Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I'm furious at PayPal
- Thread starter Moof1904
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Better if it's a polite and not angry letter, but...
Oh, I agree.
I'm normally patient and polite to a fault, but I was so hot I fired off that email before I had a chance to edit myself. Oh well, it worked for me, at least that one time.
You paid for insurance, you didn't get insurance and I presume the seller specified in his PayPal or eBay invoice insurance option?
Then the deal is bad. PayPal owes you. Fight it
Then the deal is bad. PayPal owes you. Fight it
Well I had s similar problem with them too. I sold my MDD to a person in Chicago and the person received it and then told me that it was damaged with peanut coming out of the box. As always I put insurance on the stuff I sell. So I told the buyer to file a claim with UPS she refused and shipped it back to me with no insurance. Well with that being said UPS refused the claim and PP gave the buyer there money back and charged me an extra 10.00 on top of the 916.00 that I was out. So to keep a long story short I was out 926.00 and still have a damaged MDD.
Pop on over to http://www.consumerist.com and shoot them an e-mail. They've got a pretty good track record with getting stuff like this resolved.
Forget Paypal at this point. I would firmly engage the seller on their
error in not purchasing insurance. Do not be put off and never give up.
I'd call them 3 times a week and even threaten to file a claim in their jurisdiction in small claims court .
I know its JUST $100, but sometimes its more than the money.
error in not purchasing insurance. Do not be put off and never give up.
I'd call them 3 times a week and even threaten to file a claim in their jurisdiction in small claims court .
I know its JUST $100, but sometimes its more than the money.
Really sorry to hear you've been shafted it stinks.I've come to the conclusion that PayPal plays by its rules and its rules only and it seems the goal posts shift in their favour at all times.The sad thing is that its happened and your livid,but you'll continue to use ebay/paypal because its convenient and there's a good chance you'll get done again,speaking from experience.At the end of the day only bid an amount you can afford to lose and if it sounds to good to be true then it probably is.Hope you get what you want though.
To top it off, these @%@#%$# sellers have sent me repeated emails claiming that I never paid and have placed a strike against me with eBay for nonpayment.
AAaargh.
Goes to show how much to trust an ebay store with 97% feedback rating.
AAaargh.
Goes to show how much to trust an ebay store with 97% feedback rating.
Not a PayPal issue.
Call the seller, ask for the legal department. Calmly explain that you are filing a claim with the US Postal Service for mail fraud and you want their exact legal name. I expect you'll either get help from the seller, or eventual satisfaction when USPS steps in.
lost 50 once, similar scenario on ebay. My mom was pissed cuz it was a gift for me from her, I just chose it.
Add another one to the list of those burned by Paypal. They're still pursuing me through courts for $200 I don't owe them, just because a buyer didn't check his delivery depot before reporting an item I sent them as undelivered.
Isn't small claims court less than $20? Not only should this matter be raised in regular court, but the OP should also contact the BBB.
PayPal is not all that bad
Here was my sitch once upon a time: I had purchased this Samsung Matrix phone either off of yahoo auctions (I think it was) or Ebay, but I paid with PayPal. The phone was like $400+. I never received it....never got an email from the seller....no communication at all. I was pissed! Since I paid with PayPal, I reported it to them, and after 2/3 weeks, I was refunded all my money minus $15-$20.
Good result, happy camper
Situation 2: this just happened to me. I purchased some Air Jordans from Ebay as a gift for my g/f sister. I got them and they were hacked a bit, and they definitely didn't seem "authentic". I contacted the seller and he said he would refund me but wouldn't pay for shipping. I said fine and sent them back. Constantly, I kept emailing and emailing but I didn't get a response. Finally, after 3 weeks of frustration, I reported it to PayPal. It didn't take long before I got a response back saying I would get a refund, which I did I'd say in about 1.5 weeks.
Another Good result, again I'm a happy camper
In summary, I dont know what PayPal does once you submit a claim to them, but they do seem to be effective--at least in my experience. That's why I always pay with PayPal if I can.
I just wanted to share my story to show that PayPal does help, too. I feel they take claims pretty seriously b/c if they didn't, I sure wouldn't use them anymore.
