Comments on: Paypal Buyer Protection on EBay is Worthless

By: Alan Wendt

Alan Wendt — Mon, 14 May 2012 02:58:37 +0000

This is what I got from Paypal when the merchandise did not show
and I filed a complaint:

“We have decided in your favor, however, we were unable to recover any funds
from the seller’s account. As stated in the PayPal User Agreement, recovery
of funds associated with a Buyer Complaint cannot be guaranteed.”

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:23:10 +0000

Another satisfied customer – sorry to hear it Thanh!

By: Thanh

Thanh — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:02:50 +0000

So can I use Paypal’s loophole to screw him over? Seriously thinking of it! Email me at lambien@gmail.com if u want to help w the cause!!!

By: Thanh

Thanh — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:02:50 +0000

So can I use Paypal’s loophole to screw him over? Seriously thinking of it! Email me at lambien@gmail.com if u want to help w the cause!!!

By: Thanh

Thanh — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:39:44 +0000

Officially just got screwed by Paypal! Like Laura buying something from china and the guy tells me to return the defective item to china! Of course I returned it! Seller doesn’t reply acts fishy and so I made a claim and escalated it. I sent in all my evidence and upon closing my case in favor of the seller due to the fact that I did not send it to a certain address stated by paypal….how could I? I sent it back before I even made a claim in which seller gave me address!!!!! Spoke to papal rep…. All he can tell me is it’s unfortunate that the seller knows our loophole! WTF! I asked him is there a loophole where I can screw the seller back? Paypal sucks! I didn’t use my credit card to make that purchase….had cash in pp!

By: Hans

Hans — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:26:20 +0000

i bought 28 days ago Guru script,it was a freelancer clone Mapfreelance script…it was a Multilangual script,but later relise that when translating,it was not supporting my own language characters…i did chat with this people from support chanel…they worked on it for fixing the issue,at the end,i was told that would refund…i did wait 14 days,no refund noting,later i dispute on paypal,i used to have full screen shot of our conversation that i would refunded…all information was there on my GURUSCRIPT ACCOUNT…i gave all to paypal too…they told me,we are investigating,in the end they told me that we can not protect you because it is not a physical item….WHICH MEANS NEVER BUY GURUSCRIPT AND NEVER BUY ANY SOFTWARE OR PHYSICAL ITEM WITH PAYPAL….THEY REALY DONT CARE YOU
i am very honest you all…
regards

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 22:21:56 +0000

Randall – sorry to hear of another bad experience :-(

By: Randall Marx

Randall Marx — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 05:36:26 +0000

E-Bay and its partner-in-crime (PayPal), are nothing but licensed thieves, and their so-called “Buyer Protection” programs are equally criminal in nature.

I bought a $1500 item on E-Bay and the Seller offered “expedited” shipping if I (the Buyer) would pay an added premium shipping fee for the item via PayPal, but immediately after payment, the Seller shipped the item via the cheapest possible means (USPS Parcel Post), pocketing over $120 in personal profit. Delivery of the item then took over THREE WEEKS!

I filed claims against the Seller with E-Bay and PayPal, and both claims were denied by both entities. I then filed negative feedback against the Seller and E-Bay deleted the negative feedback entry the same day. I then CLOSED both accounts and I’ll never use either one of their “services” ever again. Done! They are liars and cheats, and you’d have to be an absolute idiot to use either one IMHO.

By: john

john — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:22:45 +0000

promises by paypal to ” warn you in good tiem” in the case of a dispute, is dishonest. they do NOT do so, and when the time allowed for the dispute resolution has come and gone, they glibly announce that the matter is concluded. be aware people, this organization is one way traffic – customer relations do not exist

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 05:04:57 +0000

Hey thanks Sam! That’s pretty much the conclusion I’ve come to. Paypal provides no useful protection.

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 21:19:27 +0000

This is a comment on the post that was made by “Harry on
June 25, 2010 at 4:42 pm”

That’s a great tip thank you for sharing!

Although, you could still be burned if the seller is willing to provide proof of shipping.

I won’t bore you with all of the details but last December I bought three Best Buy gift cards on ebay (I’ve done this dozens of times over the last 10 years of being a member) totaling $1200 (from three different sellers). One of them tried to scam me ($485) and sent me an envelope with a business card instead, BUT, get this, he shipped it with a tracking number (he knew how to play the game indeed!).

When I went to PayPal for help they asked the seller to provide proof that he had sent the gift card, he turn gladly provided the URL to the USPS tracking number, and PayPal said, “great, thanks for playing, nothing to see here move along Mr. Buyer.”

