Hi everyone,

Some creep on Ebay took my money via Paypal and never sent the item I ordered. Since then, he is no longer a registered user. Paypal says they will TRY and collect my money back; but if the do they charge a collection fee. Has anyone else had this problem? I thought a buyer was protected if someone ripped them off.

Thanks in advance!

-Curtis

not 100% sure, but my understanding is paypal will cover you if you get screwed by a seller and take it out on them. If he is no longer a seller I would think that's paypals problem.
I would think paypal will cover your loss?
Keep us posted and good luck!!

Actually dont count on paypal to help you out. There usually useless.

If you used your credit card call them NOW and tell them the story. 9 out of 10 times they know about how bad paypal is.

2 years agao I bought something for 1,200 dollars and the buyer ripped me off. I talked to the people at paypal and they said I had to wait 30 days to make sure it wasnt just late in the mail. So at the same time I called my credit card caompany, they told me about how many paypal transactions where bogus and how paypal pretty much wont help me out and then proceeded to get to work them selves.

Long story short.... a month later paypal said that they couldnt do anything and they couldnt help me out because they seller had already took the money out of their account.

My credit card company got my money back and took care of the seller

Dont trust paypal !!! contact either your bank or crditcard NOW !

Thanks, LD.

I appreciate the moral support !

i sold someone some records thru ebay.
he paid with paypal.
had me send the records to his GF house in the states. (he was from europe)
claimed he never received them.
paypal asked me for proof of sending him the records.
found in his favor.
cleaned out my account and frove it.
bullshit.

Yeah unless you know the person ALWAYS send to the address listed in thepaypal account and ALWAYS get insurance.


Here is a website that is so fuckin true and it gives you a little helpfull advise:

http://www.paypalsucks.com/

the "processing charge" is only for ebay items. if you file for an item paid through paypal but not for ebay, there is no charge.

they do not guarantee a refund, only if they can get it out of the seller's account.

for credit card transactions, it's easier to get your money back than if you paid with paypal funds because then paypal has another way to get the money from the seller.

I've been burned for $150 by an online store and got the whole amount back through dispute resolution. never had to do it with ebay though.

some I FART A LOT on some robot site fucked me hard and the assfucks at paypal froze my account because I didn't insure an item.
My motherfuckinbad, but the I FART A LOT said oh don't insure because it will be cheaper to send (and this way I can totally fuck you). I didn't read the fine print at the time.
So now my wife is my sponsor on paypal.
I will always insure an item!!

A few years back I sent an item to Canada which was either lost in the post or the buyer received but decided to deny receiving.
The end result?
Since I didn't provide online tracking, as required by PayPal at the time, the buyer got his money back, via my PayPal account and I got bupkis.
Actually, that's not true - I got angry.

Move forward a few years. I send money for an item. And wait. And wait. And wait. I send e-mails, I send pleas, I send curses. Nada. I report the seller to ebay and PayPal, through whom I paid.
The end result?
PayPal said they would refund me my money once they could get it from the seller. Unfortunately the seller renegged on all his final auctions and cleaned out his PayPal account before we became wise to him. So the seller received some negative feedback, closed eBay and PayPal accounts, my money and I got bupkis.
Actually that's not true - I got even angrier.

The moral?
Some folks are assholes, the loopholes never seem to be in favor of the righteous and, in general, I almost never, ever, ever, ever have this kind of trouble with eBay or PayPal.
Of all my transactions over the years - perhaps a thousand or just shy of that mark - only five or so have gone south.

In general, I seem to be winning.

i had 2 people at the same time do that to me. I sold 2 h-street skate decks. One person was from europe the other was from new zeland. The post office screwed up, sent it by boat. i gave paypal the info and they gave the money back to the buyers. I refused to pay it and my account got put on hold until i did.....it took about 6 months to pay it since it was around 600 total. And i lost the decks, post office couldn't find them.... so in total out 1200 dollars.

Wow,
Lots of folks getting screwed and Paypal sounds like they were no help.

Thanks for the scary stories ; in the future if I don't know the seller; I will pay with credit card. Paypal makes it sound like they got your back; but there's enough evidence to prove otherwise.

The ONLY way I ship anything overseas is by global express mail. It is insured, has tracking, requires a signature, etc.

Even for domestic shipments now (unless maybe the value of the item is like $10), I send them by priority mail, but with insurance and signature required at the other end.

so, insurance the key to proving to paypal/ebay that you've sent an item ??

Hmm... not sure about that. I think the tracking and the signature confirmation that it was received may be important. The insurance, however, may be the key to getting a recovery if something goes awry and PayPal doesn't help you.

after reading this stuff, i'll def be taking serious measures to combat possible problems if/when i decide to sell anything else on ebay.

Or buying! I paid for insurance but this ultra-douche seller never had any intention of send my item.

at least with buying they can't pull your accounts

obviously shiite all around

i'm probably repeating stuff... but I always

-leave my account empty no matter what
-always use tracking to cover my ass. and keep my receipts of shipping
-if there is some sort of delay, make sure it does not exceed 60 days (the time where u can easily file complaint)

i've ran into minor problems before, but i think i've been lucky (knock on wood) to not have anything major.... with transactions w/ paypal

The whole tracking thing for international shipments is fine if the item is of medium to hefty price but you should hear those international buyers whine if you're selling something lightweight and inexpensive like CD's - and who can blame them! A $3 item can gain over $10 in shipping. Yikes!

When cleaning out my collection last year, I finally had to give in, bite the bullet, and ship everything cheap and easy - no tracking, nada. Luckily I did not lose my ass.

As I said, I've had very little trouble, in general, with eBay transactions - and I'm thankful!

i mostly buy from the same people and have only sold a couple times (selling makes me nervous as hell for some reason - perhaps all the reasons listed above. lol)

even as a buyer i hold my breath til an item arrives.

lots of good advice here, and i think rhino's is my fave: clear out your paypal acct!

Delivery confirmation is the other failsafe-Kind of hard to argue you didnt get something when it was received and signed for...

I'll share my paypal nightmare. A little over a year ago, I sold my Green GID Kaws 5YL to some tool in HK. I sent it Global EMS, had tracking info, and retained all of the reciepts and even scanned it into PDF format. The guy claims it never came, and filed a chargeback to paypal. The tracking info stated it had been delivered. They immediately sided on the side of the buyer, and sucked the money out of my account without any notice. I keep my balance at zero, so I ended up with a negative balance. I tried using their dispute resolution center, faxed them the documents (they won't accept attachments for fear of viruses), and all to no resolution. I ended up losing the toy, and $$ from all the charges and fees...not to mention the cost of all the time and effort wasted.

I haven't dealt with overseas transactions since. I've started using celga some to buy, based on the positive feedback from you guys. Anyway, paypal is convenient, and unfortunately there's really no good competitor. fortunately 90% of my dealings have been ok.

i had a zero balance when my stuff was pulled out......-600 dollars

I've only had one bad experience with ebay, but there is one rule of thumb I have when I'm selling higher priced items.
Money order only. I put it in the description that they need to pay this way, and yep I have to wait for the dough a little bit longer, but then they can't do some of this chargeback crap. i also make sure the person bidding has decent feedback. If they don't, I'll cancel bids if I have any suspicion at all.

Signature confirmation is best to do with USPS. That way you have an actual signature and can prove someone signed for it. The insurance and delivery confirmation are ok, as the slips they use allow tracking through the post office system, but the sig is the way to go.