paypal investigation...

aeuerby

We had a payment reversed by paypal last week.
Paypal claim they are investigating the account.
Having contacted the buyer he claimed he knew nothing about the dispute.
He contacted paypal and he said that paypal have frozen the account he used because his other paypal account had also been frozen due to being hijacked a few weeks ago.
Fortunately we hadn't sent the item - but only becasue we missed the post that day!

He offered to ring the next day to pay via credit card over the phone which we cannot do and told him this. I offered to send him a google invoice.
This all happened last Thursday, he bought the item Tuesday night.

No contact was made by him despite a few emails asking him to let us know what was going on.
On Tuesday we sent another message asking him to contact us to update us on what was happening and gave him until yesterday to do this otherwise we would start NPB to recover fees.
He got rather annoyed at this yesterday and said he'd ring later, which he did.

He is now of course having to proove to Paypal who he is and they are sending him a letter via snail mail, which he says will take a few days but I have read can take upto and beyond 4 months :eek:

Anyway he was asked if we could send a google invoice, he aggreed so one was sent. We also told him that should paypal remove his restrictions and give us his payment back we would refund it straight away.

That was yesterday, the invoice was sent to the email address he gave us as soon as the call was ended but he still hasn't paid.

It is 9 days since he did the Buy it now. I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and we're trying to be patient as I know how awful paypal customer services can be, but can't help thinking he is messing us about especially as he doesn't seem to answer messages or emails while still bidding on items on ebay.
anyone got any suggestions?

windswept

Unfortunately we all get buyers that like to mess us about.
He's probably annoyed at Paypal and is taking his frustrations out on you,
buyers sometimes get it into their heads that we, the sellers, are ebay and have control over what ebay and paypal actually do! I've had buyers contact me and ask me to sort out their problem with one or the other.
It would seem odd that he's still actively bidding on ebay though.

I've got 2 Npb-s at the moment, the 7 days is up tomorrow for one and Saturday for the other, this always seems to happen when we are due to go away - they should give buyers 3 days to respond, not 7.

allsinginganddancing

Hi, i had a similar thing happen to me with a chap from America but i sent the goods and paid a lot of postage too! paypal did their investigation (ha!) and returned the money back to the buyer.....i tried everything and still did not even get a reason...very frustrating and upsetting. My advice is to let this one go, it smells of trouble whether honest or not...enjoy your holiday

fighting the overdraft -1- non eating chocolate day at 9.53am - 0- YES!!!!
very proud member of Murphy's no more pies, club member 104

syanide

sounds like you have a scammer there to be honest..

aeuerby

I don't know.

He has since rung us and agreed to a google invoice which was sent.
We then got a message via ebay saying he hadn't received the invlice so he was then sent another 2.
They were sent (copy and pasted) to the 2 email addresses he sent us.

I then thought about it overnight and wondered if the emails we send (not via ebay) are getting through so I sent him a message this morning via ebay stating we had sent a further 2 invoices.

It's still early but no payment as yet, and he's still bidding on items on ebay.

The worrying thing now though is if he is a scammer and he leaves us a neg or neutral, it will push us into the bottom 1% of "bad" sellers and out account will be restricted.

digerati

allsinginganddancing wrote: »

Hi, i had a similar thing happen to me with a chap from America but i sent the goods and paid a lot of postage too! paypal did their investigation (ha!) and returned the money back to the buyer.....i tried everything and still did not even get a reason...very frustrating and upsetting.

If the buyer is in the USA your best chance for recovery of your funds or item is to contact the USPS Postal Inspectors. You can file a Mail Fraud complaint with them since you sent the item via Royal Mail and those items are delivered in the USA by the US Postal Service. The Postal Inspectors will assist you and have an excellent success rate.

You'll need to print out the complaint form and send printed copies of all archived emails with headers intact, PayPal payment details, eBay auction listings, etc.

Next, file a complaint with the buyer's local Police for "obtaining goods /theft by deception" and get them to open a Criminal case so you'll get a case number. Document all your emails and phone calls, who you speak to, and what action they will take in building a criminal case. If local Police are not interested, contact a District Attorney or the State Attorney in buyer's locale.

If you can locate other victims of this fraudster, it will reinforce to Police and Postal investigators that it isn't a routine civil matter, but a clear case of premeditated fraud. Contact other victims by checking buyer's eBay feedback (replace scam with buyer's ID) for other complaints. Give your case number to other victims so they can coordinate with investigators.

Do NOT warn the buyer that you're taking these steps. The US Postal Inspector and US law enforcement will have a much easier time if the fraudster isn't alerted. At least you'll have some chance of either recovering your item, money or getting some justice.

You should contact PayPal and eBay to make complaints and ask them to cooperate with investigators. Lastly you can always send a name & shame letter warning the editors of local newspapers in the buyer's home town or city that a scammer lurks in their midst and is giving their country and nice town a bad name abroad... they'll often run it on a slow news day.

UK PayPal phone 08707-307-191 or freephone 0800-358-7929; 09:00 - 18:00 (GMT/BST) Monday - Friday

Hope this helps :-)
(It's worked for me several times over the years with US scammers.)