Crime Reference Number

[Jamiepenman333]

Recently I sold a number of ornaments collectively for just under £200. They were packaged sufficiently, but somehow, during the course of delivery some of the ornaments broke. The buyer launched a dispute and PayPal decided that if the buyer were to return ALL ornaments, they should receive a full refund. However, only 3 of the ornaments were returned. I then appealed paypals decision that I give the buyer a full refund. I then received an email from paypal ask for a crime reference number from the police? This seems a bit severe. Can anyone tell me why PayPal need this? And where I stand in my case. A response will be greatly appreciated.

[shafted-seller]

This is PayPal putting obstacles  in your way for making an appeal.  They do their best to put you off and time barr responses, and by previous experience, PayPal always side with the buyer.  I have had a similar situation and still have never received my goods back.  I have provided PayPal with a crime reference number, but this was still not enough. GOOD LUCK you will need it.

[x-sweet-thing-x]

This happened to me last christmas. I sent a buyer 4 items and they claimed they had received the wrong ones. I asked if they could return them but  refused and wanted their money back. After some negotiation three of the four items were returned and they were ones I did not sell and they were opened. So I knew straight away that this buyer was fraudulent. I contacted paypal as by this time a dispute had been opened by the buyer wanting a refund I obviously refused. I told paypal the buyer had only returned 3 of the items and they then asked the buyer to return the fourth item. This did eventually come back and was the only one that had not been opened so obviously this buyer had substituted the items they did not want for the ones I had sent and made a claim. Paypal did again give the buyer their money back but I got in touch with the police and got a crime reference number as requested by paypal.  I gave this information to paypal and they did refund me my money so sometimes there is light at the end of the tunnel and they do help the seller sometimes.  But this has not always been the case as I have had other cases go against me like alot of others I think I was lucky with this one and it was a one off as it hasn't happened since they have always gone in favour of the buyer.  Keep at them.

[PayPal_david]

Hi there Jamiepenman333,

If there has been a dispute filed against you and you received the items back with parts missing, we need to try and verify exactly what you have received back from your buyer before we can refund the payment back to you.

In a lot of these types of cases, we require that you bring the items to your local police and obtain either a crime reference number in order for us to prove what you have received back from your buyer. We would then review the case further for you and try to get the money refunded back to your account.

In regards to your query shafted-seller, I can't see your case so I can't tell you exactly why your case was not found in your favour. If you have any further enquiry, you would need to contact customer services directly and we can discuss it with you in more detail.

What I can advise you all is that we investigate every case fully and try to make the fairest decision possible in every case. We provide the buyer and seller protection policies on PayPal as a courtesy to our customers. If a seller receives items back with parts missing, we fully investigate it and when we can see that there was items missing when they were returned, we would refund the payment back to the sellers account.

I hope this information helps,

David