Paypal Rant! Am I Missing Something?

[graham8370]

Hi All,

I'm sorry if this post is long, please bear with me.

I know lots of us use eBay and, most probably, Paypal. I (and 10 others) recently bought Laptops from a now known Conman. After realising my £367.50 laptop was not going to arrive, I started a claim through Paypal. Finally, today, Paypal wrote to me saying that after their investigations, Paypal had found in my favour and were initiating a refund of my money.

Within a few minutes Paypal emailed me saying that they had managed to transfer the sum of £0.00 GBP. The reason for this is the Conman had already taken the money(would you believe it), and had left no money in his account. Paypal kindly assured me that if the Conman ever puts £367.50 into his account in the future, they will transfer this to my account (I wont be holding my breath)

Am I missing the point when Paypal say you may be protected up to £150 if the seller is a basic seller or £500 if he is a top tier seller. Where do these figures come from? If a 'basic' seller has £300 in his account and you are claiming £200,what do you get, £150 or the full amount, £200. If a Top Tier seller has £700 in his account and you are claiming £650 what do you get, £500 or the full amount £650.

Paypal are making a great deal of this ''Protection''. This protection obviously covers us against honest and reliable sellers, but offers absolutely no protection against the people we need protecting against ie; Conmen and Fraudsters. Below is the fnal message from Paypal. I particularly like the last line.

Rant over, thank you for listening, be careful out there. Graham.

Dear GRAHAM ,

After careful review, we have concluded our investigation of the Buyer

Complaint described below.

We have decided in your favour, however, we were unable to recover any

funds from the seller's account. As stated in the PayPal User Agreement,

recovery of funds associated with a Buyer Complaint cannot be guaranteed.

Please know that we will make our best effort to recover the funds in

question if they become available in the seller's account in the future,

and will take appropriate action against the seller. Such action may

include issuing a warning, a temporary restriction, or terminating the

account. Keep in mind that PayPal uses a number of factors, including

member complaints, to determine when to take action. Due to privacy laws,

we cannot discuss the details of any action taken. We hope you understand

our policy and that it reassures you that you are safe using PayPal.

Resolution Centre – Claim Details

We have completed our investigation of this case. We attempted to process a refund from the seller's account to your account. Unfortunately, the seller's account does not contain the funds necessary to cover this refund. We were able to recover £0.00 GBP. We have taken action against the seller and are working to recover the remainder of your refund. We will contact you when we have more information. No further action is required of you at this time.

Non-receipt – Case ID: PP-502-267-682

Status: Case Closed

Transaction ID: 2PK07556WN183073N

Seller Name & Email: N Le, NLe_eBay@yahoo.co.uk

Transaction Amount: -£367.50 GBP

eBay Item no.: 140239863496

Transaction Date: 15 Jun. 2008

[sparkystav]

Thats ridiculous!

There really isnt any point in them is there?

Stav

[Dave-Ellen]

Makes me smile...................not at you.

As a trader if I buy something using paypal from eBay they will take the money from my account if I don't have funds in my paypal account............why did they not try that ?

[DJ Wozza]

It's a complete disgrace Graham :tsktsk:

btw

Nice to see you on LOC again mate :)

[Steve ( West Mids )]

Gutted for you.

eBay now insist you offer paypal as a seller so that invites more of this where you may not get the "added protection".

What was his eBay userid?

[graham8370]

nguyenbl. Member for 5 years, 981 transactions, 97.1% positive feedback, No longer a registered user.

Thanks Wozza, On here every day, just not a lot to say lately. Congrats on becoming a Mod

[ColinBarber]

14. Disputes with PayPal

14.1 Contact PayPal First. If a dispute arises between you and PayPal, our goal is to learn about and address your concerns and, if we are unable to do so to your satisfaction, to provide you with a neutral and cost effective means of resolving the dispute quickly. Disputes between you and PayPal regarding our Services may be reported to Customer Service online through the PayPal Help Centre at any time, or by calling the customer support telephone number located on the PayPal website(s).

14.2 Financial Ombudsman Service. You may contact the UK Financial Ombudsman Service and escalate a claim against us. You may obtain information regarding the Financial Ombudsman Service at http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.

