My girlfriend used to sell lots of things on Ebay. I've sold LOTS of things on Ebay. A few months back, she sold a book to a woman using Ebay. Her tranaction record was perfect. She had nothing but positive, glowing reviews. The book sold for more than $600 and had numerous bidders. It was a first edition antique. After the winning bidder received the book (she paid with PayPal), she said the book was missing pages. My gf asked for her to document the missing pages and the woman dodged her. After my gf told her that she believed the book was intact, the woman found the pages, miraculously. It became clear quickly that she was a scammer. The buyer was told that because there was no guarantee that the book would be returned in the same condition as when it was sold, my gf could not take it back. A few weeks later, PayPal removed $600 from MY GF's bank account. Seriously. The woman disputed the charge with her credit card company saying she never recieved the book!!! Her credit card company refunded the money to her card and informed PayPal who took the money back from my gf pending an investigation. After speaking with PayPal, my gf found out that Ebay was holding the money in escrow until it could be determined what had happened. The people at Ebay and at PayPal told her that because she did not have a signed delivery receipt, nothing could be done. They didn't even ask to see the emails she received from the woman proving she had the damn book!!! They said the ONLY proof they could accept was a signed delivery confirmation receipt proving the book was delivered. My gf didn't request one. She asked them if she could submit the emails as evidence and they gave her the address to submit them and a time frame. She submitted them within the time requested by PayPal and Ebay. After the submission, the credit card company and PayPal found insufficient evidence to re-instate the charge and my gf was not only out $600 but the book as well. Gone. All because the only proof they would accept was a delivery confirmation receipt. The woman even said in the emails that she had it but it was damaged or missing pages. Yet, that wasn't enough???!!! To make matters worse, Ebay demanded an explanation and suspended my gf's account when she did not respond quickly enough. She has, essentially, been banned from Ebay for doing nothing more than being an honest person. She says she will never do business through Ebay or PayPal again and I can't blame her. So, seller (like buyer) beware and make sure you get a freaking signed delivery confirmation receipt!!!
that blows I suggest that you, as the caring BF, go to this woman's house wherever it is and lay the smack down
I wish I could. She lives a LONG ways away. Actually, she committed mail fraud, but it just isn't worth the effort at this point.
One time I sold a couple playoff tickets on eBay because I found out that I wouldn't be able to make it to the game. I believe this was for one of the games during the Houston/Dallas series a couple years ago. Anyways, some guy bought a couple tickets from me for $250 or so, went to the game, and left me positive feedback... I woke up the next morning only to find out that PayPal took $250 out of my account for no reason. I always empty my account after every payment I get, so I had a -$250 balance. Turns out the guy filed a claim saying he never got the tickets. I was freaking TICKED. The guy had already left me positive feedback, too. I decided to do some research on the guy and noticed that I wasn't the only person he was scamming. I wrote multiple emails to PayPal stating all the facts that I gathered (him scamming other people, him leaving me a positive, my 350+ feedback, etc etc), but they said I didn't have any proof that he got the tickets. The tickets were in PDF format, so I emailed them to him. How the hell am I supposed to prove that he got the email? I told them I would take screenshots and forward them the emails we sent to eachother, but they still ended up keeping my money. Seriously, buyers can screw you over in so many ways via PayPal...
As a rule eBay and PayPal always side with buyers. I have heard similar stories enough that I will never sell anything reasonably valuable over eBay or with PayPal.
dude i hear ya. i bought a phone from ebay and the seller to ship it with a tracking number. of course the idiot ships it via some media mail with no record it being shipped. so i waited 2 weeks for it..nothing is showing up. during all this i threatened him and told him he better refund my money if i don't get it real soon. finally it came after 16 days. so i thought to myself..what if i was in his shoes. someone can just flat out lie and say they never got anything if u don't have any kind of reciept. now anything i ship ..its either ups, fedex, or USPS with delievery confirmation. it's only 50 cents more for priority mail. can save you a lot of hassle.
If you withdraw the funds from your paypal account, and have it wired to your bank account or ask for a check, etc.. isn't it impossible for paypal to take money away from you after the sale is over?
Paypal works almost like a CC card company. If the buyer demands a chargeback and wins, Paypal can take money out. For what it's worth, file a complaint with the USPS for mail fraud. http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/fraud/MailFraudComplaint.htm Not sure anything will happen, but because it was so easy, the crook might do it again....
wow that is f#$ked up... are they really that stupid that they don't realize fraudulent buyers are taking advantage of their system? i mean atleast look at the evidence presented to them beyond delivery confirmation. thanks for the heads-up, i will definitely be using delivery confirmation and signature, etc. from now on.
They need to include stuff like that for sellers to know because I have never seen it on eBay. I am sure they know that it would cause shipping rates to go up, up, up and any time any price goes up that is lost business. That sucks.
If the "the only proof they would accept was a delivery confirmation receipt" why dont they require and remind the sellers of this!!!! That's pretty ridiculous...
Jeff, If you have the time and the inclination, you should seriously sue EBay and the customer in small claims court. Your girlfriend is a consumer of EBay's service, and as such, she has special protection under the law. With regards to the book purchaser, it sounds like straight up fraud. Like I said, it could be time consuming, but you might stop a scammer from scamming other honest sellers.
Jeff, you need to give us that scammers name so we can buy stuff from them and claim we never received it. Hell, I will even sign the wrong name and claim, "That ain't my signature".
