Bought faulty item, dispute closed in seller's favour - advice needed please!

thriftymanc

Original problem: I opened a dispute in Paypal... except it didn't open in Paypal, only in eBay:

I bought an item on eBay which is faulty. I contacted the seller and as they didn't reply I went to Paypal to open a dispute. Doing this, I was redirected from Paypal to the eBay resolution centre. I've experienced this before, but the dispute has always shown up in my Paypal account as well as my eBay account. This time, however, the dispute doesn't show up in Paypal.

The seller has responded to the dispute and told me to sod off. I can't see any way to escalate the dispute to a proper Paypal claim so I can get my money back.

I spoke to eBay live help and they were no help. First it was 'no you haven't got a Paypal dispute open and you can't open one now', then it was 'yes it will be automatically escalated to a Paypal claim after 8 days', then it was 'to open a Paypal claim you have to phone this US number' (even though I'd already said I was in the UK). I couldn't get a straight answer after over an hour in conversation with them!

Like I said, when I've opened a Paypal claim in the past (since eBay brought their resolution centre in), it's always shown up in both my Paypal and eBay accounts. I'm concerned by the fact it's not showing up in Paypal. Has something gone wonky somewhere in opening the dispute, or will it actually be escalated to a Paypal claim if I wait?



Edit: I have a new problem now so have changed the title of this thread and updated my new query below.

Ok, I am now absolutely fuming and require advice please!

I had to wait 13 days from opening the dispute before I was allowed to escalate it, though apparently this should only have been 10 days. The option to escalate it simply did not appear until 13 days later.

In the meantime I spoke to eBay live help numerous times and they were useless. Their information kept conflicting. Many of them didn't seem to be able to speak English very well (I'd ask a simple question like "please can you tell me when I will be able to escalate this claim? It's already been 10 days" and they'd say "to open a claim please visit Paypal" - ?!) so I don't know if they even knew what I was asking.

I also emailed but got the standard copied and pasted 'how to open a dispute' emails.

I was told by eBay live help that I did not open the dispute through Paypal. In fact I did go to Paypal to open the dispute - Paypal's website redirected me back to eBay to continue opening the dispute. Why, I don't know, as it was within the 45-day limit set by Paypal. I told eBay this and they insisted I could not have gone through Paypal as it would show up in my account if I had.

After I was finally able to escalate the dispute eBay customer services, I was told to wait 48-72 hours for a decision. 4 days later no decision had been made so I got back to live help again. They said they couldn't tell me what was going on but they'd mark my dispute as a priority and I'd have to wait another 48 hours for a reply.

I logged into my email account this morning to find they'd closed the dispute in the seller's favour.

I went back to Paypal to check when I paid, and now it has gone past the 45 day limit - funny how they kept me hanging on just long enough for that to pass... so I can't do anything through Paypal. The only option available now is to claim it was an unauthorised transaction, but it wasn't, so I don't want to.

If this had been opened as a normal Paypal claim like I requested I would have returned the item and had my money back, as all I would have been required to do would be to prove I'd returned the item. I was more than willing to do this and was never given the chance in the eBay dispute process.

(Because eBay's disputes don't instruct you to return items to the seller, I didn't send it back. I was waiting for the instruction but it never came. Apparently eBay don't care about this part, unlike Paypal.)

What do I do? Is there any way I can get eBay/Paypal to reopen my claim properly?

kprigg

I havent experienced this Im afraid.
As it isnt showing in Paypal are you able to go back in & try opening a dispute from there again? Does it show you any option in ebay to escalate/ (I havent had an ebay one so I dontknow if it would or not Im afraid).
I was under the impression that with a Paypal claim you could escalate it at any point, I havent heard of the 8 day wait.

thriftymanc

I tried opening it through Paypal a second time, but it just took me back to the eBay resolution centre again, where I have to select the eBay auction ID for the item I want to dispute. But it won't let me select it again as I already have a dispute open for that auction!

I definitely opened the dispute through Paypal, but it seems as though eBay have disregarded this and acted as though I opened the claim directly through the Resolution Centre in the first place. I wish they'd never introduced the Resolution Centre, it only seems to make things more confused.