Here was my sitch once upon a time: I had purchased this Samsung Matrix phone either off of yahoo auctions (I think it was) or Ebay, but I paid with PayPal. The phone was like $400+. I never received it....never got an email from the seller....no communication at all. I was pissed! Since I paid with PayPal, I reported it to them, and after 2/3 weeks, I was refunded all my money minus $15-$20.
Good result, happy camper
Situation 2: this just happened to me. I purchased some Air Jordans from Ebay as a gift for my g/f sister. I got them and they were hacked a bit, and they definitely didn't seem "authentic". I contacted the seller and he said he would refund me but wouldn't pay for shipping. I said fine and sent them back. Constantly, I kept emailing and emailing but I didn't get a response. Finally, after 3 weeks of frustration, I reported it to PayPal. It didn't take long before I got a response back saying I would get a refund, which I did I'd say in about 1.5 weeks.
Another Good result, again I'm a happy camper
In summary, I dont know what PayPal does once you submit a claim to them, but they do seem to be effective--at least in my experience. That's why I always pay with PayPal if I can.
I just wanted to share my story to show that PayPal does help, too. I feel they take claims pretty seriously b/c if they didn't, I sure wouldn't use them anymore.
I'm a seller and I use PayPal all the time, to the OP: Insurance has nothing to do with signature confirmation. Insurance just means that.. that the package is insured for whatever value in the event it gets lost, rifled, damaged, etc.
You should contact the seller and ask him to file a claim with the postal service. You have to write a letter that states that you never received the package.. he will take that letter and submit it to the post office. Of course, for all you know.. he might never have paid the extra for insurance, even though you did.
PayPal requires seller to add signature confirmation for items more than $250 in value.. anything less than that - delivery confirmation is ok. As long as the tracking shows that the package was delivered.. the seller is not in trouble. Why should he be? He shipped the product out.. he is not in control of what the shipper does. This is something you should ask your postal delivery agent - which is why when I am expecting a package I get highly stressed and I'm always waiting for delivery.. just to make sure no one takes my package. Btw, I have ordered many items worth more than $5000+ from online stores (not ebay) and they all ship with just delivery confirmation!!
I make it a point to add signature confirmation on all packages I ship to my customers.. whether they are worth $30 or $3000.
You should contact the seller and ask him to file a claim with the postal service. You have to write a letter that states that you never received the package.. he will take that letter and submit it to the post office. Of course, for all you know.. he might never have paid the extra for insurance, even though you did.
PayPal requires seller to add signature confirmation for items more than $250 in value.. anything less than that - delivery confirmation is ok. As long as the tracking shows that the package was delivered.. the seller is not in trouble. Why should he be? He shipped the product out.. he is not in control of what the shipper does. This is something you should ask your postal delivery agent - which is why when I am expecting a package I get highly stressed and I'm always waiting for delivery.. just to make sure no one takes my package. Btw, I have ordered many items worth more than $5000+ from online stores (not ebay) and they all ship with just delivery confirmation!!
I make it a point to add signature confirmation on all packages I ship to my customers.. whether they are worth $30 or $3000.
eBay/PayPal should create something for sellers that do not insure the package. I the reason why I insure all the packages is because if something gets lost, the guy gets his money back, and I get money back. If somebody buys an expensive item and they don't get insurance, I will add it any ways because I am not taking a risk. If you buy insurance, they should insure the package. This is the first thing PayPal should do before adding anymore crap that they don't need.
Eh? That would be micro claims court, maybe. In the U.S., small claims is up to $25,000 depending on the state. Not less than $1500, average probably about $5000.
--Eric
The point is that the OP paid for shipping insurance like the seller made them and the seller did not use that money to insure the package, but instead kept it for themselves. Now the OP is left without the package, for whatever reason, and without their money. That is fraud and the seller is completely responsible for charging for insurance and not getting it. The shippers are responsible for the package, but that's the seller's problem. The seller owes the OP money, and the OP should take the money and go with another seller. The seller can decide to take action against the shipper themselves.
A few comments here:
1) You folks do realize that eBay, PayPal and even craigslist (which someone mentioned a little bit upthread) are all the same company, right?
