Harrassed by Paypal Debt Collector

jcumpsty

Hi,

I am really worried about this now and need some advice.

In March 2007, I had a ceramic sink left over from when I fitted my kitchen. I put it on ebay. There was very little interest in the sink, until a buyer from Budapest saw it, and selected the buy it now link.

I was a bit dubious sending anything abroad, especially because the cost of shipping the sink was nearly as much as the valuke of the sink itself. But when I asked, the buyer replied that he couldnt get Rangemaster products in Hungary.

To be safe (I thought), I waited until I had the money out of paypal and into my bank account before shipping the sink. It was shipped by Parceline and included damage insurance. It was collected 25 April 2007.

Around the same time as I shipped it, the buyer filed a complaint with Paypal that they had not received the product.

Two weeks later they escallated the complaint to a claim that they wanted a refund.

Communication was very poor from Paypal. The day after I received notification of the claim, I forwarded tracking details to Paypal via email.

Over the course of the next week, I received barely legible emails from paypal that they could not verify my tracking details. THe link opened fine for me, but paypals staff seem to be located in the third world, and speak very poor English.

After getting no joy from paypal, I requested, received, and forwarded to Paypal a copy of the signed delivery note, signed by the purchaser. Paypal, for an unexplained reason rejected or chose to ignore this. I am assuming the paid out the claim to the purchaser because they then started chasing me for the money.

In one contact with the buyer, he claimed to have received the sink, but it was smashed. I requested and received photos of the damage; the box was destroyed. Yet there was no mention of damage on the delivery note; the buyer even had to pay some COD charges for part of the delivery, which they paid. Why would they do that and sign for the delivery if it was damaged? I told the courier it was damaged and was requested to get the receiver to file a claim. I sent the courier details to the buyer. He never filed a claim.

Then, in December 2008, I started getting letters from Intrum Justcia, a debt collector charged with recovering £150. I have spoken with them several times, and most recently, yesterday, after sending them another copy of the delviery note. I was told Paypal rejected the proof of delivery (not given a reason) and, according to paypal, I still owe them money.

I am now concerned that this company with scar my unblemished credit report. They are quite rude and abrupt on the phone, and despite me spending a lot of time, and getting stressed with this they are not going away.

Can I go to the police and complain of harrasment? I know they wont investigate but will it be allocated a crime number, incase I end up in court?

sarahg1969

Might be helpful to re-post this in the ebay forum. There should be some knowledgeable people to assist you there.

hatcheth

I dealt with these monkies before. They send a lot of letters!

They were trying to recover a fee from me for a debt they didn't collect. Here are the excerpts of the letter I sent them, which finally made them go away..

"
I am writing to confirm my telephone conversation with you, in relation to your letter I received in today’s post.

In relation to my debt, I have already paid the full amount outstanding to ebay. I paid this when I tried to bid on an item and was told my account was suspended.

In relation to your £ 16 fee. I am not prepared to pay it for the following reasons.

• The current ebay terms and conditions (which is entirely different to the ones I signed up to when I joined ebay) make reference to: “Please note that the collection agency will also charge you a proportionate and reasonable fee for the collection of the unpaid eBay fees, which will vary according to the amount owed and which will be payable in addition to the outstanding eBay fees”. As you did not collect any debt from me (I paid ebay direct) you have no claim to any fees.
• Ebay never gave notice to me of any outstanding debt. Any emails which they have sent to me did not arrive. Email is not a guaranteed form of transmission and on its own is not sufficient communication mechanism to give notice of debts being sent to a debt collector. Any written correspondence from ebay would have been returned with an immediate payment.
• When I signed up to Ebay in 2002, there was no mention in the terms and condition at the time that they would refer debts to a debt collector.

I have been advised by your operator that despite the above, you still intend to collect the £ 16 collection fee. I therefore ask you to immediately refer this case to the county court without any additional delay or further fees, so that this matter can be settled as soon as possible. In advance of any hearing I would ask that you represent to me the authority under which you are acting under and the specific ebay term and condition you seeking to recover this fee from.

So as to represent my case correctly at county court. Please ensure any future communication is in writing, do not represent yourself at my property, by email or telephone. This is in line with the OFT guidance on collecting debts. "

Good luck..

Mark_Hewitt

very nice. I'll have to remember that one!