[averydonovan]

I think the most expensive thing I have ever bought via Ebay was less than $50 for a portable CD player. I rarely use auctions, I read too many stories of people getting screwed. I do like PayPal for private transactions and have never had anything bad happen in the nearly 3 years I've been using it. I am just very careful how I do transactions over the Internet. It is really sad reading all these stories of dishonest people getting away with stuff

 

[purk]

Paypal is quite bad as well. I bought Sony D-777 from a guy for 100 bucks, it never turned up. His e-mailed was out of service 3 days later. I waited and waited for the item. I paid 100 bucks from paypal feeling if something went wrong I'll get money back. Unfortunately paypal did nothing, and I lost 100 bucks. The seller is located in England and has taken all of the fund from his account, so no money was credited back to me.

 

[strohmie]

I've gradually sold more and more and bought less and less, mainly because I trust myself but don't trust anyone else.

Seriously though, I haven't had any problems with PayPal thus far but I know if I ever had one, I would end up really pissed off. The thing is, I don't believe for a second that $0.58 is all the person had left in their account. I have an offhand hunch that PayPal's "processing fees" amount to a hefty percentage of any transaction they try to set right. Just my pessimistic guess.

 

[Big D]

To be fair to Paypal it is basically a way of transfering money between two people, like Worldpay. They shouldn't be responsible if the item isn't delivered.

If the seller has a "confirmed" address then the Buyer Protection Scheme applies and you are able to claim the full value of the item. Also there is the Seller Protection Scheme if the buyer has a confirmed address and uses a fraudulent credit card.

The easiest way to avoid problems is to only use your credit card when buying through Paypal then the credit card company will cover you.

 

[h3nG]

ouch, i feel for you man.

i use paypal, but i think it's complete ****. it's hard to blame them though. because the real culprit here is not paypal, but the seller. paypal just sucks and is not doing the right thing since you should be protected under their buyer's protection policy if they found it was the fault of the seller. mainly, that policy is just to entice people into using paypal...when they really dont plan to live by it.

i got nailed in the back for $125 on my first ebay deal. but i still use paypal because i dont think paypal is the real problem in cases like this. i've just learned to deal smarter. like having an extra bank account just for paypal, and always paying with credit card, aside from making sure to deal with the right people.

another problem that occurs is shipping. sometimes both the buyer and seller fulfill their part, but the item gets lost during the shipping process or something. which was close to happening to me, but since i believed the seller, i was willing to split the damage. it turns out the item arrived a month later, so i just paid the last half later. but had it been delivered to the wrong house, we both would have just wondered if the other was telling the truth.

dont mean to break it to you, but dont expect paypal to reimburst anything. they are a big company, and could care less about having some members here vouch for you. i dont think you should give up though, just dont set your hopes too high. just be happy its' 'only' around $50 you lost. i've heard of a lot more. their seller and buyer protection policy is a joke, which you have realized. but i still wish you luck.

 

[Big D]

I'm afraid that the Buyer & Seller Protection Policies do work on Paypal:

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...p-info-outside

The OP was obviously not covered by this and was claiming under the Buyer Complaint Policy:

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...ge=_home&flow=

Note that Paypal give the claimant ALL recovered monies, there is no fee for this.

 

[Zanth]

http://www.paypalsucks.com/

Read all about it there. Horror stories, 1-800 numbers direct to Paypal and even better, REAL direct numbers, no 1-800s. That is how I got through and how I managed to swing a bad auction in my favour.

 

[Mr.PD]

Update,
I got an email while this weekend from that seller. It was a reply from my last message to hem with just a tracking number for a package. Kind of strange.
One other thing, I also had 2 spoof emails claiming to be from eBay. It seems that everytime I try to contact this guy or the couple times he has actually sent me an email, I get these spoof emails with in an hour or so. I got one supposedly from Paypal when I made the payment, I got one supposedly from eBay when I got the winning invoice notice, I got two supposedly from eBay when I sent the guy a message using eBay's system, then I got two more supposedly from eBay when I went through eBay's message system a second time. Then I got another one when the guy finally replied, and another after I replied to his reply and today two more with in an hour of this last message from him.

I keep forwarding them to eBay and Paypal's spoof center.

The USPS site said that the item that tracking number goes to was sent June 5. Do you suppose he went and sent it after Paypal dinged him for 58 cents?
Know I feel bad that I left such horrible feedback for this guy that day I got my Paypal notice and saw that "pay now" button on the auction page.

 

[strohmie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.PD Know I feel bad that I left such horrible feedback for this guy that day I got my Paypal notice and saw that "pay now" button on the auction page.

Any good seller would have had that item out to you by a month ago.

Meanwhile getting all those spoof mails whenever there's contact between you two either means there's a bug associated with his e-mail or he's trying to get personal information from anyone in contact with him. Fishy either way.

 

[ProFingerSk8er]

Quote:

The USPS site said that the item that tracking number goes to was sent June 5. Do you suppose he went and sent it after Paypal dinged him for 58 cents?

it's not because of that 58 cents.
if you paied $40, and got 58 cents back, the seller still owes you/paypal $39.42.
IIRC, as long as the seller owes paypal money, problem still unsolved, PayPal will lock his paypal account and freeze whatever amount he has in there untill problem's solved

 

[Mr.PD]

GUESS WHAT.
Today I received the disc in question from the seller in question.

He mailed June 5 the day after I got the notice from Paypal.

Geez, I left some pretty bad stuff in his feedback too. I'm trying to correct what I left in his feedback. I will still leave it negative, but I want to change the comments I made, now that they aren't true. I don't know if I can do that, but I have to try.

 

[ipodstudio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.PD GUESS WHAT. Today I received the disc in question from the seller in question. He mailed June 5 the day after I got the notice from Paypal. Geez, I left some pretty bad stuff in his feedback too. I'm trying to correct what I left in his feedback. I will still leave it negative, but I want to change the comments I made, now that they aren't true. I don't know if I can do that, but I have to try.

You can't change it but you CAN leave a follow-up comment underneath..