Ebay/paypal censor criticism

stephanie95798

3 12 09
I have had the following post removed and been emailed a warning because I told the truth re paypal supporting sellers who state they are selling one item but send one that does not meet their description; breaking UK DISTANCE SELLING LAWS.

Paypal have not only supported the seller [who presumably I cannot name on ebay forums, even though he is STILL selling the same described item though highly probably this is NOT the one he will send; thus exposing other innocent buyers to the same deception, disappointment and waste of time and money that I have suffered] but are CENSORING criticism of their actions and stance.

ORIGINAL POST REMOVED BY EBAY/PAYPAL

"PAYPAL FORCE BUYERS TO PAY WHEN SELLERS DECEIVE."

3 12 09 I am going to leave ebay/paypal after 11 years use since paypal state:

'As our user agreement states, for a buyer to receive a refund in a case of an item not being described, we, unfortunately, do require the buyer to
incur the cost of the postage of the item back to the seller. We understand that in many cases such as yours that the cost of posting the item with
tracking may be almost as much as the cost of the item but this is our position on such cases.
Yours sincerely, Aiden, Paypal'

So sellers can [and 'SCENEANDHEARD2' has done this to me] advertise items, get you to spend time buying them, take your money, and SEND DIFFERENT ITEM. And YOU the buyer has to PAY MORE in time and money to redress the balance because the seller has DECEIVED YOU; without any regard to your time already wasted and the disappointment and frustration resulting.

And EBAY/PAYPAL support this.

So apologies to all other sellers who have lost £100s of potential business with me, an honest and superfast payer, because 'SCENEANDHEARD2' behaves dishonestly and paypal support him.

And all for £3.99!!"

soolin

Paypal though do not have mechanism to take additional money from a seller account, all they can refund is the original payment that you made.

JimmyTheWig

Are they a business seller?
If so, what's the law on this? Could they take the seller to court? (For the principal of the matter, rather than the £3.99, obviously!)

stephanie95798

Ta for replies. All large companies could compensate the customer when it is clear that the rules of selling, by which they abide, have been broken. It makes simple business sense to keep the customer....for £3.99.... But ebay/paypal are notoriously greedy, with their boards even full of disgruntled sellers; not just buyers.

I have had the good fortune to have the few problems with most previous ebay sellers settled amicably; often they have given refunds without troubling me further when it is clear that the fault lies with them; just like companies such as Play/HMV/Amazon seem to do.

But this seller refused to acknowledge the repercussions arising from him sending something that did not meet his own description and rather than just settling as 'compensation' forced me to take it up with ebay/paypal.

On previous occasions, I have alerted ebay/paypal to criminal activity on their site and tried to ensure fairness and honesty; but they ignored the alerts and the rogue sellers presist. They have also avoided sanctioning this seller, who loses NOTHING by this as he would get the item to re-sell and thus aim to make his money again. As stated he is STILL using the same description but it is doubtful he has now obtained the correct stock....the item he sent was likely from a batch of OOP stock rather than the NEW ISSUE he claims to sell.

He operates as a business seller and as sale was BUY IT NOW, is under Distance Selling Regs. But any further effort would involve me having to send Recorded Delivery letter to him [C Direct advise] and then the likelihood of involving a court!!
Clearly not worth the £3.99 after £££££s of time and effort already expended.

As I have now had all approaches to ebay/paypal to correct their decision, rejected, I decided my last effort would be to fully publicise the unfair matter as much as some joining/copying and pasting might allow.

My withdrawing from ebay/paypal will deprive them of any finance from myself even if their walls of money protect them anyway. That is as much PRINCIPLE as I am prepared to take. I can spend my money elsewhere and if I miss out on good ebay seller deals then so be it.

I was also set to make my Xmas donations by paypal this year, instead of cheque, but they can forget getting their cut on those too!

Lifeisbutadream

Paypal are simply a law unto themselves. I hate them and refuse to use them anymore now.

I bought an item from ebay for £16.00 not realising that my CC had gone out of date the item was posted to me and then I got an email from the seller asking why the funds had been taken back.

