paypal took £220 from me for no reason...help??

hussabbas

Hi

i am looking for advice about a sale i made

it was through ebay i sold a phone for £220 including postage

the buyer had 1+ feedback

he paid instantly via paypal and i recived the money in my account

i sent the phone SD and the buyer left good feedback

2 days later paypal took the 220pounds and sent it back to the sender and the buyer is ignoring me.

paypal says that i am not covered by buyers seller protection.

what should i do?? thanks

ukbill69

Nothing you can do, you have just been done by fraud!

Next time only send to a confirmed address and make sure the paypal account is varified.

rdwarr

How that reply justifies the phrase "Helping People" within its signature is beyond me. :mad:
This was the OP's first post and they were expecting some help, not a smug "you've been stuffed because you're not as clever as me" type reply.

Of course there are things you can do. You have supplied goods to a person at a real address and they have been signed for. You have proof that there was a contract to supply these goods for £220 and proof that you no longer have the money.
Whether Paypal will help you or not is not an issue.
Write to the buyer giving him 14 days to pay or you'll begin court procedings. Then do the latter.
There are many people and websites online who will help.

Sugar_Coated_Owl

Have PayPal contacted you to say that the buyer has initiated a chargeback or has PayPal just put a temporary hold on the funds until the situation is resolved?

I think you've done the right thing by sending the item via special delivery as this is online trackable.

I would definately advise you to get the buyers contact details from ebay and give the buyer a call. Also it might be a good idea to give PayPal a call as well to see if they can rectfy this situation and/or advise you what to do next.

bleugh

read up on https://www.paypalwarning.com
https://www.aboutpaypal.org
https://www.paypalsucks.com

unfortunatley, this is a common scam, people simply don't read the paypal TOC

you are only covered by the protection if you send to an address thats confirmed, and only send to the address within paypal

unfortunatley here, you may be limited to trying court proceedings (or visiting with many rugby player type mates)

good luck getting your money,

if you want to try the small court thing,

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk

pepperoni_2

You can find more info here https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco2/index.jsp
You can print the forms off and send them.
Paypal are next to useless, refusing to accept any responsibility for buyers fraudulent actions...but very happy to take the fees....much like ebay.
Frankly the whole thing stinks, sellers pay for a service and are continually ripped off.
You are going to have to deal with this yourself.
Make sure the buyer is refusing your attempts to contact.
Check out the address you sent the phone to.
Check that they actually live there.
Check if the PP and ebay accounts are verified
DO THIS FOR EVERY SALE YOU MAKE WITH PAYPAL...SETTING YOUR OWN VALUE LIMIT .I.E. THE AMOUNT YOU ARE PREPARED TO LOSE!!

Read https://www.paypalsucks.com

...and don't feel too bad...we've all been there...most people are honest and can be trusted...don't let the few rotten ones ruin you day....what goes round comes round...it's a fact.


...beat me to it bleugh!!


P.S.do NOT threaten anyone....if it goes to count they will take a very dim view of your actions.....oh I know...the temptation!!

hjb123

Would the police get involved? After all someone has an item of yours - you have their address etc and they have committed fraud?

Mr_Squiddy

hjb123 wrote:

Would the police get involved? After all someone has an item of yours - you have their address etc and they have committed fraud?

They would say that it is a civil matter, not a criminal one. To be honest, these days it is difficult enough to get them to investigate criminal matters so a case such as this would stand no chance.

I think that small claims court is the next step.

kenix_2

Hi,

that happened to me when i was selling on eBay and accepting paypal.

Personally I do not use Paypal now coz i feel they protect only buyers. It is normal to get this false chargeback.

I only use paypal for digital items, like dropship webstore whereby if buyers scam me and file chargeback after they receive their item, i can shut down their whole webstore. So this way, both seller and buyer are protected.

Otherwise, i think moneybookers or nochex is much better and safer.

Paypal will anyhow withdraw money from seller account and reimburse buyer first before any further investigation. I feel this is their marketing strategy. They feel that when buyers prefer paypal, seller would have no choice but to accept paypal. Honestly speaking, it does make a difference in sales volume if you accept or don't accept paypal. but i rather earn less and not accepting paypal, because there is a high risk you will loose money anyway!

Mr_Squiddy

This is a thorny issue. Whilst it would seem that sellers are being easily defrauded, there will be cases where honest buyers are being protected from crooked sellers.

There should be a PayPal feedback/history system like the eBay one. Sellers could vet prospective buyers to see how many chargebacks they had initiated. This would be a strong indication that the buyer is either fraudulent or !!!!less (e.g. buying stuff on the spur of the moment and then deciding they don't want it.)

Of course this would seriously screw up PayPal's business model so I don't seen it happening.

Pound

hussabbas: Did the buyer have a confirmed address? If he has you should be able to dispute the chargeback. Otherwise, the money is gone as far as PayPal is concerned.

MoneyClaim/court proceedings are only good if a) you can track the buyer down (ie. they live at the address it was posted to) and b) the buyer doesn't care about having a CCJ. Otherwise you're potentially throwing away up to £80.