Be careful using PalPal

[gcarter]

I recently purchased a flywheel cover from a person on eBay that I had also bought a coupler.
The cover purchase was not an eBay item.
This person sent me the wrong cover. I immediately attempted to get their attention about the mistake. After no response, I contacted PayPal and entered a complaint in their conflict resolution department. I filled out a questionaire, and was immediately informed that since I had received "something" from the seller, my complaint didn't qualify for them to get involved.
A few days went by and I was sent a poll by PayPal concerning the outcome. I had some issues and informed them of it.
PayPal re-opened the complaint and informed the seller that they had ten days to give me a refund.
Ten days and I have received no refund, PayPal has re-closed the complaint. I guess that's the end of it.
This was a cash transaction, not a credit card. I guess in this case, it makes a big difference.
Caveat Emptor!!!! :frown:

[Carl C]

I'd be more angry with the seller not working with you on this. Too many people now days just don't care. I hope you gave him negative feed-back.

[gcarter]

I would have, but it wasn't an eBay item. I left a positive feedback on the coupler. In my mind, they're different issues.
I'll be more careful about feedback in the future. I suppose it could have been neutral.

[joel3078]

If it's an ebay item and paid via paypal, the buyer side is the one that gets protected. This is the way to drive financial transactions - protect the buyer. Buyers buy more stuff and ebay/paypal makes more money. Ebay/paypal has their own interest in mind to make as much money as they can, so they protect the buyer. Believe me on this one. We sell lots of stuff on ebay and have had a few chargeback disputes from buyers for all kinds of silly reasons. This is part of doing business and it is not much different that retail sales. You guys all know that the big retails stores will take anything back. Why? Keep buyers happy! It's better to take the item back and resell it that to get a bunch of negative press/feedback. If you get marked too many times as a crappy seller, you might as well hang it up and fire up a new ebay account. This happens quite a bit also. Having multiple ebay accounts is the norm for dealers. This spreads out the bad feedback over lots of accounts thus letting the time it takes for negative feedback to build up.

Now if you are doing a cash deal and/or a non ebay item, how do you expect the buyer to be protected. The seller is holding all the cards. As a buyer, you can't do a credit card chargeback when it's a cash deal. This is the exact reason that ebay has cautions about buying things out of their system. Out of the system is great for sellers, bad for buyers.

[boxy]

George, I'm confused, how is a bad "cash" deal with a bad seller PayPal's problem ?
Did you use PayPal to transfer money out of your bank account to the seller ?
I hope you get it straightened out.

[gcarter]

George, I'm confused, how is a bad "cash" deal with a bad seller PayPal's problem ?
Did you use PayPal to transfer money out of your bank account to the seller ?
I hope you get it straightened out.
Yep, that's one of the benifits of PayPal, bypassing the credit card. My downfall was this transaction was outside of eBay. PayPal does have a resolution process, but they're mainly interested in scams, not something like this.
I'll be more careful in the future. At least it was only $100.00.

[boxy]

Wow that sucks. Maybe it's me, but I don't view that as a "cash" transaction, I would have thought PayPal would have a better resolution process than that.
To me "cash" means me handing you a stack of $20's ..... :D

[billy22zx]

Personally..i`ve never set up a pay-pal account,but have had nothing but problems with ebay when selling something. I recently listed a car,and after the first day,someone had "compromised" my account,and had cell phones listed under my name. I did get them removed,but recieved a nasty e-mail from a potential buyer. I have changed my password a few times as they suggest,but this has happened again since the listing of the car. Never had a problem buying anything with a credit card.

[pmreed]

Forget credit card protection through Paypal. If you try a chargeback, you're going up against Paypal, not the seller of the item. If you file a complaint, Paypal may find in your favor, but they have no way to refund your loss unless the seller has money in their Paypal account. So, forget their lip service about protecting you.
At the same time, I've used Paypal for hundreds of transactions and only been stuck once for about $24. I'm very careful who I deal with. For a big ticket item from a questionable seller, I'd insist on using an escrow account. I'll pay the fees to protect my money.

Caveat Emptor.

Phil

[fegettes]

I too have had a bad experience with e-bay & Pay Pal with no resolution. I had bought a clearly advertised Sherwood Scuba Regulator with a Dive Computer. When I received the Regulator there was not a Computer attached. I disputed this with e-bay and Pay Pal with absolutely no resolution, and after about 4 months, I eventually gave up. And hence, I am very cautious about the sellers I buy from.