I must agree that Paypal does not protect sellers.

[213sjm]

I am an extremely honest seller. My feed back is always wonderful.  Perfect item, as described, love it! and super fast shipping , great honest seller, couldn't ask for more, a wonderful person and highly recommend are the comments I get.  I sold a  handbag to someone that stated they never received it.  I had the receipt from the post office that they stamped showing they accepted it and it was mailed. The receipt showing the cost I paid to ship it and yet the buyer gets refunded. I am out the money I paid for the item and the selling amount. How do I know they don't have it?

 She asked me if I would accept a lower price and I did.  I made hardly anything on it.  She loved it.  Then she emailed me that she saw it selling for less and was sad.  I appologized to her that she was sad and that she still got it very low.  She emailed me again stating she saw it for less again.  I did not respond but instead I contacted Ebay and paypal as I feared she would do something to my item to get her refund. 

She put in a claim against me stating item damaged and had loose stitching. This designer does not make bags with loose stitching. Nor would I sell a damaged bag.   It was perfect!  I was told on the phone they could see the emails from her and said it was a case of buyers remorse.  I sent pictures of the item showing every detail of it and the new condtion.  They rewarded this liar with her money back.  I did get the item back today and thank goodness it was in perfect condition and she did not damage it.  Shows how even more she is a liar.  I would love to send it to Paypal for them to see for themselves but obviously they don't care.  She lied just to get her money back because she propably already purchased it elsewhere for less money.  Sellers are not protected and If there was another way to do business with some other company I would. I am heart sick over this as I take great pride in my items and my service.  Liars always win and Paypal proved it be rewarding one.  Honest people seem to lose out.

[KKR811]

Although I have a somewhat different story, I totally agree with you that Paypal does not protect it's sellers at all! There have been 3 occasions where I have contacted Paypal and was told there was nothing they could do even though I provided them with evidence supporting my position. Today was just the icing on the cake! I accidentally refunded money to someone because I was expecting a refund myself! If anyone has ever gone onto the Paypal account page, on some transactions it has a little "refund" link next to the name of the person. I got the name mixed up and thought the person I refunded the money to was the person refunding the money back to me. It's so easy to confuse it! The lady who purchased some items from me contacted me and asked if her items were being shipped or what because she noticed her money got refunded but that her items were marked shipped with a tracking number. I wrote to her explaining what happened and she told me to invoice her again and she would gladly pay it back. That was the last I heard from her. I called Paypal and they told me the could not help me. Why not? I have the tracking number. They see the money transferred over and back. I can send them proof by way of her email stating that she would re-send me the money back... but they wanted to hear nothing of it. When it comes down to it, you are on your own with Paypal! SELLERS BEWARE!!! Now I am **bleep**ed. She has my money AND my goods!

[mparramore]

Very true. If you sell something and it gets lost in the mail or not delivered, (no fault of the seller) and the buyer files a claim, the funds for the amount the buyer paid for the item and the amount he or she paid for shipping will be automatically deducted from your account and if the funds are not in your account if will be deducted from any bank account you have linked to your papal account. Quite unfortuante, being as how the seller is the one who pays the fees to paypal for accepting money thru them.  I am actually quite surprised that there has not been a class action lawsuit filed about this already. Perhaps it is in the works.. the only way I see to protect yourself against this is either to not offer Paypal on your auctions (or anything you sell)  or if your buyer does not pay for insurance, the seller buys insurance in case paypal pulls your funds..

[balance943]

Sorry to hear of your and other seller's issues.  I too, pride myself on great feedback and take pride in the items I sell, my packing, shipping and communication.

I'm currently embroiled in a dispute with a buyer who has lied to both myself and PayPal, I am experiencing what many of you have already gone through.  As a collector of models, knives and globes, many of my favorite sellers no longer accept PayPal as their mode of exchange due to the imbalanced policies put in place over the past years.  These are all folks whose principal income is via eBay auction and internet sales.  I never really understood their position until this week.  I have loved PayPal and thought it to be a pretty neat form of exchange.  However, scanning the disputes bulletin board, I see resolution complaints from sellers far outnumbering those from buyers.  Each winter, I clear between $1,000 and $2,000 worth of auction merchandise (some collector items that need to move on, some electronic or personal items that have been upgraded).  But it is not my primary business and I do just as much fiscal transferring as a buyer. 

I have already stopped shipping to Eastern Europe and have just begun refusing buyers with feedback under 10.  My new experience may change me to a money order only seller and buyer.  As stated, many folks that I buy from have already gone there.  I look forward to the resolution of my case and hope that PayPal actually reads the facts presented to them.