Paypal Buyer Protection is a joke!

[hockey-gods]

Bought an item - never received it. Contacted seller, he claimed it was returned and would re-send and give me the tracking number. Waited another week - nothing? Fire off another note to seller - no response this time. Open up a Paypal claim - seller doesn't even respond so Paypal closes the case and decides in my favour - only problem is there is no money in the seller's account? So I'm out the $$$...apparently all a scammer has to do is move the money out of Paypal and the buyer is screwed. Some Buyer Protection that is...

[jakeeangel]

Did you buy the item on eBay? If so, the idiot PayPal rep you spoke to applied the wrong 'protection' policy to your refund. If bought on eBay they have to reimburse you the total amount. If not bought on eBay you only get back what they can recover from the seller's account.

Too many of these underpaid so-called CSR's are applying the wrong policy and hoping the buyer will shut up and walk away. If you bought the item on eBay don't walk away! Call them back & despite how angry you are - talk nicely to them. If you get nowhere, ask for a supervisor & get them to apply the correct policy. Items bought on eBay are covered for the full amount.

[hockey-gods]

Item was bought on eBay...the response I got was that they will try to recover the funds from the seller's account. I'll call them back tomorrow - thanks for the info!

[jakeeangel]

Then they did apply the wrong policy to your claim. Bunch of clowns!! They've been doing that far too often lately & it's pretty scary. I truly believe that they're hoping buyers go away after denying their claim. grr

You're very welcome & I hope they do what they should have done in the first place!

[recped]

Then they did apply the wrong policy to your claim. Bunch of clowns!!

Not necessarily, if you buy from me and pay with PayPal you won't get money from a claim if I don't have any money in my PayPal account.

PayPal Buyer Protection is only 100% effective if the seller officially accepts PayPal and the listing displays the Buyer Protection info including the amount that is covered.

[hockey-gods]

recped...Buyer Protection symbol was in the listing so I'm assuming to should be 100% covered.
What I don't understand is how Paypal can claim to back a buyer when they don't even cough up the $$$ if they decide in your favour? If the seller has moved the cash out of their Paypal account you're out of luck!

[recped]

In that case it looks like it was filed under the PayPal Buyer Complaint Policy not the Buyer Protection Policy.

Since I don't know all the details I can't comment on why this has happened. Suggest you call PayPal and have them explain why your INR claim was filed under the "complaint" process and not the "protection" process.

Interested to hear their explanation if you get one.

Note that I said CALL THEM, you won't likely get a sufficient response via email.

[hockey-gods]

Thanks recped...I'll let you know what they come back with.

[hockey-gods]

Well....lets just say that was an interesting conversation!!

The agent was more interested in talking about hockey jerseys than why I was calling.

Basically you are screwed if the seller takes the money out of their Paypal account and disappears?

recped, she had no idea what I was talking about with regards to "complaint" or "protection" process...all depends if they can recover the funds from the seller...which kinda makes that "Paypal buyer protection" symbol rather misleading.

No worries, I have my own way to deal with this seller!

[Anonymous]

I agree with you that PayPal Protection Policy is a JOKE! I don't understand why PayPal cannot get $$ from seller when in fact, PayPal has authority to go into your bank account or credit cards to take $$ that is due to eBay for eBay fees!! So why can't they do the same with seller's????!!!! When we sign up with PayPal, we gave them the authority to do so!! Go figure!!

[ampurtle]

Paypal's policy in these matters is to try and ensure they never honour their user agreement and never have to pay for their mistakes.

The fact of the matter is that they are wrong and you should be reimbursed for the full amount irrespective of whether the seller made off with the money or not. Paypal reps you deal with only have one job in these cases, screw who ever they have to to avoid honouring their own rules and paying out of their own pocket.

A few finer details....

Don't leave your bank account susceptible, I only attach the bank account these days when I need to move funds to it, after which it is disconnected. It's also an exclusively Paypal account that never has money in it.

All purchases should be made with a credit card unless you actually know who the seller is. That way you may be able to claw back the funds.

If Paypal ever takes money for anything other than bonafide fees, slap them silly with a fraud charge via the credit card company as an unauthorized charge. The credit card companies know how to extract some blood from them 😉

Other than that, there really is only one option and that is take them to small claims court, or file a suite. They know that that isn't going to happen for the small amounts involved on eBay, so all they have to do is wait you out and just keep spewing nonsense about call the cops and sue the seller or claim you didn't follow the agreement etc which are totally unrelated to the claim and fiduciary duty of Paypal.

I have opted to take the latter course after 7 months of nonsense. The amount owed is roughly $300.oo and I have budgetted 8 grand for the court action and set aside 10k. I estimate this process will cost Paypal twice that... but a judge is going to force them to give me back my $300 which is worth it to me... They want to spend 20k to save $300, fine by me 😛 But then I already knew they weren't to smart by dragging this out for 7 months, it's already cost them a $150 or more for lost time.

[gifts_of_elegance]

I purchased an item for over $400 and the listing showed that I was protected up to $315 if I paid with PayPal. I received 52 cents. I even had my account manager follow up on it, I received an email saying they have awarded me $200 but I never got that either.

It gets to the point its best just to go on to the next one instead of wasting time to try to rectify it.

Sad, but true.

[recped]

One thing to keep in mind....always fund your PayPal payments via your credit card. If/when PayPal fails to provide a full refund you can move on to filing a chargeback via your credit card.

[ampurtle]

gifts...
At some point you have to bite the bullet and decide to never relent. In my case they are actually going in a circle asking for the same things that have been provided.

Yes it's annoying, it's also stressful, so the trick is to just keep it going but don't get emotionally attached.

Just send them an email every month like clockwork to establish their pattern.

[ampurtle]

Trivial Persuit, PayPal edition.....

[gifts_of_elegance]

ampurtle:

Emotions have nothing to do with it. Its the time factor. I am constantly buying, listing and shipping so I don't have time to flog a dead horse. PayPal has lots of employees, they can pass it on from one to another, it won't make much difference.

While its a good idea to use your credit card, its not always practical because of the exchange factor. Its most economical for me to use my PayPal balance.

Somehow these things always have a way of working themselves out.

[ampurtle]

Flogging is a great stress releiver 😉

It really doesn't take that much time, one email a week should do it... you want to remind them you are still out here waiting B-)

Keep it alive and waste their time, because every time you bring it up somone different looks at it and has to spend more and more time back tracking and then they have to write longer and longer replies.

[bare_bright]

I always thought if a seller moves his paypal funds out of Paypal they can take the funds from a credit card or bank that's on file, is this not true?

:)

[gifts_of_elegance]

Looks as if its not. If it is, PayPal is not doing it.

[jakeeangel]

No, it's not true & to my knowledge never has been.