goodbye, and it's now a damage limitation exercise to prevent a permanent block on you using paypal, and therefore eBay. they WILL send the debt collectors onto the £60 if you have cancelled all the funding methods. What you have done is the classic signs of what scammers do with their paypal accounts.

It's not what you want to hear, admittedly, but Paypal have T&C's that you agreed to when you opened the account.

soolin

Don't forget as well that ultimately having no paypal account will mean no more sales on ebay.

Yes it is hard sometimes and your circumstances are unfortunate and I pass on my sympathy to you and your wife. However unless you are going to let this stress you even more I can only echo what the others have said, claim for loss from the RM and repay paypal. There is nothing else you can do here at all as you failed to comply with paypal terms and conditions.

Smirch_This

It states that 14 days is acceptable in ebay terms and conditions. ebay are legally speaking the merchant. I am within my rights to send at 10 days. Paypal and ebay are working against the seller with conflicting terms.

Also, Paypal never used to have this policy - I've used them for over 6 years with no trouble and was not notified of the T&C changes. I have my email archived going back to 1995 so I think I would have noticed!

And yet again, they FORCED me to use paypal in the first place, rather than cheque/postal order, trapping me into the conflicting terms.

I've actually thrown the remaining ~ £100 left of stuff in the bin - it's not worth it any more.

soolin

Your dispute though is not with ebay it is with paypal and their terms and conditions state 7 days.

The policy has been in force certainly for all the years I have used paypal.

StaffsSW

Smirch_This wrote: »

It states that 14 days is acceptable in ebay terms and conditions. ebay are legally speaking the merchant. I am within my rights to send at 10 days. Paypal and ebay are working against the seller with conflicting terms.

Also, Paypal never used to have this policy - I've used them for over 6 years with no trouble and was not notified of the T&C changes. I have my email archived going back to 1995 so I think I would have noticed!

And yet again, they FORCED me to use paypal in the first place, rather than cheque/postal order, trapping me into the conflicting terms.

I've actually thrown the remaining ~ £100 left of stuff in the bin - it's not worth it any more.

eBay are NOT the merchant, as they did not supply the goods to the buyer - that was you. eBay were the "venue" were the transaction took place. I'm curious to know where this 14 day rule is within eBay. A search of the Help pages only shows the 14 day rule mentioned for returns and change of user agreements etc.

As has been said many times, nobody has FORCED to use paypal, or even eBay. Depending on the category you listed in, you still could have offered to accept cheques or Postal Orders, but your buyer decided they wanted to use Paypal to pay you. You made the choice to sell your items on ebay, therefore you also made the decision to abide by their T&C's.

I've been accused many many times on here of being a heartless/cliquey/disgusting/jumped up etc seller, nay, A Powerseller (who eats babies and burns your house down) but I know what side my bread is buttered on.

Nobody can be a seller without buyers... Just ask anyone who has tried selling on eBid!!

Hintza

Don't think I'll enter this discussion!!

(My granny always said if you have nothing nice to say then say nothing)

Not that I can do that all the time :eek:

pinkshoes

If the items did not arrive, and you at least have a proof of postage, then claim the cost of the items back from Royal Mail.

You can't moan at ebay, paypal or the buyers - you sent them off really late, and didn't send them recorded delivery, which is all your fault.

I'm sorry your wife had a miscarriage, but don't blame your mistake on others.