All EBAY/PayPal related posts here please

[chaoticjelly]

OK guys need some solid advice here.

Ive found myself in a paypal dispute today, I posted items to mexico uninsured airmail by royal mail about 6 weeks ago. I notified customer of dispatch the day I posted and only last week has he contacted me as he has not rec'd items, he demanded a refund to which I pointed I am not liable as he gladly accepted the uninsured post due to cost of posting to mexico.

He has now charged back my acount thru paypal to which I escalated it to a claim. Whats the procedure here and are paypal fair??

Im really pissed off with paypal as they can take ?90 from me at the drop of a hat without any correspondence.

Best of all I have chucked out the proof of posting about 2 days before the buyer contacted me(sods law) but there was not any tracking option anyway but it would have helped me now.

Any advice is greatly appreciated guys.

Well it definitely sounds like the items are lost - the buyer could be claiming that he has not got them when he had, but you cant prove that so you have to accept his word for it.

Its the sellers responsibility to ensure that items are delivered, so saying you are not liable is incorrect.

You have no chance of winning a chargeback for non-receipt through paypal when you sent via an unregistered post method. You need an online trackable method or they WILL NOT accept it as proof of delivery.

A Certificate of Posting is proof of posting, not proof of delivery these are two different things, if you had the Certificate of Posting paypal would not accept it as proof of delivery for this reason, you would still lose the chargeback, if you had the Certificate of Posting you would be able to claim ?32 back and your postage costs to Mexico from Royal Mail.

ALWAYS keep the Certificate of Posting and there is no way you should be sending such high-value goods to Mexico without some sort of tracking - if the buyer doesnt want to pay that much more for the delivery then dont sell to him - find another buyer.

Apologies if this isnt what you wanted to hear!

[EDDIE M0NS00N]

Ive not read the whole thread but from what you have posted here it looks like you have someone who has initiated a credit card chargeback. This is different to the process where they go through paypal to complain.

What they have done is rung up their credit card and said "hey, this transaction here, I never bought it, I am a victim of fraud, etc etc" and then the credit card company contact paypal to try and reclaim the funds. Paypal are supposed to fight on your behalf against the chargeback but there is very little they actually do. Paypal want to keep in a good relationship with the large credit card companies and have as little hassle as possible which is why when its a credit card chargeback the money gets taken from you nearly 95% of the time.

You can tell when its a credit card chargeback because you get an email from paypal out of the blue telling you that a particular transaction "may be unauthorised" etc etc

What I would do is grab the person in questions contact details off eBay, ring them up and ask them basically what is going on.

One of the last CC chargebacks I had was from a guy, I think he had basically used this eBay account, which his sisters paypal and card was linked to, he bought something, and presumably she saw the transaction on her statement and rang up her CC company to contest it (without communicating with her brother) anyway after a few phone calls, call every few days, I got the guy to pay me with a cheque etc.

If someone claims its not arrived, as long as you have the certificate of posting, and the item is worth ?32 or under, you dont need to worry as you can claim off Royal Mail. If its above ?32 then if you send unrecorded etc untrackable then you run the risk.

I dont know what category you sell in, games I guess? Games isnt too bad for chargebacks, most chargebacks occur in categories such as mobile phones, where its pretty rife, as they are obviously small, high-value goods with easy resell potential.

At the end of the day, if your sick of chargebacks etc then yes you should really find another site to trade on, or open up a bricks and mortar shop.

I get chargebacks every now and then but you have to take it with a pinch of salt, for every chargeback you get, you might have a few hundred perfectly great transactions. Provided your making the profit, why let a few scammers / moaners etc boot you off the 'bay?

The reason its took 2 weeks for paypal to tell you the transaction may be fraudulent is because thats how long the buyer has waited before ringing their CC company.

Theres no real viable alternative for online payments when dealing on eBay. Nochex are a lot better for sellers and I dont think you can actually get chargebacks against you on there, or protection is much greater, but nobody wants to use Nochex.

You should still do okay on eBay with cheques, dont forget bank transfers are pretty good as well, but most people just cant be assed and want to click with paypal and have it done. Snakes and ladders really.

Anyways I hope this helps, not really that helpful advice but hopefully something to think about.

Thanks for the good advice. I'll get on to the buyer straight away. I've already sent him an email regarding this business & had no reply so I'll get his details off ebay & speak to him on the blower.
If it this happened every so often I wouldnt mind but this is twice in the last month now, plus a load of others getting 'lost' in the post, some to Europe which take 3 months to investigate by Royal Mail due to their backlog of claims.
I might look into the NoChex thingy. Sounds good. Bank Transfers I did accept for a while but payments were coming in from buyers who's name address details didnt match the payments recived & when I emailed them to confirm the names/amounts received they seemed to be slow in responding & then complaining about the slow posting times (u just cant win can u!!).

[Mayhem]

When it comes to Paypal...

- if the sending address isn't confirmed, you can be screwed over
- only countries so far that can have confirmed address are US, Canada, UK and I think Germany
- if you don't send via a method that allows online tracking of the parcel, you can be screwed over
- always make sure you never have a Paypal balance for them to remove funds from (so keep spending what you earn!), and NEVER link your bank account to it (as I've been led to believe they can raid that as well)

[ince]

bought a game recently on ebay. the user had 100+ feedback but is now no longer registered.

i have filed a dispute on the paypal site but is there any way i can ask them to put a stop on the account before he withdraws the money

[HaHaUK]

Can't wait for Google to bring out their eBay killer - would be a wonderful thing.

[weightgain]

I've noticed today that eBay have changed the ability to view who bids / wins auctions if you're not the seller / bidder (And I think the bidder is limited to who he can see bidding).

Does anyone else think this opens up the chance for dodgy sellers to bid up their own items ????

[zeroboo]

i have a problem.

paid for an item on ebay with bank transfer but the seller never sent me the item. i asked for a refund, he agreed but it has now been a week and a bit more. he has stopped responding to emails. (dispute had been open with ebay but they dont seem to be of any use)

What can I do at this stage?

update: the seller has been delisted. i do have his address and account details

[phillai]

Nintendo Wii for a penny...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=018&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=280062336553&rd=1&rd=1

[SuperBeatBoy]

ive listed my nintendo wii and component cable on ebay. i can't find it in the searches at all, i should be able to find it just by searching nintendo wii. but to no luck. is this because ebay at the moment is suffering some stress due to the post xmas period, has anyone experienced this at all?

[toythatkills]

How long ago did you list it?

[SuperBeatBoy]

about an hr to 2hrs. ive only listed it for a day, so all this waiting and it not being seen is a bit annoying.

[cutmymilk]

Someone has paid me via an echeque. Paypal have told me to wait until it is clear before sending.

What is an echeque for? Does it provide extra security so that the buyer can claim money back easier or something? I'll send the item recorded anyhow, just in case.

[weightgain]

never heard of one - please update if / when you find out please !!!

[cutmymilk]

It seems to pull the funds from the buyers bank, like using paypal normally and not having funds. However, it takes its time about it. 9th January is the expected clearning date. Ah well, the seller will have to wait for his stuff!

[Gubbins]

It's where the funds are coming from a debit/solo card and so it needs 7 days to clear. An online cheque.