Paypal-Finally Got a Result

Lawbag_2

For the record, Ive used Paypal for over 2 years, albiet very cautiously, and the day I heard about how Paypal actually helps scammers and abusers was the day I got hit as well. I'd already encountered the Nigerian "guy" trying to tell me his sob story about how a friend of his had a mobile phone shop that had burnt down and was keen to restock at any price to satisfy his customers.

Well in June of this year I sold my son's Gameboy Advance but very aware of the potential for this sale to go wrong. Well it was won for a fair price, and paid for immediately by someone from Italy. Great, leave positive buyer feedback, and draw funds down into my bank accounts - aka the big bad overdraft, and posted the item by international recorded on Monday.

On Tuesday am I got an email from the buyer stating they had received communication from the Italian Postal Service saying that the package had been found opened by an employee of the the IPS, and therefore would be claiming from Paypal against me as a none performing seller. Innundated with demands from Ebay and Paypal about how seriously they took this issue, they did the usual, withheld the money from my Paypal account, and a complaint was filed against me.

The "Italian" person was trying to be nice, but it was obvious from the first email from them, that they had intended to pull this little caper from day one. I mean to file a complaint before the item had been received was a little poor from their point of view when it came to investigating.

Well Paypal gave me 100 characters and one email to explain myself, whereas, as usual, the buyer had 3 emails allowed to defend themselves each with 1000 characters.

Paypal (after 62 days deliberation - and earning interest!) ruled that I was at fault, and that the money would be refunded to the buyer upon returning the opened package to me. They had 10 days to do so, but thankfully they failed to fulfill the Paypal request in time (due to either the email account being closed or it might look dodgy if the package wasnt sent to Italy!),. SO by luck Paypal ruled in my favour (why should I feel happy or lucky when it was my money anyhow) and got my money back.

I dont consider the above event to make Paypal look good, I feel just very lucky to have my money back (£60 is a lot). So as a rule now, I run less auctions that I used to, and check each bidder for feedback and items previously bought.

I doubt Paypal really cares who gets the money or not, but just the fact that they had £60 earning interest for 2 months somewhere!

motorguy

Well done on getting your money back, albeit through luck rather than through any justice in the paypal system.

Out of curiosity, would the 'buyer' have had to prove you had received the 'item' back again?

bleugh

run more auctions, just refuse to take paypal for the larger value items!

motorguy

yup bleugh. totally agree! https://www.paypalsucks.com

Lawbag_2

Paypal announced to us both that the buyer should send the package back to me (in this case the package was allegedly open) and send a copy of the recorded postage details to Paypal as evidence.

Because Paypal sent it to the buyers email address, I imagine that there was a delay out of the buyers control as to why they were not able to respond - they had 10 days to do so.

chrisw

On the other hand, if the item was lost and the buyer was genuine they are probably a bit upset about losing £60.

alanshave

I absolutely hate Paypal with a passion. Never had any problems with them for a year or so until they decided to limit my account! Said I had been dealing in a pyramid scheme, which was absolute hee haw. So they kept the £1800 in my account that was from legitimate laptop auctions for around 9 months. Finally got it back after telling them that the National Union of Students was preparing to write an article about my case for a national newspaper!

Lawbag_2

my issue was that they reported the item lost in the post the day after they won and paid for the item. there was no way logistically that this could happen.