Scammed by Ebay and Paypal

Crowqueen

I've sold to Botswana before, they paid by bank transfer which was helpful. I did sell stamps though - so perhaps there were eager collectors in Gaborone noticing what I listed for sale.

Routinely, I would post anywhere - the sort of things I sell are not high scam-magnets - but I do tend to restrict some items to Britain, particularly the electronic stuff. I usually get what I want for those sort of items.

On Amazon, the way the fees work I'm reluctant to open to Europe though - and I get enough interest just from the UK.

RFW

CKhalvashi wrote: »

This is the problem. PayPal have managed to wangle out of registering as a bank and are then using their dominance in favour of the buyer on 9 occasions out of 10.

CK

I don't really understand the latter part of that statement, what do Paypal gain by favouring the buyer? If anything they end up losing out, if the seller doesn't pay up they lose the whole amount and if they do they have handled all the buyer/seller correspondence and often don't even have fees to show for it.

If the buyer had come on and said they purchased an item that they thought had x wrong with it and it turned up with x, y and z wrong with it, would we be advising them that that was tough and they shouldn't ask for a refund?

They tend to favour the buyer as the consumer has more rights legally and it would be unfair to favour the seller. I would also suggest that 9 times out of ten it would be the seller at fault.

I should add that that was more of a general statement as to what may have happened here and obviously not the whole picture.

Crowqueen

I would also suggest that 9 times out of ten it would be the buyer at fault.

Think you mean 'seller'.

patman99

One good reason to have 2 Paypal accounts, 1 business and 1 personal. When one gets blocked, switch to the other. Naughty and frowned upon, but I've had 2 accounts (and 2 ebay ones as well) for 10 years without any issues.

theonlywayisup

patman99 wrote: »

One good reason to have 2 Paypal accounts, 1 business and 1 personal. When one gets blocked, switch to the other. Naughty and frowned upon, but I've had 2 accounts (and 2 ebay ones as well) for 10 years without any issues.

One gets stopped so does the other.

Op you have not been scammed. You have been very ignorant.

Ellejmorgan

RHemmings wrote: »

I've heard bad things about Italy's postal service, and some parts of Africa are known for scammers. But is there something wrong with Australia?

It's because of the distance and amount of time it takes to get there, it's been said on ebays community section to take caution,
Remember doesn't have to show as sent in event of claim it has to show as delivered..
The buyers will often open a claim after a week because of the distance, not good for a newbie seller

Also well known that italy's postal service do not often obtain signatures, a sig is required claims over £100 and under has to show as delivered...

Ellejmorgan

RFW wrote: »

That is not accurate. It can only affect your credit rating if they take you to court and find against you. Paypal/Ebay won't have a credit agreement with the OP to affect credit rating if monies are owed.

I'm also not sure what the advice about not posting to Australia or Italy is about, plenty of people post there regularly (myself included) without a problem. Also recorded delivery is largely pointless for parcels.

Back to the OP, there is some recourse to Ebay/Paypal, you do need to separate which are the facts concerning them that they may have been able to handle better.

Some more points that spring to mind, did the buyer claim there were faults on the item that you hadn't described?

Where is the item now?

Also Ebay do not find for the buyer in every case, I have won several cases that buyers have opened, either trying it on or when they hadn't bothered to read the description.

Whilst you may get some good advice on here, you probably need some independent advice.

If he doesn't pay they will take him to court, but before that he will get debt company letters, companies will still exchange his details between each other, it could still affect his credit...

Don't understand the bit about not posting parcels by recorded, it goes by value not size, under £46 is recorded over is SD..

It also depends what you sell as to wether you will be scammed, if i'm selling iphones or lappies I am more likely to be scammed than if I'm selling a babygro..

theonlywayisup

Ellejmorgan wrote: »

a sig is required claims over £100

Really? Perhaps you need to read the sticky thread!

I won't comment on the thread in reply and quoting RFW as you clearly need a chance to edit.

RFW

Crowqueen wrote: »

I would also suggest that 9 times out of ten it would be the buyer at fault.

Think you mean 'seller'.

Indeed, edited, been a long day!

RFW

Ellejmorgan wrote: »

If he doesn't pay they will take him to court, but before that he will get debt company letters, companies will still exchange his details between each other, it could still affect his credit...

Correction again: "If he doesn't pay they MAY take him to court", there's a big difference, there are very few examples of Paypal taking anyone to court in similar circumstances and in some cases the seller may indeed be able to win their case. I'd suggest if it was under £100 it was unlikely, over £1000 likely, in between , who knows, seek legal advice to make sure.


It can't affect credit without going to court, and being found against, if it did it would be contravening several laws. A letter from a debt company, no matter what they say or suggest cannot affect credit rating, it is no different to Joe bloggs sending a letter asking for a debt to be paid. Saying otherwise on a site like this is quite dangerous and plays into the hands of the more unscrupulous debt collection companies who want everyone to think that way. If you don't know much about this, try not to advise on it.

Don't understand the bit about not posting parcels by recorded, it goes by value not size, under £46 is recorded over is SD..

It also depends what you sell as to wether you will be scammed, if i'm selling iphones or lappies I am more likely to be scammed than if I'm selling a babygro..

I mentioned parcels as the only usefulness for sending anything recorded is for a letter that you may need proof someone has seen. I'm sure someone else will point out the uselessness of recorded delivery as far as claims, etc goes. As I understand it is no longer a valid method of proving delivery and a claim can be made with RM with just proof of postage for low value items.
The latter sentence is indeed quite accurate, the higher the value of the item and the more sought after the more likely there will be someone around to rip you off, on Ebay or anywhere else for that matter. higher value items should be sent by Special Delivery or a courier with online tracking.