2) The trouble the OP has run into is that he didn't have the seller edit the listing to specify insurance. Thus, PayPal does not know the seller was obligated to insure the package and thought the delivery confirmation was enough. If the auction terms had clearly stated insurance and the seller didn't buy it, we wouldn't be having this discussion!
3) Also, the OP should have used a credit card as someone else mentioned. Of course, if he did use a credit card and issued a charge back from PayPal, they would close his PayPal account (because they're jerks). But at least he'd have his money back for this auction.
The lesson here is: never trust eBay, PayPal or anything and anyone associated with them!
1) You folks do realize that eBay, PayPal and even craigslist (which someone mentioned a little bit upthread) are all the same company, right?
2) The trouble the OP has run into is that he didn't have the seller edit the listing to specify insurance. Thus, PayPal does not know the seller was obligated to insure the package and thought the delivery confirmation was enough. If the auction terms had clearly stated insurance and the seller didn't buy it, we wouldn't be having this discussion!
3) Also, the OP should have used a credit card as someone else mentioned. Of course, if he did use a credit card and issued a charge back from PayPal, they would close his PayPal account (because they're jerks). But at least he'd have his money back for this auction.
The lesson here is: never trust eBay, PayPal or anything and anyone associated with them!
Bit of a thread resurrection here, but I agree. "Back in the day" I used to use eBay a lot, and you'll see I have a pretty high feedback but haven't bought or sold anything in a while. It's just not worth it anymore.
Used to be great, people were generally honest, and with the 65-cent Canadian dollar I made a good profit selling things to Americans. But as someone said, there are now so many scammers out there that the "signal to noise ratio" has dropped considerably.
My worst PayPal experience luckily wasn't too bad, I sold a video mixer to a guy and thought everything ended happily, complete with positive feedback from both sides. Two months later I got a notification from PayPal that he had attempted to claim a refund, saying it had arrived broken, never worked, and he wanted a refund. Luckily for me, PayPal automatically considered the resolution closed because the claim was filed later than 30 days after the transaction. If he had filed sooner, I'd be out a few hundred dollars.
I've also been scammed locally. I bought a laser printer for $400 cash and the guy seemed so friendly and helpful, he was even willing to deliver it across town and meet me in the parking lot of my workplace to conduct the transaction. Perhaps that should have set off alarm bells. The printer worked once and died, and I found out it needed hundreds of dollars of repairs. He ignored my emails and when I posted in the forum that I was scammed, I started getting "friendly" (but watch out!) emails from his buddies. Sigh.
Used to be great, people were generally honest, and with the 65-cent Canadian dollar I made a good profit selling things to Americans. But as someone said, there are now so many scammers out there that the "signal to noise ratio" has dropped considerably.
My worst PayPal experience luckily wasn't too bad, I sold a video mixer to a guy and thought everything ended happily, complete with positive feedback from both sides. Two months later I got a notification from PayPal that he had attempted to claim a refund, saying it had arrived broken, never worked, and he wanted a refund. Luckily for me, PayPal automatically considered the resolution closed because the claim was filed later than 30 days after the transaction. If he had filed sooner, I'd be out a few hundred dollars.
I've also been scammed locally. I bought a laser printer for $400 cash and the guy seemed so friendly and helpful, he was even willing to deliver it across town and meet me in the parking lot of my workplace to conduct the transaction. Perhaps that should have set off alarm bells. The printer worked once and died, and I found out it needed hundreds of dollars of repairs. He ignored my emails and when I posted in the forum that I was scammed, I started getting "friendly" (but watch out!) emails from his buddies. Sigh.
I never use bank funds with Paypal. They will screw you everytime the seller defaults. Even if you use a credit card they will try to screw you over. They used to try to strong arm the buyers saying they wave their credit card fraud rights but that failed. My advice to anyone using Paypal: use a credit card, make sure credit card is the payment source, and go through credit card customer service if anything goes wrong and call them early. There is nothing Paypal can do to stop you if you do it this way and your money is protected.
The $600 mentioned before is also a pretty big sum to have to get over
It was, but I was naive at the time, over 5 years ago maybe. It was a weeks work in a factory basically. I tried to buy a Sony Ericsson P900 off ebay. All went wrong. I am over it now, although I would also like $600!