[DJ Wozza]

Good info Colin, best of luck gettimg some money back Graham :D

[Rob]

paypal protection is not worth the paper its written on - if the boke doesnt have the money in his paypal account then its tough......... so most people clear out the account straight away.

[graham8370]

Rob

Purveyor of the Brutal Truth

Are you trying to make my day?, You are right ,of course. Hopefully we have alerted people to the situation. If you pay by Paypal and are conned, don't think you will see your money again (you wont). I'm fortunate enough that the money will not make much difference to me, but I did receive an Email from a young girl in Italy who had worked for 4 weeks as a waitress just to buy herself a Laptop for University. I really did feel sorry for her. I do think that Paypal do mislead with the advertising of ''Buyer Protection''

[Geoffers]

Ripoff. They moved to Luxemburg so aren't covered by UK banking laws.

How did you pay Paypal? If you paid by credit card, start a claim off them. Ask for a reverse charge order and it will be passed to their legal team. You should get the refund from the CC company.

[Rory]

I sold something a while ago to a con artist who claimed he never recieved it and claimed thru paypal, I had no money in my account as i'd withdrawn it and they still took it, leaving me at a minus figure, meaning that if I sold anything else it would just come off the minus figure until the "debt" I "owed" paypal was cleared, (although it finished in my favour and I got the money back) so I don't know why they can't give you the money back...

[graham8370]

2 phone calls to Paypal today.

They assured me that as the case was found in my favour, I would receive compensation of £150. Asked the Paypal man to read the Emails they had sent me, which were a complete contradiction to what he was telling me.. He said 'There must be a technical hitch somewhere in the system'. He will get back to me. Fair play, he did. They had investigated my claim thoroughly for 10 days and had not realised it was concerning an eBay purchase. (Pillocks).

He said, 'The case is continuing and they will inform me of any new developments'

I said, ' The Status of the case is CASE CLOSED '

He said, 'We always mark the case as closed when a decision has been reached, but it's not really closed'

I said, 'What happens now'

He said, 'We will re-open the case'

I said, 'How can you re-open a case that hasn't been closed'

I said, 'I'm beginning to despair'

[Dave-Ellen]

hope it sorts itself out.

i ordered some stuff the other day ...week passed nothing....emailed seller..................said sent next day...........mmmmmmmmmmm.....checked paypal address used was my old address (left in oct 2005) WTF !...............went round to old addy no reply (went 6 times) left card with contact details.............went to POFF for held mail.. nothing...Contacted seller who said tuff not his fault wrong address used i explained i had not changed it and had bought 86 items since oct 2005 which came to the right address..............guy refused to give me my money back..........i agree with him in a way as he sent it to addy paypal gave...........i didnt change it...why would I ? anyway paypal found in my favour as I knew they would as he didn get it signed for.............mrol of this story for sellers............ALWAYS get it signed for.....value of item...........£5 got to watch those pennies

[shake]

paypal is a huge con, i;ve been ripped in the past by them, only way i got money back was through the bank. they reversed the charge. but paypal is the main way of getting/sending money on eBay. i've just opened up a separate account for paypal only. will transfer to my main account soon as i withdraw through paypal.

do abit of searching on the net, paypal has a following of haters, ex staff even hate paypal as they get treated like rubbish

best of luck!

[graham8370]

Final Outcome,

Email from Paypal today saying that I am covered under the buyer protection scheme and they will be transferring £150 to my account. Better than nothing!!! Must be sure in future to check the level of cover against the cost of the purchase. Many thanks for all the advice, Graham.

[GaryC]

I can't use my Paypal anymore because the sharks limited my account due to some scumbag laundering money through it.

I had debt collectors ringing me up and I couldn't get in touch with anyone at Paypal to sort out.

The company just disgusts me as they don't seem to have any support when things go wrong.

[DJ Wozza]

At least you got something back Graham, I know its not the full amount, but it's something I suppose.

[Rob]

i assume u use paypal via your credit card?? if so just claim back thru that and u have all your money back.... oh did paypal mention that u will have to pay their processing fee for your refund?????

[graham8370]

Unfortuneately not Rob. Used a Barclays Debit card (no comebacks). Talking today to an 'eBay Wizard' he DEFINATELY uses a Credit Card.

A lesson to be learned methinks.