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No surprise. My personal experience with paypal: Apparently I am permanently banned for life because I refused to cover my "negative balance" that resulted from

No surprise. My personal experience with paypal: Apparently I am permanently banned for life because I refused to cover my "negative balance" that resulted from a scammer buying my old laptop on ebay, claiming he never got it (despite having proof of delivery), then somehow reversing the Paypal transaction just by speaking to a representative. He used a brand new ebay account, mine was at least 7 years old with 100% positive feedback. Have they resolved this issue yet? I keep hearing similar stories from friends, who have obviously stopped using ebay/paypal for this reason. So Paypal customer support apparently just does whatever they want to do, at the individual agent level.

aestra 13y ago
This sucks and is pretty much a known scam. Ebay and paypal don't do what they want so much as just automatically side with the buyer. The buyer could have also claimed they got a defective product. I guess the only way to protect yourself is to purchase insurance.
jvm 13y ago
This is a 'feature' of the credit card system, it has nothing to do with PayPal. If you buy something with a credit card, you can chargeback by claiming a defective product and get your money back from the card companies. Then the card companies go to the seller to get their money back. In this case, the credit card companies only have a relationship with PayPal, not you, so they come to PayPal to get their money back. PayPal fights them but if they lose then they pay up, then they come to you to get the money back from you, and you obviously refused to pay. You can imagine what this kind of thing does to PayPal's business. Paypal were the ones that ended up getting screwed in that transaction. Just be glad it wasn't you.
- jliptzin 13y ago
  I understand chargebacks. This wasn't a chargeback, it was a straight up Paypal reversal. And if you count not being able to use Paypal for anything as a penalty, then I got screwed too.
  - jvm 13y ago
    Weird, so like they themselves have a chargeback policy? Ugh.
    - jfoster 13y ago
      Sometimes when all of the businesses (PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, Amazon, etc.) in a particular industry behave the same way, it is for good reasons. What's the alternative? For them to err in favour of the merchant, occasionally screwing consumers? When bad stuff happens in transactions (online or offline) merchants should be prepared to sometimes take the hit. It's so much better than loss of consumer confidence. Look at the general willingness of large retailers to accept returns. They do it because they want consumers to buy without second thoughts.
hackerboos 13y ago
This happened to me. Sold a Blackberry on eBay and shipped with tracking. The seller claimed it didn't work with their network and despite me listing it as 'no returns' sent back a different (cheaper/older) Blackberry to me. I told eBay and they told me to contact the police but not before returning the money to the buyer and putting my account in the red. I immediately removed all my bank and card details from Paypal and requested my account be closed. I waited a week and opened a new account using new card and bank details. Thankfully they've never linked the 2.
- dingaling 13y ago
  > and despite me listing it as 'no returns' 'No returns' in eBay World means 'the buyer keeps the item and receives a refund' if the item is not as described / non-functional etc. Or even if the buyer bought it in error. It doesn't mean 'all sales are final', as many sellers appear to think.

aestra 13y ago

This sucks and is pretty much a known scam. Ebay and paypal don't do what they want so much as just automatically side with the buyer. The buyer could have also claimed they got a defective product. I guess the only way to protect yourself is to purchase insurance.

jvm 13y ago

This is a 'feature' of the credit card system, it has nothing to do with PayPal. If you buy something with a credit card, you can chargeback by claiming a defective product and get your money back from the card companies. Then the card companies go to the seller to get their money back. In this case, the credit card companies only have a relationship with PayPal, not you, so they come to PayPal to get their money back. PayPal fights them but if they lose then they pay up, then they come to you to get the money back from you, and you obviously refused to pay. You can imagine what this kind of thing does to PayPal's business. Paypal were the ones that ended up getting screwed in that transaction. Just be glad it wasn't you.

jliptzin 13y ago
I understand chargebacks. This wasn't a chargeback, it was a straight up Paypal reversal. And if you count not being able to use Paypal for anything as a penalty, then I got screwed too.
- jvm 13y ago
  Weird, so like they themselves have a chargeback policy? Ugh.
  - jfoster 13y ago
    Sometimes when all of the businesses (PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, Amazon, etc.) in a particular industry behave the same way, it is for good reasons. What's the alternative? For them to err in favour of the merchant, occasionally screwing consumers? When bad stuff happens in transactions (online or offline) merchants should be prepared to sometimes take the hit. It's so much better than loss of consumer confidence. Look at the general willingness of large retailers to accept returns. They do it because they want consumers to buy without second thoughts.

hackerboos 13y ago

This happened to me. Sold a Blackberry on eBay and shipped with tracking. The seller claimed it didn't work with their network and despite me listing it as 'no returns' sent back a different (cheaper/older) Blackberry to me. I told eBay and they told me to contact the police but not before returning the money to the buyer and putting my account in the red. I immediately removed all my bank and card details from Paypal and requested my account be closed. I waited a week and opened a new account using new card and bank details. Thankfully they've never linked the 2.

dingaling 13y ago
> and despite me listing it as 'no returns' 'No returns' in eBay World means 'the buyer keeps the item and receives a refund' if the item is not as described / non-functional etc. Or even if the buyer bought it in error. It doesn't mean 'all sales are final', as many sellers appear to think.