Why are Paypal so SLOW to resolve disputes?

[Chimpangie]

It should be simple right - item not received, seller can't provide proof of postage then becomes unresponsive, so claim opened for refund. Seller still didn't respond so claim escalated to Paypal to make a decision. That was weeks ago..... Seriously, how does it take 30 days to review communication between buyer and seller to settle a dispute? I recall when you used to raise a dispute directly with eBay and it was settled in 48 hours. Ever since they palmed the responsibility off to Paypal to resolve disputes, they seem to take forever but with no rational reason why. Can anyone explain or justify why this process went from 48 hours to 30 days to resolve? It's really pretty poor customer service!

[kernowlass]

Firstly if the item was bought via ebay then its best to raise a dispute with ebay...why did you think you could no longer do that??

Secondly i don't know why it is taking so long, normally once a dispute is escalated to a claim then paypal give the seller 10 days to provide tracking to show delivery of the item to you or you get a refund on day 11..........the exception is when the item is coming from an international seller when they give that seller a bit longer.

30 days seems way too long. 

[Chimpangie]

Hi Kernowlass, thanks for responding. When you pay for an item on eBay using PayPal, if you want to "resolve a problem" you will be automatically directed to PayPal to open a dispute. It is no longer possible to open a dispute directly with eBay. I'm not sure why you are not aware if this if you are a volunteer advisor? As for the time, the entire process has taken around 30 days. Firstly I had to file a dispute (not a claim), then I had to wait a certain number of days for the seller to respond (which they didn't) before I was able to escalate to a claim where Paypal would review and, I quote directly from Paypal PayPal "aim to provide a final decision within 30 days". In my opinion, even 10 days is far too long. Why does the seller deserve a full 10 days to respond? It should be 48 hours like it used to be! Then, after the decision has been made - and in this instance it is in my favour of course - I now have to wait a further 7 days before the refund is cleared! Now how is THAT fair? When I paid for the item, the funds cleared immediately. Waiting a further 7 days for the refund does not seem right. Why are PayPal sitting on the funds? Surely they can recover them immediately from the seller using the same method they use to take purchase payments, so I can't understand what takes a further 7 days for my money to be returned to me.

[kernowlass]

Well firstly I opened a dispute on ebay only 3 days ago and you can certainly still open disputes on there.

Secondly even if I was wrong I don't work for paypal and have no "training". I am just an ebay buyer and seller like yourself, but as I know a lot about the workings of it after helping on the ebay boards I came here to help.

You could easily be an advisor, all you have to do is post helpful advice for a while and you go from member > contributor > advisor. But all our help is voluntary.

As I said it is normally 10 days but if paypal OR EBAY think you may have opened a dispute a bit early they give the seller a bit more time.

Items posted are not declared lost in the post until 15 working days have passed so I never open a dispute until about 20 - 30 days after buying the item.  You have up to 45 days to file a dispute.

Also you don't pay instantly. When you pay a seller it is never instant > paypal credit the seller for you so you get your item more quickly and  then start the process of uploading your funds to paypal from your funding source.

I have had occasions when I have actually received an item before the payment was taken from my bank account. 

But when they refund etc they won't "credit" you back in advance so you have to wait for the money to clear through to your bank account etc.

Finally if you have managed to read all that you have to remember that without buyer protection you may well have lost your money so having to wait a while to get the money back should not really be that bad a thing.

[Chimpangie]

Hi kernowlass, Thanks for your response. With regards to the dispute you opened 3 days ago - did you pay via Paypal? If so, I would be grateful if you could kindly explain how you were able to open a dispute in ebay rather than paypal. When I try to "resolve a problem" on an eBay transaction, I am given 2 options: "continue to Paypal" to open a dispute in the resolution centre, or to "cancel". I'd like to know how you are able to bypass those 2 options? As for the payment - well I'm not sure who you bank with but my payments are taken from my account instantly, within hours anyway. The only exception has been when a transaction happened on a weekend, the payment was processed the next working day. How nice for you to have received items before a payment was processed. Finally, thanks for letting me know how grateful I should be for Paypal's buyer protection, but had you read my earlier post, and if you have been an eBay buyer and seller for as long as I have, you would know that eBay have offered this protection for some time now, and only since Paypal have been responsible for handling these disputes has it taken so long to resolve them.

[kernowlass]

Sorry late reply, had to do some chores.

I went to the account tab in my "my ebay" > scrolled down to the "resolution centre" > item not received > selected item and opened a case.

It would be nice if  you were less sarcastic, I am ony stating "facts" and trying to help you.

I have been on ebay since 2001. For a long time you could only open a dispute on paypal and not on ebay, then they bought in ebay buyer protection as well. Paypal protection has been going on LONGER THAN ebays.

Ebay took over from paypal offering buyer protection not the other way around. 

Also ebay can take just as long and sometimes longer if the same scenarios occur eg international seller or they think that you have opened a dispute too quickly. I can't escalate for another 4 days at the moment.

As for receiving my item before the funds were deducted that was an EXAMPLE not a regular occurence and I only quoted it so you could see that paypal do in fact credit the seller in advance of your payment.

[Chimpangie]

Well it seems there are some wires crossed here. I am referring to the eBay & PayPal Australia sites, and I've just noticed this forum seems to be for the UK community. So maybe on eBay.co.uk you can still open disputes directly with eBay, but you can't on .com.au. I have lived in the UK for the last 7 years where I used eBay a lot to buy and sell, returning to Australia last year. This is obviously where the confusion is as I'm used to the way the UK site works. My question now is, why was I redirected to a UK community for help when my eBay and Paypal accounts are both .com.au? I will have to seek support elsewhere. Thanks

[kernowlass]

Gosh no wonder we were confused, I have no idea about paypal Australia.........yes you are correct this is the UK boards.

Good luck on the the Aussie board.