PayPal Community

Did he say he funded it with a debit card? Don't assume.   I've had the same thing happen to me and I certainly didn't use a debit card.   In my situation what happened is that the seller refunded the item when his PayPal account was empty.   PayPal then tries to get the money from a bank account (5 to 7 days).   If the bank account is closed or empty, this doesn't work so...   ...PayPal will contact the bank and try again. (5 to 7 days)   ...and again. (5 to 7 days)   Eventually a dispute/claim is opened. (might be too late to even open a claim at that point)   ...basically, kiss the money good bye.   This is a loophole in their system.   ... View more

This may not have stopped this from happening, but you should have simply stated that the phone does not work at all. You should not have described that it had any functionality.   I sold a dmaged motherboard and quickly adjusted my wording to state in bold letters that the board could be completely dead and that I offered no guarantees.   You should not state any functionality with non-working items because scammers will use that against you. ... View more

If we are talking about a small amount of money, send it back. If we are talking about a large amount of money, one really begins to wonder about this story and whether any advice given would simply be used to attempt to evade justice.   Yes, one can get into legal trouble for doing that. It is also possible for authorities to open an official investigation and request documentation logs from PayPal to see exactly what went on. People are not as anonymous on the internet as they think they  are. Just because one deletes email off of his or her hard drive does not mean it is not still out in cyberspace where computer forensic specialists of law enforcement can access servers and databases to find out exactly what communication took place.   There are people who set up PayPal accounts and beg for money for sick children in the hospital, injured pets, or really any story that generates sympathy. Of course, this is usually just a scam to bilk people out of money. No one should ever send donations to a PayPal account that is not affiliated with a professional charity as there is no transparency. For all the donor knows he or she could be supporting a con-artist's drug habit. ... View more

Current eBay policies are unfair for low volume sellers and are intended to muscle out sellers that are not professional businesses. I have spoken to eBay representatives many times due to recent problems and they have admitted this to me.   If you are a low volume seller, selling an item valued at over $100 is a great risk. There are now professional thieves with effective strategies for taking your merchandise and forcing a refund by utilizing loopholes in the policies of PayPal, eBay, and credit card companies.  ... View more

It is very suspicious on the part of the buyer to mail back a functioning watch for that reason.   The only thing I can think of would be to get an explicit and professional looking business letter from the tenents of your old address that explicitly states that they did not recieve the watch on the date shown by the USPS or the UPS. You will need to help them write the letter to make sure that it is clear and objective.   If the tenants are unwilling to do that, that places the tenants in a suspicious light.       ... View more

"Paypal agents have  a lot of work and need to move quickly to get disputes closed so they're not going to start checking video or signed affidavits (anyone could fake sign something)."   The above statement is not true for all cases (and seems to show ignorance of the appeals process). If it is admissible in small claims court (or in a higher court), it is relevent. When you put forth evidence, it is not just the evidence that is being looked at, but the credibility and record of the party who asserts that evidence. Any person who says that it is a waste of time to have a signed legal affidavit and that it is useless to document (with video) evidence of the condition and serial numbers of an item is ignorant of the way the law works. Such documents can be scanned and uploaded so that links can be added to the comments section of the dispute and read by the supervisor. It isn't easy to do this, but it can be done.   I personally know of a situation in which claim by a buyer in an amount of over $250 was reversed to the seller because it was provent through images and video that the buyer returned a different item than what the seller had sent the buyer. Not only that, but the buyer had tried the same scam with several other sellers and therefor had a track record of it. So, when the seller fought back and had the claim reversed this exposed the buyer as a potential mail fraud perpetrator for the first time.   You can easily shoot video and upload it to youtube. In the event I spoke of, the seller actually shot video of the item arriving with the UPS person and with the UPS worker present opened the package and had the UPS worked hold it up to the camera while reading serial numbers off of the item, which were clearly different than the original item sent.   You are NOT completely powerless.   "There is one useful tool to see all the negative feedback a buyer has left."   Not all PayPal transactions are through eBay.   Before sending the item, if you find suspicious feedback left by buyer for other sellers (in which sellers state some injustice was done in their response comment), you should immediately refund the buyer, offer an excuse and an apology, and block that person from ever bidding on items again. Even if they report you, it is better than dealing with the prospect of being defrauded.   However, in a problematic transaction the feedbacks left by the buyer can help to expose the buyer if he or she has a pattern of frivolous claims. If negative feedbacks by the buyer are left and responsed by sellers indicate a seller situation to your own, you need to document this (screen shots) and links to the feedback so that PayPal representatives can easily view the comments.   The problem is that most buyers who commit these scams do not leave negative feedback for this reason.  No matter how well you research a buyer you should always document the merchandise in transactions of high value.         ... View more

  I know that this thread has been out for awhile, but I still felt like providing my opinion. I feel sympathy for the seller and do feel that the behavior of the buyer is unreasonable. Although I agree that there is no concrete evidence that the buyer is attempting to defraud the seller (yet), the actions of the buyer are suspicious.  If the buyer has actually accused the seller of outright mail fraud, without attempting to communicate with the seller, and immediately opened a claim, that does seem odd. Yet again, it is not concrete proof.   The likely conclusion of this scenerio is that that the seller ends up with four bottles of cologne and the buyer keeps the money. The seller should take measures to prevent this from happening in the future. The seller will not win this case unless the buyer is dumb enough to mail back a box of rocks via UPS. (Even then the seller would need video of the box arriving via UPS and being opened).   First, the bottles should not be arranged in such a way that it a buyer could easily make the mistake of throwing a few away. Second, if the cologne is really expensive the seller should consider getting signed affidivats from witnesses stating that a certain quantity of a certain weight was mailed a postal center at a certain date. Video documation doesn't hurt either.   There needs to be a machanism or safegaurd to protect sellers from buyers who pull these scams, but currently none exists that I am aware of. For this reason sellers should think twice before selling items through these channels if they cannot cover the costs.   Update:   For those who are uninformed: 1. You can scan documents and photo evidence and upload them to image shack and provide the direct links to the supervisors at the dispute resolution service (in the comments section).   2. You can upload video to youtube and provide links to supervisors at the dispute resolution service (in the comments section). They may say they cannot view them, but if it looks like the situation may escalate to a legal action between the buyer and seller there are higher agents who WILL look at the video.   3. You can appeal a decision.   4. Paypal is required to adhere to laws governing financial transactions, this is especially clear when the buyer and seller are from the same country.   5. The more documentation that you have, the less inclined PayPal specialists will be to dismiss your assertions.   6. You will also find that if a buyer attempts to rip you off, there is usually a pattern of the buyer doing exactly the same thing with other sellers, which causes PayPal to LOSE MONEY. PayPal representatives know this and investigate such claims to prevent PayPal from losing its own money and customers.   7. A video or legal affidavit can be faked. So can a living will, a dollar bill, or a driver's license. That is completely irrelevent. The idea that someone would risk committing felony mail fraud over a single transaction by going through the ridiculous trouble of faking a video is laughable. Such a person would easily be exposed and caught. ... View more