PayPal and SOGA

DD265

So at work, somebody returned a pair of boots as leaking when they aren't designed to be waterproof, and are not sold/advertised as such. As they do not have a manufacturing fault the return was rejected. Customer raised a PayPal dispute (item not as described) and PayPal decided that the customer could have a refund.

The email to us from PayPal was along the lines of "the customer will return the item to you in the condition that they received it" which is not accurate as 1) they had already returned the item and 2) they had used it, so not the condition they received it in!

Where my question lies however is:

IF the item had been deemed faulty then the retailer has the right under the SOGA (assuming acceptance has taken place, given the amount of use and length of time customer had had these I'd say it had!) to repair, replace or refund accordingly. PayPal essentially took that choice away. I haven't bothered fighting it as it's not that high value and also I'm not sure I want to take on PayPal.

But are PayPal in the habit of doing this and are they actually allowed to?

wealdroam

Perhaps you need to reconsider whether you want to allow your customers to make purchases using Paypal.

Paypal offer the consumer more buyer protection than SoGA.
I am not sure you can choose not to abide by Paypal's ruling and keep your Paypal account.

bris

Paypals rules are their rules and have no bearing on actual UK law. They can however close your account if you do not comply with them, so you need to decide whether or not the Paypal business is worth keeping or not.

arcon5

I'm betting its in Paypals terms and conditions, so contractually you would have agreed to this.

You can breach the terms and pursue the customer for damages and they'll probably never know but probably not worth it for low value goods.

Depends what you mean by 'leaking' though. I'd expect shoes that wasn't water proof to still offer a basic level of protection when walking through wet weather - I just wouldn't expect to wear them in pouring rain and for water to not seep in

SuperHan

arcon5 wrote: »

Depends what you mean by 'leaking' though. I'd expect shoes that wasn't water proof to still offer a basic level of protection when walking through wet weather - I just wouldn't expect to wear them in pouring rain and for water to not seep in

My flip flops are terrible in the rain, my feet get soaking wet. I hadn't had an issue with them until now - Do you think I should adjust my expectations and take them back ;););)