As I've never opened a dispute through the Resolution Centre alone, I have no idea what happens next. It literally shows no option to escalate, no information such as "your seller has X days to respond", or anything like that. With a Paypal claim it gives the seller a certain amount of time to respond, a certain amount of time before you can escalate, a certain amount of time before Paypal will make a decision and find in someone's favour etc. eBay doesn't have any of this. I suppose all I really can do is sit tight and hope something does happen...

jasmin10

I have one going at the moment and I think that when the time for the seller to respond has expired it brings up an additional option that allows you to escalate it and to claim your money.

jasmin10

Don't know about your case but I thought I would update you on mine. My Seller has responded and has said that he would happily leave it up to Ebay to make the decision. This said, I cannot see the option to escalate it to them to resolve.

Anyhow, I have gone through to Paypal and done it through there with all the information coped for the case. They have allowed me to escalate it. It did seem more straight forward than Ebay.

theonlywayisup

You can possibly do a chargeback via your credit card (on the grounds the item is faulty) if your credit card company agree. There are some threads around showing that some cc companies will allow them, although the majority do not.

As far as your original dispute, I don't understand why you couldn't add tracking before the decision but after escalation, as this is the normal time you would add. Waiting for a decision is the process usually done after the tracking info has been input.

After I finally managed to get the dispute escalated to eBay customer services, I was told to wait 48-72 hours for a decision to be made. 4 days later no decision had been made so I got back on to live help again. They said they couldn't tell me what was going on but they'd mark my dispute as a priority and I'd have to wait another 48 hours for a reply.

grunnie

thriftymanc wrote: »

I bought an item on eBay which is faulty. I contacted the seller and as they didn't reply I went to Paypal to open a dispute. Doing this, I was redirected from Paypal to the eBay resolution centre. I've experienced this before, but the dispute has always shown up in my Paypal account as well as my eBay account. This time, however, the dispute doesn't show up in Paypal.

The seller has responded to the dispute and told me to sod off. I can't see any way to escalate the dispute to a proper Paypal claim so I can get my money back.

I spoke to eBay live help and they were no help. First it was 'no you haven't got a Paypal dispute open and you can't open one now', then it was 'yes it will be automatically escalated to a Paypal claim after 8 days', then it was 'to open a Paypal claim you have to phone this US number' (even though I'd already said I was in the UK). I couldn't get a straight answer after over an hour in conversation with them!

Like I said, when I've opened a Paypal claim in the past (since eBay brought their resolution centre in), it's always shown up in both my Paypal and eBay accounts. I'm concerned by the fact it's not showing up in Paypal. Has something gone wonky somewhere in opening the dispute, or will it actually be escalated to a Paypal claim if I wait?


Edit: I have a new problem now so have changed the title of this thread and updated my new query below.

Ok, I am now absolutely fuming and require advice please!

I had to wait 13 days from opening the dispute before I was allowed to escalate it, though apparently this should only have been 10 days. The option to escalate it simply did not appear until 13 days later.

In the meantime I spoke to eBay live help numerous times and they were useless. Their information kept conflicting. Many of them didn't seem to be able to speak English very well (I'd ask a simple question like "please can you tell me when I will be able to escalate this claim? It's already been 10 days" and they'd say "to open a claim please visit Paypal" - ?!) so I don't know if they even knew what I was asking.

I also emailed but got the standard copied and pasted 'how to open a dispute' emails.

I was told by eBay live help that I did not open the dispute through Paypal. In fact I did go to the Paypal website to open the dispute - Paypal's website redirected me back to eBay to open the dispute. Why, I don't know, as it was within the 45-day limit set by Paypal. I told eBay this and they insisted I could not have gone through Paypal as it would be showing up in my account if I had.

After I finally managed to get the dispute escalated to eBay customer services, I was told to wait 48-72 hours for a decision to be made. 4 days later no decision had been made so I got back on to live help again. They said they couldn't tell me what was going on but they'd mark my dispute as a priority and I'd have to wait another 48 hours for a reply.

I logged into my email account this morning to find that they've closed the dispute in the seller's favour and I won't get a penny back.

