Paypal, fraud and debt collectors - please advise!

soolin

HeatherandTom I know you post this exact same post over and over but it might be more helpful to actually understand more about the problems some people have with paypal, but also acknowledge that other payment methods also have their serious problems as well.

There are no truly safe ways of accepting payment on ebay, until recently I thought that direct bank transfers were 100% secure but it seems from reading a couple of posts on this forum and also on the 'everything else' forum that even these can be recalled.

BACS of course is not an open and easy sytem and costs money to use and is totally recallable, so that isn't exactly a wonderful solution either.

You must also remember that people sell on ebay to make money, not accepting paypal can limit your potential bidders and so may reduce your income in the long run. I am not alone in refusing to buy anything unless I can use paypal.

Ebay are a business so why are you surprised they are out to make money from us? Yes the fees can be very steep, and as someone who has just checked my credit card statement and seen my latest bill it does make me wince, but I have the choice. If I didn't like it my protest would have to be to walk away and find another way of making myself some pin money and I'm not prepared to do that.

The OP has a major problem that does occur, luckily infrequently, with paypal. He has asked for help and some people have been able to try to offer some solutions which is what this forum is for.

Going back to the OP, I have no advice to offer except that there are a large number of posters on the newsgroup " uk.people.consumers.ebay " and someone there might be able to offer some more suggestions.

Good luck and please let us know how this works out as this is the one area with paypal that you cannot seem to protect against.

Soo

Altarf

Jazzking wrote:

I wrote to Paypal and NCO detailing that I would like an explanation as to why I was being charged, and suggested they should cancel the debt and refund my account.

In the meantime, I sent me findings to the police in Nottingham to investigate the fraud, and reported Paypal to the Financial Ombudsman since I thouht they had treated me unfairly....

Today I had a letter back from Paypal saying they had refunded my account £45.10 and withdrawn the debt collectors from my case

Glad you got it sorted out.

It concerns me when people say that Paypal are allowed to do 'something' based on what is happening over the other side of the Atlantic. Paypal in the US may be taking people to court for non-payment and winning, but UK laws are very very different to US laws.

Paypals T&Cs in the UK are dubious to say the least, and they know it. The last thing they want to do is have them tested in a UK court, so they fall back on trying to scare people into paying.

soolin

Altarf wrote:

Glad you got it sorted out.

Paypals T&Cs in the UK are dubious to say the least, and they know it. The last thing they want to do is have them tested in a UK court, so they fall back on trying to scare people into paying.

I think this is very true. On the unmoderated ebay groups the problem of these chargebacks based on a fraudulently used card crops up now and then. What surprises me is that different people get different outcomes, it does seem that paypal are prepared to back down in some cases where they are challenged to 'prove' an assumption.


Soo

Jazzking

Yeah, I'm glad it's sorted as well; I really didn't want it to drag on and possibly affect my mortgage application as a "late payment"...

@Arushofblood: I used the following address, from the Companies House website:
PAYPAL (UK) LIMITED
HOTHAM HOUSE
1 HERON SQUARE
RICHMOND UPON THAMES
SURREY TW9 1EJ

Hope that helps,

Alex

scottishchick27

Isn't it dodgy giving out your bank details to someone who you don't know?

soolin

scottishchick27 wrote:

Isn't it dodgy giving out your bank details to someone who you don't know?

Not at all, the only information you need to give is your account number, sort code and name on the account, oh and the name of the bank. All this information is carried on every cheque you issue anyway.

On my end of auction emails I give details of two different bank accounts and do occasionally get someone who will pay by bank transfer, most though prefer to pay by paypal.

Soo