Just won PayPal dispute. What will happen to the other guy?

[LemPh]

Hello.
As written in the title, I've just won a PayPal dispute. Item never received (and probably never shipped).
Can PayPal apply a sort of "penalty" to this kind of users who try to fraud other people?

edit: it wasn't an eBay transaction.

 

[Tomorrow]

I believe the fine print in PayPal's TOS let's them administer use of the electric chair on such transgressors...but I could be wrong.

 

[yg17]

Umm, what are you expecting? The PayPal police to show up at his door and arrest him?

 

[firedept]

Other than give back the funds, Paypal can not actually prove that the item was never shipped. Things can be shipped without a tracking number. So it would be pretty hard for Paypal to 100% prove it was not shipped. But in today's business world, you would be a fool to not ship without tracking proof. Hence I assume why you won the dispute.

Lots of packages go missing everyday in the world of shipping. Paypal is certainly not judge and jury. If there was a pattern by a particular person, Paypal might freeze their account until they straighten things out. But that would be the most. Remember as well, a lot of these transactions take place between different countries with different laws. Paypal is US based.

 

[LemPh]

Other than give back the funds, Paypal can not actually prove that the item was never shipped. Things can be shipped without a tracking number. So it would be pretty hard for Paypal to 100% prove it was not shipped. But in today's business world, you would be a fool to not ship without tracking proof. Hence I assume why you won the dispute.

Lots of packages go missing everyday in the world of shipping. Paypal is certainly not judge and jury. If there was a pattern by a particular person, Paypal might freeze their account until they straighten things out. But that would be the most. Remember as well, a lot of these transactions take place between different countries with different laws. Paypal is US based.

This is 100% correct.
I won because the other guy gave to PayPal an unquestionably fake tracking number. I just think in this case you should let the person pay at least a sort of penalty, because it was more than obvious that you tried to fraud me!

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Umm, what are you expecting? The PayPal police to show up at his door and arrest him?

It would be awesome. However they say in case PayPal account is empty they can act legally against the person.

 

[iBlazed]

He will be lynched in the center of his village for all the townspeople to watch and take their children to so they can use him as an example.

 

[LemPh]

He will be lynched in the center of his village for all the townspeople to watch and take their children to so they can use him as an example.

and they will burn his house too.

 

[sdilley14]

My guess is that they'll withdraw the money from his account, give it back to you, and shut his account down. If he already withdrew the money, they'll just take his account negative and give him a certain amount of time to pay the negative balance. If he doesn't pay the negative balance, they'll send the account to collections.

 

[iBlazed]

My guess is that they'll withdraw the money from his account, give it back to you, and shut his account down. If he already withdrew the money, they'll just take his account negative and give him a certain amount of time to pay the negative balance. If he doesn't pay the negative balance, they'll send the account to collections.

In order to send it to collections PayPal would need your social security number. Pretty sure they don't have that.

 

[sdilley14]

In order to send it to collections PayPal would need your social security number. Pretty sure they don't have that.

Some people use their SSN to verify on PayPal, some don't. Regardless, a company doesn't *need* your SSN to send an account to collections. Sign up for a gym membership somewhere (no SSN needed) and skip town without paying out the contract, see what happens.

 

[snberk103]

In order to send it to collections PayPal would need your social security number. Pretty sure they don't have that.

It may be common in the US to use your SSN for things like PayPal, but in other parts of the world their equivalent to the SSN is used far less often. For example in Canada I don't have to give my SIN (Social Insurance Number) to anybody but a bank when opening an account and my employer (for the most part). Essentially, if it's not linked to receiving government benefits or income tax I don't have to disclose my SIN. In some cases I can even refuse to give my SIN to the government department that issued the SIN in the first case.

In my example - a collections agency would have no SIN to work with... I assume that PayPal would still bring in a collections agency though, in case of a default.

To the OP: I won a dispute with PayPal. Took them 4 months to actually put the money in my account, and I had to call them and remind them every few weeks during the period. I was not impressed.

 

[macmesser]

It may be common in the US to use your SSN for things like PayPal, but in other parts of the world their equivalent to the SSN is used far less often. For example in Canada I don't have to give my SIN (Social Insurance Number) to anybody but a bank when opening an account and my employer (for the most part). Essentially, if it's not linked to receiving government benefits or income tax I don't have to disclose my SIN. In some cases I can even refuse to give my SIN to the government department that issued the SIN in the first case.

In my example - a collections agency would have no SIN to work with... I assume that PayPal would still bring in a collections agency though, in case of a default.

To the OP: I won a dispute with PayPal. Took them 4 months to actually put the money in my account, and I had to call them and remind them every few weeks during the period. I was not impressed.

When SS was first instituted there was a serious debate as to the compatibility of SSNs with American ideas of freedom and privacy. Was it not, after all, a form of national ID card? Convenience obviously won, as nowadays we're asked for SSN for all sorts of things, by anybody who thinks we'll disclose it. We mostly do.

 

[Huntn]

As a buyer of products, I feel comfortable with Paypal, Amazon, even eBay who seems to be buyer centric. As a seller, I'm not thrilled with eBay, although I have yet to be burned with them, and have sold several high ticket used Macs.

 

[LemPh]

To the OP: I won a dispute with PayPal. Took them 4 months to actually put the money in my account, and I had to call them and remind them every few weeks during the period. I was not impressed.

I am sorry to hear that. In my case it tooks less than a few weeks. I just called them twice and they solved the problem.
However I suppose it depends on the amount of money involved.

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As a buyer of products, I feel comfortable with Paypal, Amazon, even eBay who seems to be buyer centric. As a seller, I'm not thrilled with eBay, although I have yet to be burned with them, and have sold several high ticket used Macs.

Which percentage does eBay take on every transaction?

 

[snberk103]

I am sorry to hear that. In my case it tooks less than a few weeks. I just called them twice and they solved the problem.
However I suppose it depends on the amount of money involved.....

It wasn't a lot of money.... just over $100. And I'm well past being annoyed... cost of business and all that. But, as a p*ssed off customer I can occasionally point out that PayPal's customer service can suck big time. I know and can accept that on occasion a company may screw up on a particular file.... I don't judge them on that. I do judge them on how well they then accept responsibility for the error and the effort they make to correct the situation. In my experience PayPal totally dropped the ball to figure out what was happening and then to fix it. They just didn't care. On numerous occasions I was promised a call back by a supervisor....never happened. They were always "too busy" - "in a meeting" - "on a break".

So - now I'm content to just plant these negative reviews here and there and to tarnish their brand slightly.

 

[iJohnHenry]

I believe the fine print in PayPal's TOS let's them administer use of the electric chair on such transgressors...but I could be wrong.

I'll take Alec Baldwin, in the office, with a baseball bat.

(The Cooler)

 

[Apple_Robert]

I was told by PayPal management, that transgressors are carted off to either the IRS call center, where they are forced to answer the phone as Lois Lerner, or forced to work as stand ins for Jay Carney.