Several weeks ago, I sold an aircard on Ebay. Immediately after the auction ended, a Tuesday, the buyer emailed me that he was having problems with his paypal account and it would be a couple of days until he could send payment. I said no problem. I ended up leaving town for business Thursday night and didn't return till the following Monday. While I was out of town, I received an email about 1am that Saturday, confirmation from Paypal confirming his payment. I emailed him back and stated I was out of town and would mail out his item late Monday or early Tuesday. As soon as I got back Monday, I received an email from him complaining that he had not yet received the item. I expained that he did not pay until early Saturday, the earliest I could have shipped out was first thing Monday. But seeing as how I was out of town, I dropped it off @ USPS Monday afternoon. I further explained to him that since I was patient with him in waiting 3-4 days his payment, that I would expect him to return the favor in the 1 day delay it took me to ship it. Fast forward to the end of that week: I get another nasty email from him stating that he received the item and that it was damaged and demanded a full refund. I asked him about the damage, and he alleged that I intentionally cut the item in half prior to shipping. I asked him to email me a photo of the item showing the damage and serial # in the same photo. He refused and again demanded a refund. I obviously found this ludicrous as I would have no motive to do such a thing and risk the $90 I made off the item. I basically told him to "go pound salt". Fast forward to a few days later: He filed a claim through Paypal, which I escalated due to the absurdness of the situation. I thoroughly pleaded my case to Paypal and explained that I refused to consider a refund under any circumstance since a) The item was not intentionally damaged by "cutting it in half" and b) The buyer alleged a few other things that were absolutely not true (he stated it took 10 days to receive the item, whereas it is documented via USPS tracking that he received it 3 business days after he paid and he stated that item had coffee stains on it, which again, is absurd since this item was plugged into my desktop tower, in a cabinet since I had bought it AND I don't drink coffee). I felt confident that Paypal would rule in my favor. The buyer's whole claim was 3 sentences, w/o any sort of documentation (photo) while my response was very long and thorough. Plus, I had documented my Ebay feedback rating of 127, w/ 100% positive feedback and the buyer's feedback rating of 1 (yes, 1). It took several weeks, but I just received a final decision on the claim: "This claim has been reviewed and it has been determined that a full refund of the PayPal transaction (including shipping and handling) should be awarded to the buyer once the item, in its original condition, is returned to you. The buyer is responsible for shipping and handling costs related to returning the item to you." I have absolutely dumbfounded. Of course, Paypal gives you no avenues to respond to their decision. I had documented in my original response that I was willing to provide two Ebay references on items I sold, that before shipping, I had found problems with (one wasn't working and the other I had lost the remote to) and immediately gave full refunds to the buyers on (these buyers both left me positive feedback since I was honest and prompt in handling the issues). What are my options? What if I refuse to give the refund per Paypal? Do they automatically deduct it from my account once the buyer sends them a receipt showing he sent the item back? I have no doubt the buyer is going to send me back the item, cut in half. Do I just get stuck with this?
Damn that really sucks dude. I've been selling on ebay for a few years now and luckily the worst that has happened to me was some moron didn't pay for an iPod and i had to wait 7 days before I could file a "Did not pay" claim with ebay. Thats why you don't sell to people with feedback scores under 10. Too many idiots out there.
Yeah too many idiots. I've never had a problem with new buyers, so I didn't think much of his "1" feedback rating. This guy seemed to know the dispute process very well for only having 1 transaction under his belt.
Yes, unfortunately the seller is most often the bad guy and Paypal probably didn't take much time to look at your dispute at all. One thing you could do is require insurance next time so if something happens you can file a claim with them.
I always give the option of insurance and I believe USPS automatically covers up to $100 free anyway. Unfortunately, the buyer is not saying that item was damaged in shipping, he is saying I intentionally cut the aircard into 2 pieces before I shipped it to him. I can't believe Paypal would rule in this guy's favor. What a scam.
dang that sucks...and that sounds scary. oh this happened to me on amazon.com. i had an international edition of a chemistry book WHICH IS THE EXACT same book as the normal one. i repeat..the same thing. i specifically stated that in my description. so this person buys it from me..and then turns around and tells amazon i sold her a wrong version. amazon automatically refunded her the money and guess what..she never sent the book back! amazon.com rule states if the ISBN or the edition is diff from the original listing..then i am not at a position to argue. as far as ebay is concerned, i do delivery confirmation on everything. i also communicate only through My Ebay so all the stuff is stored there and not in my personal email.
man, that sucks. cant you just transfer the money to your bank account and delete the account from paypal?
Paypal sucks balls for seller protection. Take it from me, do not use them. http://www.paypalwarning.com/
Contact them for an appeal's process. I have dealt with Paypal through my work and they are hit and miss. Sometimes they help, other times they do not. Just remember that it is no different than any other company and that there is an equal if not greater chance that the person handling your claim sucks at their job and is just getting claims handled with generic responses to show their boss their productivity. I would file a counterclaim saying the buyer did not pay for the product and hope you get the same idiot who dealt with your first claim.
That guy is prolly going to send you his bad aircard which he is replacing with the one he bought from you. Seems you got that covered with the S/N. Or he found another one cheaper and is trying to get out from paying you. Man I sometimes forget to leave feedback when I use Ebay. Is it considered bad karma to not give feedback? I never even gave thought about my not having any feedback score when I first started using Ebay. How can someone not trust me?
What really sucks with Ebay now is that sellers can't give buyers a negative feedback. Only buyers can give sellers negative feedback. They changed this rule a few months ago, and alot of people were upset. I don't know if they changed the rule back, but it is absurd on Ebay's part.
Ebay as a whole is horrible and they nickel and dime you for everything. I guess they can do whatever the F they want though since they got that whole online bidding thing on lock. I really wish there was another site
I guess if this remains unresolved, you can report him for mail fraud, but it seems to be designed to protect the buyer rather than the seller. You can fire off a shot with the BBB. At least you'll know someone is working on your end to get some stiffs moving.
Do not use paypal as a seller if you can avoid it. You WILL eventually get screwed. I was one of the first paypal users when they first launched and they went from a good service to downright nasty. Now I hardly ever use it. They have been sued over fraudulent practices couple of times and have been asked to pay by court. Go here and read what some of paypal previous workers have to say about their old company... http://paypalsucks.com/
Worse case scenario two can play this game. According to paypal: "This claim has been reviewed and it has been determined that a full refund of the PayPal transaction (including shipping and handling) should be awarded to the buyer once the item, in its original condition, is returned to you. The buyer is responsible for shipping and handling costs related to returning the item to you." You can always say it wasn't returned in its original condition. Some might say two wrongs don't make a right but as consumers we have to stand up against these big corporate piles of dung.
^ ditto. The only way he/she should get a refund is if they pay to ship the same item back to you in the same condition you sent it to them.
