Buyer admitted altering sold item in PayPal case, against sale T&C, PayPal refunded and charged fee

jamadaia

I have had a long standing 20 year old paypal account and in perfect standing with no issues.
I use it almost only for purchases but do once in a while sell an item, which I receive funds in through PayPal and always add tracking info to it.
Suddenly in Jan, after receiving money for item I sold, they started asking me for documents even though they have everything up to date for me even bank account, cards etc. As well as hold the incoming money.
I was not happy as there was no change in my account in any sense. Not in details, device used, transactions, activity etc ... literally not a thing. They apologised and said there is no issue but for security purposes they cant tell me why and if I just supplied it things will be back to normal.
I promptly gave everything and account and money were released.
Literally 2 weeks or so later I had another thing I sold paid and again PayPal put a hold on it, but this time it was followed up by a buyer opening a case claiming the item had a fault. Problem is, they state in there case that they altered it, which is something I am very careful about as I do clearly state (and they agree to via the site, prior to purchasing), that altering an item in any way invalidates cover you have with me. When i raised this with PayPal and showed them the proof of the Terms and agreement to them, they ignored it and found in favor of the buyer regardless.
I did an appeal and they just gave a generic response stating the case is not changed and upheld as is. I even raised a Formal Complaint through there process and they did exactly the same thing and told me to go to the Ombudsman I dont agree. And despite asking on what basis they did this, given the buyer stated they altered it and my I have sale Terms that the buyer agreed to, PayPal would not even answer the question instead just sending a generic sorry your not "satisfied response, but it wont change".
To top this off they then went and put a hold on another item i sold weeks later, for which shows delivered, not complaint or issue. And even in there hold states it will only be up to a max of 7 days but usually sooner released. However over 2 weeks have gone by and not released, as well as once again refuse to answer why.
Now today they have gone a step further and charged me a £12 dispute fee, and deducted even more from my balance £19.42. When asked about dispute fees they told me its only there for rare cases and doesnt get applied to everyone. Only if you have a history of problems, which I do not and even the rep said no it should not apply to me.
I feel literally like iv been abused by PayPal and treated as some sort of criminal, and especially confused as to how a Payment Processor overrides a sellers sales Terms and Conditions that have been agreed to by the buyer. I had them checked and they are fully compliant with UK distance selling regulations.
Am I in the wrong here / misunderstood what PayPal can and cant do ?

wealdroam

Although you haven't mentioned it, was this sale through ebay?

For all things ebay, and most things Paypal, try posting in the specialist ebay board.
You'll find plenty of Paypal experts there.

Although having said that, this is the third thread you've started over the years and not once have you responded to any of the replies you've received.

theonlywayisup

A few paragraphs would help make things clearer, but I think you've had a case against you for SNAD.  You appealed and. lost and have also had a chargeback.  I am presuming these are two different cases as the first one would not need to instigate a chargeback as they won on case and appeal?  £12 is a chargeback fee.  This can be easily defended but you need to be a bit clearer in your post before most will bother to respond.