Been screwed by ebay buyers and paypal - help!

oreges

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

Many buyers now know that they can whine to paypal/ebay and get their items for nothing, it's not like sellers can even use feedback to warn other sellers any more...

You are correct I have fallen foul of this a couple of times and I know one item was delivered (Through actually asking the local postman in the area it was sent and describing the items packaging) but paypal has still refunded the buyer and said that the postman telling me that info is hearsay and also a breach of confidence, I eventually was compensated by royal mail so they dont beleive their own postmen or don,t really investigate.

soolin

vet8 wrote: »

I've been looking into this today and it seems the new Paypal T & Cs are a dream for fraudsters. You agree to buy something for £500 say, PayPal often then holds the money in their sort of suspense account for 21 days. The seller must send the item and Paypal do not release the funds until positive feedback is received. Easy to just say it has not arrived or was faulty. PayPal refund the buyer the £500 and the seller loses out.

Look at the ebay forum. There are loads of messages from people who have been ripped off. PayPal say they only hold the money if you are a high risk seller; very new to Ebay or less than 100% feedback or selling risky items, but it appears there are loads of reputable sellers who have fallen foul of this as well. I shall not be selling on Ebay any more it is just too risky. PayPal also seem to refund buyers without checking if their claims are true.

They have protected the buyers which is great, but totally shafted the sellers.

If you actually read the terms and conditions a buyer can't claim non delivery for an item if it tracks to delivery. So for the example you give, what sort of dim seller sends a £500 item without tracking

Existing sellers rarely have their money held, so this really only affects new sellers or those selling in high risk areas for large amounts, which..oddly enough are the areas where scammers operate.

vet8

However, if you read the ebay forums there are loads of long standing sellers who are missing out and also examples of sellers who have proof of delivery who are still losing money.

I just think the entire thing has swung too far in favour of the buyers. Yes there are fraudulent sellers out there, but this has made it SOO easy for fraudulent buyers and I would imagine there are a lot more of them.

StaffsSW

vet8 wrote: »

However, if you read the ebay forums there are loads of long standing sellers who are missing out and also examples of sellers who have proof of delivery who are still losing money

The overwhelming majority of these relate to fraudulent credit card use - since the inception of Chip & Pin, high street CC fraud has dropped, but it has meant that the fraudsters are moving towards online crime where the PIN does not need to be entered.

Although the Seller protection has changed recently, in the past even proof of delivery would not cover a seller if the address was unconfirmed. It was all too easy for a scammer to set up a Paypal account with a stolen card and a temporary address, order as much as they want and due to the pressures of star ratings and feedback, eBay sellers tend to be very quick to dispatch items, compared to other online sources. By the time the fraud was realised, the item was already in the post or received.

dougk_2

The fact is Ebay/Paypal don't care about buyers or "non business" sellers - they care about how much money they can get off the sellers and create inventive ways of increasing the FVF and via paypal. They are just kidding us when they say the reason for making paypal compolsory was for "protection" it was for boosting profits. If it were for protection they would have dropped the paypal fees.

Brooker_Dave

angel00079 wrote: »

What can sellers do to protect themselves against chargebacks?

Take cheques.

Only ebay banned them for being "unsafe".

Nothing to do with ebay owning paypal....

soolin

Since when are cheques banned on ebay?

I still offer them on all my auctions (except the non UK ones) but no one ever uses them.

StaffsSW

They've been banned on the US Site - only a matter of time over here I reckon.

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/Payments/

soolin

stevew8975 wrote: »

They've been banned on the US Site - only a matter of time over here I reckon.

Oh well, I suppose I ought to mind but since I am one of the sellers that has convinced ebay this is the way forward I suppose I should keep quiet. I have actually dabbled with paypal only so I have sort of encouraged ebay.:p

I hate cheques though with a passion, they don't suit my personal business model at all which relies on a quick turn round.

dougk_2

I agree that cheques are a bit "out dated" but if the only option is payapl i think that is wrong. I do not think it was right of ebay to stop other forms of electronic payment , egegoogle, fastpay etc they should be allowed. The only reason they are not is because ebay doesn't make money out of them, wghere they do with paypal. Its got nothing to do with "security" its good old fashioned greed.