I had £6 in my PayPal account, but rather than taking £10, PayPal took the whole £16 (but didnt give me back my £6!) I sorted it out immediately but the seller then had to wait 5 working days to get the funds - luckily she was extremely understanding, but it was very embarrassing.

I wrote to them but just got a garbled reply which didnt even make sense.

Good luck with whatever you do OP, as in my experience PayPal simply do not care about customer satisfaction.

edgex

soolin wrote: »

Paypal though do not have mechanism to take additional money from a seller account, all they can refund is the original payment that you made.

so they should come to some arrangement with Royal Mail to operate a returns system.

whether that be simply issuing a recorded delivery stamp/sticker for the customer returning the item, & paypal bearing the cost
or
issuing a paypal/ebay return number, with the item being posted to a paypal/ebay returns centre, with them then forwarding it to the seller, & bearing the cost


many online retailers manage to arrange couriers to collect return items, or arrange a credit of the postage costs
& ebay/paypal are rapidly looking more & more like any other online retailer

JimmyTheWig

What do you think would have happened if you had arranged this sale through the classified ads of your local paper?
Do you think the paper would pay your postage costs? Or would it be left (entirely) to you to sort out with the seller?

Incidentally, the seller has lost out in this case as he has had to pay out for postage. SO at least you are both equally down. Don't know what the deal is with eBay fees in these instances, either.

edgex

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

What do you think would have happened if you had arranged this sale through the classified ads of your local paper?
Do you think the paper would pay your postage costs? Or would it be left (entirely) to you to sort out with the seller?

Incidentally, the seller has lost out in this case as he has had to pay out for postage. SO at least you are both equally down. Don't know what the deal is with eBay fees in these instances, either.

the classified ads in the paper are quite often free, & you would then go & collect the item in person, with a cash payment


ebay/paypal is quite different:
ebay charge fees, paypal also charge fees
they cant keep taking the upside, charging endless fees, without taking on some of the downside, that they might actually need to get involved & sort out a proper returns system



if, as the OP has stated, the seller sent an item that was not as described, yes they have 'lost out', however they are the very cause of their own loss

soolin

edgex wrote: »

so they should come to some arrangement with Royal Mail to operate a returns system.

whether that be simply issuing a recorded delivery stamp/sticker for the customer returning the item, & paypal bearing the cost
or
issuing a paypal/ebay return number, with the item being posted to a paypal/ebay returns centre, with them then forwarding it to the seller, & bearing the cost
r

I think you misunderstand paypal's role in this.

Would you expect your credit card company to issue a pre paid envelope if you claimed under their responsibilities to return an item?

custardy

edgex wrote: »

so they should come to some arrangement with Royal Mail to operate a returns system.

whether that be simply issuing a recorded delivery stamp/sticker for the customer returning the item, & paypal bearing the cost
or
issuing a paypal/ebay return number, with the item being posted to a paypal/ebay returns centre, with them then forwarding it to the seller, & bearing the cost


many online retailers manage to arrange couriers to collect return items, or arrange a credit of the postage costs
& ebay/paypal are rapidly looking more & more like any other online retailer

yes but the card you paid with doesnt organise return postage?

edgex

soolin wrote: »

I think you misunderstand paypal's role in this.

Would you expect your credit card company to issue a pre paid envelope if you claimed under their responsibilities to return an item?

but paypal arnt just paypal

its 'ebay/paypal', its the same entire business now



if i buy from ABC.com, they can have a choice of postage methods, a choice of who processes their payments, & i the buyer have a choice of payment methods
if i need to return the item, they would usually either arrange collection, or provide a credit for the postage amount once the item has been returned
ABC.com have taken the money, theyve chosen how to handle returns.

in this case, the supplier has taken the hit on the return postage costs



if you buy from [EMAIL="ABC@ebay"]ABC@ebay[/EMAIL], they have no choice on anything, ebay/paypal have already taken away all choices, they state how you 'should' post, you have to accept paypal, & realistically the only payment system available to buyers is paypal
paypal have taken the money, & its paypal that have chosen how to handle returns

as you stated in post #2, they can only refund what you paid
so, in this case, the buyer has taken the hit on the return postage costs


why should the buyer lose out?
paypal have had their fees, paypal have dictated how to handle returns, why dont they have to take any of the downsides associated with that?