Lost a Paypal dispute with a buyer.

phil878787

First of all I'm sorry to write such a huge essay - I've been stressing over this so much, and I really don't know what to do about it. I really hope someone can help me out with this and offer some advice.

I sold an iPhone on eBay for £100. The phone was in great condition for its age, over all it looked almost mint - apart from the fact that it had a black shadow type mark under the screen, about the size of a penny. This was only noticable when the phone was turned off, and you still really had to look for it to see it but it was clearly there.

Anyway, I receive payment, send the phone, then receive an email a few days later, in broken English explaining that the phone is not in the condition as advertised. Immediately alarm bells were ringing as I went out of my way to list every single fault that the phone had. The way he was writing sounded like a child making up a story. It made no sense and constantly contradictded himself.

Anyway, he sends the phone back to me and it is TRASHED. I immediately noticed the black mark on the screen was not there anymore - he obviously tried to change the screen and somehow broke the actual body of the iphone, the whole thing was split almost in half, and the new screen was hanging off.

He filed a dispute, I submitted 16 images showing the condition before I sent it, literally as I was placing it in the box ready to send, as well as pictures of the screen, showing how it isnt the same screen etc.

I have no idea how but he won the dispute, even though his claim made zero sense, constantly changing his story. In the section where you can see their side of the story he makes up lies that I sent him emails bragging about how I am trying to rip him off, which is beyond foolish - these emails were of course NEVER sent, which makes me even more angry, the fact that he is trying to make me look like it's me trying to rip him off.

My question is, what the hell are my options with this? I am now being forced to refund him £100, as well as having a destroyed phone that I obviously cant sell on. Money is an issue at the moment, so when I found out I was being ripped off I felt terrible.

I spoke to someone at eBay about this, and they were very apologetic. The guy seemed to genuinely care but said to contact Paypal. I've sent them 4 emails in 4 days and are yet to hear a response.

CashStrappedTeen89

Ive had a similar issue before but for me it was ordering phone parts, spent £150+ and it seemed more than half where faulty. After I tested and checked all parts I issues for a refund.
He won and refused to refund me even though i'd returned all faulty items and had proof he said he would give me the refund for the parts.

I tore PayPal a new one, google every way you can complain about PayPal, even if the decision had been applied you can still appeal this, I googled it and it gave me an email address which I emailed the most long winded email ever.
I complained to trading standards and watch dog to, complain complain complain.

In the end I got 80% returned, some parts replaced and the buyer barred from PayPal.

freddysmith

Phone Paypal and talk to them.

dottodot

How very frustrating. There seem to be some people making a profit by buying items then returning a damaged item that they already have, thereby getting a freebie. A similar thing happened to a friend of mine with a baby monitor. She did exactly as suggested above - appealed, complained extremely strongly, and the decision was overturned. I'd suggest compiling together all the evidence, highlight the ludicracy of the buyer's lies, etc. I think sometimes PayPal will take the easy route and you need to force them to actually apply some scrutiny to this case - and point out that this seems to be someone exploiting their system, not just you - its in their interest to crack down on such users.