Paypal hate - advice!

OK so about a month ago, I had a sub for sale on ebay for a friend - great.
Someone did the buy it now option and used paypal to pay - excellent.

I was then notified by Paypal a few days later that the funds transferred to me had been put on hold as they had been suspected as fradulent. "Hmmm" I thought to myself, ok then. Got in contact with the buyer and said there would be a wait on delivery, he was fine with this and understood.

Then two weeks later I had to email Paypal to get some info and they said that the money had been returned to the buyers account, the transaction had been reversed. I was really annoyed about this, so contacted the seller asking if he would be happy to pay by another means. No reply. Still no reply. In fact, I still hadn't heard from him until now, by which time the sub has been sold again on ebay.

Paypal email me this afternoon informing me of reversed transaction trouble - they want me to take liability for what happened a month ago as this buyer seems to not be happy. I'm clearly outraged by this, the fact that he has the cheek to try and steal from me just takes the pi$$. So I contacted Paypal as requested and copied a letter that they sent to me a while ago about the reversed transaction, hoping this will sort everything. If not, then I'm going have to get onto Paypal on the phone and turn to you guys for advice.

Which is essentially what I'm doing.

/rant over!!!

 

I would tell PayPal (which is a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay) to pound sand up their *** and just shut down the account that you are using for that PayPal account. And don't expect PayPal to do anything for you at all, with them it's always who complains first.

I myself refuse to use PayPal at all because of several things that have happened with them and will never change my mind.

 

I'm very tempted to shut down my account but I want this resolved first because then I would look to be in the wrong.

 

Yes, something like this happened to me. I sent a package via Fed Ex, which was supposed to be "hand delivered" to the recipient with signature required. Well this was around the 4th of july holiday and the ding-dong slacker Fed Ex driver from simply dropped the package at the door.

The seller complained over and over again to me via email "where's my package?" for days after it was "delivered" and whined "I pay all this money for shipping and whaddu I get - nothing!" <lol> The funny thing was the shipping was reasonably priced in my auction. If anything I was losing money on the shipping as sometimes a low shipping price will attract more bids.

Anyway, I got the standard "form-type" email from pay-pal, which described the complaint. Because the Fed Ex guy got no siggy for the item; they said that it looked like I was out of luck and would have to refund the money to the buyer and then take the matter up with Fed Ex. This was not a big deal "money-wise" because the package was insured; but it was going to be a hassle and a waste of time chasing down fed ex for the money; what with it being the holiday and all...

About 6 or 7 weeks after I got that e-mail and the money was removed from my PayPal account credit card; I went back to the auction listing that I'd created earlier to "replicate it" in order sell another, almost identical item. Just for the hack of it; I clicked on the complainant’s "feedback" and then the "Items for Sale" link...

OMG, there was my item - a brand new Western Digital external hard drive – same model number and everything - up for bids under HIS eBay auction name! This guy was priceless; I mean he copied my exact same pictures and wording and everything (from my original auction listing)! lol

In the end – at least in my case - it worked out OK. I called PayPal directly and they refunded my money, toots-sweet after they saw that crybaby’s listing of my item and they also offered me a "business/premier" account for my trouble.

And the forgetful FedEx folks (naturally embarrassed by all of this) told me that I wouldn’t have to return the money that I had received for the insurance claim when I called to tell them about the refund from PayPal. Evidently, Mr. Whiney-Guy (my crooked eBay buyer) lost his eBay account because when I went back to the auction link; his account wasn’t listed anymore.

In any case; since then I’ve learned that the best way to resolve any disputes with eBay customers involving PayPal; is to call them directly (rather than via e-mail). For any questions about accounts, charge backs, payment tracking, etc. here are the PayPal Customer Service numbers:

1-402-935-7733 (Personal Accounts)
1-402-935-2057 (Personal Accounts)
1-888-221-1161 (toll free for Business/Premier)
1-888-204-4481 (toll free for Business/Premier)

Important Note: I haven’t actually had to call them in like 6-8 months, so the numbers may have changed since then; but I’m pretty sure that are still good!

Good Luck!

 

I'm not sure how Paypal can reasonably expect you to take any responsibility for this. It was they who reversed the transaction, not you. From a seller's point of view, you are completely entitled to keep your property until you have been paid (or until cleared funds are in your account). Personally I'd tell them (poiltely of course) to get lost. The buyer, if he was a legitimate purchaser, may have a valid claim against Paypal, if they have effectively caused him to lose the opportunity of buying the item from you.

On a similar note, if paypal was to remove money from your bank account or credit card, you could insist that they (the bank or credit card co) repay it, on the basis that the transaction (chargeback) was not authorized by you.

 

I like the concept of PayPal, and while I had it I enjoyed it, but it has some serious bugs that need worked out. What did it for me is, after acknowledging that a transaction was bogus and fraudulent, they kept trying to pull the money out of my bank account, and gave me some excuse about it being computer generated and automatic. Of course, every time this happened the bank charged me a fee. Since it was fraud the bank waved all the fees (around 5 of them for $35 each), but I've still got a bad taste about the whole deal.

Credit card (and not debit cards) have several legal protections. As long as you write the credit card provider within 30 days you have an amazing degree of coverage, and since it is a matter of federal law it is free. Banks extend these coverages to debit cards, but it is a matter of courtisy and not law.

I'm done with PayPal for a while, until I can feel secure again. They need to adhire to the same standards as other financial institutions, right now they are a crack in the system that needs patched.

BTW, you want advice? Go to paypalsucks.com . Following their advice is what kept somebody in Russia (if the gmail address is to be believed) from grabbing $1,050.00 from my account, and kept it an minor if aggrivating inconvienence.

 

I've been using Paypal for a while, and I've only had one semi-bad experience, but it was mostly the other person's fault. I paid for a 5G ipod for $325...pretty good deal I thought. The seller said it would take about 5-10 days before it was shipped, which should have been my first clue. After that time period was up, I started emailing the seller. After a week of emailing him without an answer, I notified Paypal. They contacted the seller and gave him two weeks to answer. After that period was up, I only received $175 of the $325 because the seller already transfered the funds from his account. So besides that, my experience with Paypal has been easy.

 

http://www.paypalsucks.com/

 

they suck because of their policies on personal and premiere accts. I sell on Ebay, and have always accepted paypal as payment. Well it is free to accept payment directly from another pp acct. But, I can't accept credit card pmts. with a personal acct. Only with premiere accts.

A premiere acct. is for large volume sellers. there is a fee for every transaction
.
You are not allowed to state in your listing that you do not accept credit card payments,.. if you do say that, they will pull your listing.

It used to be that when someone paid with credit card, I had the option to deny the payment, and it would go back to their acct.... well not anymore.. now they have made it impossible to deny the payment, and it is impossible for the buyer to cancel it. They (the buyer) will have to wait 1 month, then as it is unclaimed, it will return to them.

They make it impossible to use the personal, (free) acct.

I could go on and on about them... i hate them. Too bad 90% of the sales on ebay are paid with paypal.