YET ANOTHER PayPal horror story...

[funkywatch_com]

Here is my story, just want to share it because hey, there is nothing I can do!

I sold an item on auction to a guy in India on December 12.

I receive his payment on December 19. The guy has a feedback rating of 1, but I don't check really, because I had high volumes and no time to spare. So I ship his watch the same day with CP Small Packets International.

Sends me a message on December 20 saying he's made is payment, ship it now, 'it's a gift for someone'.

I told him that it was send the previous day, and that he should normally receive it in 3-4 weeks, but probably sooner. He replies he's ordered from Canada before and it took only 10 days, so December 21st, I explain to him that I use CP guidelines for delivery standards, which are worst case scenario, but items are usually delivered faster than the guidelines state.

He replies he'll wait, and asks me to leave positive feedback, which I disregard.

Well today, December 26, I receive a Paypal email: 'First Request for Information About Buyer Complaint' !!!
Great... So the options I have are 'Sending a Refund', 'Sending Proof I Sent a Refund', or, 'Providing Tracking Information', which I don't have because I shipped Small Packet!

WHY is it possible that a buyer can file for non-receipt only 7 calendar days after sending payment???

I really don't get that part...

Merry Christmas!

eric

[javax.swing]

The best one was I as a buyer paid for an expensive item the seller completely trashed (put a 60lb item in a box made to hold 20 lbs with no cushioning).

I filed a PayPal dispute. I won. Got the standard $175US eBay refund.

Go to my credit card company to do a chargeback and get the rest back - can't because eBay already made partial compensation.

I'm still out about $500. Seller won't refund or file insurance claim.

How's that for BUYER service?

[cartoonsinabox]

You have to be carefull with who you do business with. Read the seller's reputation, ask questions.

[sherwin3501]

I have been selling on Ebay for over 5 years and have had 5 Paypal disputes. I luckily have won them all. The last one I had was for a very expensive amplifier that was sold in Feb, 10 months later I received notice of the dispute. "item not as described" 10 months later!!! To make it worse the transaction was paid with a credit card and it appeared the credit card company was going to back the buyer, even after close to a year. Paypal ripped the money from my Paypal account (2,700US) putting me into a negative balance. Here is where it gets funny. I give Paypal all the info needed to prove my case...spend hours on the phone arguing with Paypal and finally end up getting Paypal to put the money BACK into my Paypal account. I WON !! Not yet. A week later I get a phone call from Paypal saying that they were going to TAKE BACK the money that they had just put back in!!! Take it, put it in and then take it out again..this is getting ridiculous!!! I told Paypal you just cant keep putting money in and then take it out...it CANT be legal. To make a long story short Paypal did end up protecting me and my funds were put back into my account. It took a lot of emails and phone calls but I did triumph. I was lucky. My advice to everyone is to keep all correspondence emails for as long as possible as well as DONT throw away ANY paperwork..you might need it at a later date. Cheers!

[funkywatch_com]

...and this is how the story ends:

"After careful consideration of the evidence provided in the case detailed below, we have completed our investigation and decided in favor of the buyer. Under terms of our User Agreement, we have debited the following amount from your PayPal account as a refund to the buyer"

So here is my suggestion, which should work well for most of those who sell items of $100 or less. I offer optional insurance on all my listings for $1.90. As most of you know, Canada Post includes the first $100 insurance in all its shipping products. At the end of the day, the insurance i sell amounts to more or less 1% of my sales, so this will offset a good part of the fraud cases.

Of course, I always work with the buyer in case an item gets lost, and if a buyer did not pay with Paypal and the item got lost by CP or USPS or whatever, I can cover for them.

Hope this helps...

eric

[yammy-ca]

I have read with interest all of the above terrible cases and have suffered none to date on over 2000 transactions. I think that it has nothing to do with me. I think the breakthrough came when I decided to become a member of Venture One and send all my items big and small via Expedited Parcel.The Expedited Parcel number now can be tracked through to final destination in the USA and this satisfies Paypal so that I have never lost a case of items "not arriving". Venture One is free and you save I believe it is 5% on mailing charges.Sometimes you have to make your parcels larger to qualify for measurement criteria [a quirk of some official] but otherwise pretty smooth-try it--PS I don't work for the post office.

[funkywatch_com]

Do you use Expedited to the US? I have tried it a few times and delivery delays were horrible, and USPS lost a high percentage of the items once they were in the States.

Also, what do you do with International sales?