eBay

shooger · ‎03-08-2004

I was hit by another newbie buyer - an account created solely to buy one of my BIN auctions and leave negative feedback. Probably someone who I've negged in the past, under a different account, or perhaps a seller competitor. He bought $2 worth of stuff, paid for it, and I left positive feedback. When he got it, he left 2 negative feedbacks saying "it took a month" and "item was damaged". I know that neither of those accusations is possible, because I shipped it within a couple days, and he lives within 2-3 days mailing distance from me (from Vancouver to Edmonton). He would have received it in under a week. Furthermore, the item (2 collectible cards) was shipped between two peices of cardboard, four layers of thin plastic, and five layers of normal paper. For it to be damaged it would have had to be put through a meat grinder. I've never had a card damaged in shipment, out of several thousand transactions.

So I have 2 negatives - great. I pull his contact info, and it seems to be false, so I report it. He gets NARUd. Few hours later, I get an email from PayPal.

"Claim Type:
The claim states the item received was significantly not-as-described.
The reason(s) are listed below:
The item was externally damaged"

It says my options are to refund his money (plus the $10 fee to PayPal for getting reported), or let him return the items for a full refund (plus the $10 fee to PayPal for getting reported), or refuse and give an explanation which allows PayPal to make the ruling.

I refuse to give this creep his money back and let him keep the items. I'm down to either getting him to ship them back, and refunding, or refusing altogether. I'm leaning toward refusing. If he had emailed me asking to send back the items for inspection, I would have accepted, and given a refund if they were indeed damaged in shipping (even though he didn't purchase insurance).

Has anyone else been through this kind of a chargeback? If I refund, is that admitting wrongdoing, and thereby getting a complaint added to my PayPal profile? What chances are that PayPal will rule in my favour, if I refuse the refund and explain my side? Does that fact that he has been NARUd for false contact information mean anything, or help me?

whoscloset · ‎04-09-2004

Does anyone else find it incredibly fascinating that we have not been able to get a response from the eBay Pinks for months, but Randall will help us out on a major holiday?

Monique

Monique

aa-surplus · ‎04-10-2004

Wow you guys are having some major issues I see.

Here is my two cents. flame me if you wish. I have been sing paypal and ebay since 1999 and ebay has been great to me and paypal has always been a help on all issues resolved them all. I'm happy with them as I have a full business store plus an ebay store and I find the rates that everyone charges just the cost of doing business and you should make sure you treat them this way. Any time I have called paypal I get the correct answers and even help on how to fix things with in minutes. Now this is just my experiences and think that once and awhile people should step up and tell good things that ebay and paypal have done...Like the biggest thing is they have opened my markets globally which I couldn't do on my own and they promote as much as they can and this is great.

so flame me but I'm happy with paypal and ebay and they are trying BUT as in doing normal course of business you will get issues from time to time so deal with them in a professional business manner and you should get answers and help.

Regards,

aasurplus

rd1000 · ‎04-10-2004

HI,

Nobody is going to flame you. This is a discussion board and all opinions are welcome. I think it is great that everything is working well for you. I have not had any great problems with ebay either. Some have. And in many cases the problems get resolves, either by the company or by a user on this board. But we have to make the problems known. One, so the company is made aware, and two, to try and let others know so they can avoid the same problems.

Hopefully everything will continue to work well for you, but if you do have a problem please share it with everyone here.

Rob

your-chic-shopper · ‎04-10-2004

aasurplus

No one on the Canadian board flames peoples comments. Feel free to comment . The Canadian board is not like the American Powerseller board.

Case in point ......the last person that got flamed . Every single Canadian powerseller told that person to close there pie hole

The said thing is the person whom got flamed no longer posts on this board .

Basically feel free to comment ....we are very open on this board

shooger · ‎04-14-2004

aasurplus, I think you're barking up the wrong tree. This thread is about getting an issue resolved, not a discussion on if eBay and PayPal are "good" or "bad". It's nice to hear that your business is running smoothly, but I don't think anyone here is going to flame you for that. Congrats.

Regardless of the above, here's a final update. PayPal send me an email saying the $4 payment has been made, and the customer has been reimbursed. My account is working fine, and the little pink box in the left margin is gone from my PayPal page. It took 2 months to settle the problems caused by this one illegitimate buyer, but at least it's over now.

randall@ebay.com · ‎04-16-2004

rd1000,

There are different factors that may lead to a restriction. It is not simply the fact that a complaint is received on one payment. A complete list of reasons a user may experience a restriction can be found in the User Agreement.

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/policy_closing-outside

Regards,
Randall

rd1000 · ‎04-17-2004

Hi Randall,

I initiated a chargeback for part of the amount I paid for an auction because goods were missing and many were damaged. I sent pictures and all the information to the credit card company and they agreed. They did the chargeback.

Paypal's so-called investigation amounted to nothing more than asking for a tracking number. The seller had one and concluded that she met her obligations. Paypal froze my entire account including deposits made afterward. There was far more in my account than the amount in dispute. I assume it is this line that allows for this:

"continue to limit your account access for up to 180 days as is necessary to protect PayPal against the risk of reversals".

This was the first time there was ever a problem with my account.

I have two major problems with Paypal:

1. They froze my entire account. I felt this was very heavy handed, not to mention unfair. It should be illegal.

2. The investigation was a farce. Under Paypal's rules, had I had a tracking number for returning the goods, I may have had my account unfrozen.

Unfortunately by this time I had salvaged what I could and added it to my inventory, hence the partial amount for the chargeback. Admittedly, in retrospect, had I known how Paypal works, I should have dumped everything back in her box, returned it to her and do a chargeback for the entire amount.

If I was as unscrupulous as the seller, I would have put a rock in a box and returned it with a tracking number which would have satified Paypal's requirements. But alas, I have a conscience.

The bottom line is that the seller got away with fraud. Had Paypal not been involved, she would not have gotten away with it. But I used the service and must accept the consequences. This is what I have been trying to tell other users. By all means use Paypal, but be prepared to accept the consequences, which are well documented if one is to look.

I will continue to use Paypal only because it is so heavily integrated in ebay and I think my business would suffer if I stop accepting it.

Thank you for your attention,
Rob