I went back into Paypal to check when I paid, and of course now it has gone past the 45 day limit - funny how they kept me hanging on just long enough for that to pass... so I can't do anything through Paypal. The only option available now is to claim it was an unauthorised transaction, but it wasn't, so I don't want to do that.

If this had been opened as a normal Paypal claim like I requested I would have sent the item back and had my money back by now, as all I would have been required to do would be to prove I'd sent the item back to the seller. I was more than willing to do this and was never given the chance in the eBay dispute process.

What do I do? Is there any way I can get eBay/Paypal to reopen my claim properly?

I have read this twice and can't find if you sent the item back.

cyberbob

theonlywayisup wrote: »

You can possibly do a chargeback via your credit card (on the grounds the item is faulty) if your credit card company agree. There are some threads around showing that some cc companies will allow them, although the majority do not. .

The problem with this is if you are successful with a CC chargeback paypal will close your account and you wont be able to use it again.

I'm a wee bit confused a PP transaction that you paid via ebay should always have the transction number attached so you shouldn't need to select anything. Normally you just select the transaction in the PP resolution centre.

Just wondering OP did you pay directly by ebay or did you use the send money option? Wondering if this could be the cause of the problem

theonlywayisup

cyberbob wrote: »

The problem with this is if you are successful with a CC chargeback paypal will close your account and you wont be able to use it again.

I'm a wee bit confused a PP transaction that you paid via ebay should always have the transction number attached so you shouldn't need to select anything. Normally you just select the transaction in the PP resolution centre.

Just wondering OP did you pay directly by ebay or did you use the send money option? Wondering if this could be the cause of the problem

Ive not heard about chargebacks closing your PP account. I did have a successful chargeback via Paypal some months ago, for a childs climbing frame. It was a private sale from my private Ebay but via the business Paypal. It is still very much alive and kicking.

I have read this twice and can't find if you sent the item back.

Glad it wasn't just me. But I did read it as if the OP had NOT sent the item back. I think after escalating he/she hasn't added the tracking. They then rang re the dispute and I believe it was then referred for a decision, which would naturally go in the sellers favour and there is no tracking attached. However, it is a little confusing, so I will gladly admit to misunderstanding if that is not the case.

cyberbob

theonlywayisup wrote: »

Ive not heard about chargebacks closing your PP account. I did have a successful chargeback via Paypal some months ago, for a childs climbing frame. It was a private sale from my private Ebay but via the business Paypal. It is still very much alive and kicking..

Paypal aren't very happy with CC chargebacks there have been quite a few reports flying around of them closing accounts after these are issued. Not saying it happens all the time but it's worth considering before you go ahead.

thriftymanc

Thanks for the replies.

I didn't send it back. I was never afforded the opportunity but did want to. I will edit my first post to make it more clear.

Please remember this was an eBay dispute, not a Paypal dispute. The steps being mentioned that I 'didn't do' didn't exist in this dispute! (E.g. I didn't attach tracking information because eBay never asked for it.)

Though I did go to Paypal to open the dispute, eBay for whatever reason saw fit to only open it in the eBay Resolution Centre. In these disputes, there are only two options: message the seller or close the dispute. Nothing else. It's just a forum for buyer and seller to chat/argue with each other before eBay step in and decide who is right. I didn't send the item back and enter the tracking information, like I would have done in a Paypal dispute, because there is no option for this. Once the time was up, the third option appeared, which was 'escalate to eBay'. I did this and then wasn't allowed to add anything else to the dispute.

If eBay did decide in the seller's favour as I didn't provide tracking information, as suggested, this is highly unfair when I was never able to submit this information.

(It's as though they've treated this like I paid by cheque. I thought that was what an eBay (non-Paypal) dispute was for, i.e. effectively banging your head against a wall for a while before eBay decide the seller is right as they can't force them to refund the buyer. But I did pay with Paypal and they can force the seller to refund me, so why the hell didn't my dispute get opened there?!)

I can't do a credit card chargeback as I don't have one attached to Paypal. I didn't use the 'send money' option, I paid directly through eBay after I bid. I have a Visa debit card attached to my account but I believe this payment came straight out of my bank via direct debit. Can I do anything through my bank in this instance?