In other words, PayPal’s, way of corroborating is only by tracking number (in all fairness, I’m not sure what else they could do). At that point, I kept my cool and called my credit card company; 10 minutes later I had the charge reversed!

That’s why for the last ten years I’ve been telling anyone that will listen, IF YOU HAVE AN OPTION ALWAYS USE A CREDIT CARD!!! Why, because no one cares more about their money than the owner, in this case the bank/company who issued you the card.

Now, before I get flamed, allow me to clarify, make sure you have the solvency to pay the bill in FULL when it comes do or else DON’T BUY SAID ITEM AT ALL!

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 18:24:33 +0000

Sorry to hear that Laura. As you say, the same arrogance and BS from EBay and PayPal. Sad.

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 05:12:33 +0000

Three years later, still the same. I bought so called solid gold jewellery off ebay Australia from a buyer with 400+ positive reviews. Three days later seller is no longer a registered seller, I lost transaction details. Few weeks later received pieces of plastic in mail. Tried to go through Paypal AU buyer refund, have to pay minimum registered mail to send back to China or else no refund.

Pay Pal told me I should be grateful I even get a refund, as their other customers are. Seller thinks I’m going to cut my losses and not bother to return it so they can make the $? I’d think I’d pay for the shipping so none of my funds go into that grubby fraudster’s hands.

By: Parameswara

Parameswara — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 09:29:50 +0000

I do not much of the real situation inside paypal but i did get my refund and i get to keep the item. I am guessing that i often buy from top seller,so i think that they consider refund. I have deal with seller from china and they are very nice to me. They are willing to return my item and send me refund. I was buying A ROBERTO CAVALLI shirt. My worst experience was with a seller that refuse to give refund despite that i can return the item if i am not satisfied. Paypal did not bother my hearing. I am fortunate enough that i did not experience fraudulent.

By: Fairfax Mom

Fairfax Mom — Fri, 13 May 2011 22:33:22 +0000

Hi
It’s pretty easy for Virginian’s to file in Small Claims court. I suggest you include all court fees in your claims and any other expenses. It sounds like PayPal doesn’t provide the buyer protection and has absurd bureaucracy to insure they never pay. A judge will hand the award to the little guy. Make sure you save all of the inane automated emails to show the judge and bring the complete counterfeit xbox game for example, and shipping envelop as evidence. First call PayPal and tell them you are going to file in small claims court. They might just decide to give you your money! :)

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 00:34:58 +0000

Yeah, I know. I just wish this information could get out there *before* people get ripped off the first time.

But that’s interesting that the person didn’t need to return the item and you didn’t lose your money. I can see how people could scam this (send item to friend, friend says item was broken, gets money back, merchant sells item again).

But I think Mike’s situation and mine is more typical – someone other than EBay/Paypal actually does lose cash out of pocket.

By: Katie

Katie — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:35:20 +0000

Well people who are happy with their experience probably wouldn’t be looking for help, so that’s why we don’t hear from him. Paypal sided with the guy who claimed the iPhone he bought wasn’t as advertised, but I don’t know if he got to keep the phone, and got his money back, or if he had to send the phone somewhere. But he got his money back, and I didn’t have to pay it or take the damaged phone back. Maybe they are treating buyer protection more like insurance now.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 20:59:31 +0000

Interesting to hear from merchants too.

Mike, why did this guy get to keep and MP3 player when I had to return my illegal DVD from a person who had been utterly banned and erased from EBay for his illegal activities?

I just don’t get that. Is it official policy to always side with the scammer? I’d like to here of just one legit case where EBay/Paypal buy protection actually protected the victim instead of the scammer.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:56:24 +0000

Ebay (and Paypal) are nothing more than massive failures at this point. We got screwed by this guy in Utah, called “thunderboltboy”, who bought a very good condition (used) MP3 player and he claimed it didnt work. We tested it and packed it WORKING. He claimed it didnt work and wanted his money back. Foolish us, we didnt record the serial number, so we refused the return request. Not only that, it was an “as is” auction of a 5 year old MP3 player. He STILL wanted his money back. Ebay doesnt believe in “buyer beware”, even if we werent scamming him. They sided with him though he was instructed that he could KEEP the MP3 player as well! So we lost the money AND the player – which worked fine.

Talk about scam artists. Its a COLONY of [scam] artists on Ebay. I sold my stock and closed my account and so did my wife. We’re never going to use Ebay again.

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 04:53:38 +0000

I sold a phone on craigslist, and the guy who bought it is claiming the screen has some bright spots on it. It did NOT have these spots when I sent it. For all I know, he did something to the phone. So does anyone know, is paypal going to expect me to take back damaged merchandise?? The phone was sold as used, and he admits that everything on it works…