Save Ferris

If im worried about buying something from some ebayer, and i pay through paypal, is there some recourse if I get ripped off? Some insurance with paypal?

this is for an item under $50.

MISS PEACH

Not in my experience.

PEACH

Groucho

Paypal is about as bad as ebay in helping you if you're scammed...if not worse.

MISS PEACH

. . . because they are one and the same company. It's called Anti-Trust and one of these days someone's going to clean their clock.

PEACH

hoyalawya

Ditto the comment above me. They are parts of the same scam.

Shap

I was scammed on eBay and PayPal refunded the maximum amount to me. All it took was one e-mail and 30 days. It was completely hassle free. I was surprised. I wish they did that for everyone else because apparently I am in the minority.

al_bundy

paypal has guidelines about selling safely. you need to follow them. 90% of the stories I've read about being scammed involved people not following the guidelines.

kayak99

yes they can, no, they usually won't. depends on the circumstances or, if you find a sympathetic employee.

Troy Stiffler

PayPal does NOT pay ANYTHING out of their own pocket. They will attempt to take money back from the seller. But if they can't get the money, you WON'T get the money. It has nothing to do with who you deal with at PayPal. They won't personally reimburse you for anything.

I *think* that if you purchase their "guarantee" seperately (I think it cost 10-15% of the total purchase), they'll pay out of their own pocket. But that costs way too much.

If you paid with a credit card, don't mind having your PayPal account being closed, and possibly going into collections, you can call you credit card company and tell them about the situation.

If you had sent a postal money order, I *heard* that you can tell your PO about it, and they'll consider it fraud. But that's just what I've heard (and needlessly been threatened with one time).

Troy Stiffler

Did you try calling the seller? That worked for me once. I had to take it to a level of harassment (and finally promising bodliy injury after three months of nothing) before I finally got ahold of the jerk. I think he shit his pants when I finally talked to him. That was for $2300 though. Last time I EVER deal with a deadbeat kid.

If the phone # is bad, e-mail eBay Safety Harbor and they'll kick him off. Otherwise, call, leave message, etc a few times. If you don't get anything, start calling more and more.

To get the person's phone #, go to 'advanced search', and click on "find memebers' contact info". You'll need his username and the item #.

How much feedback does the guy have? Want to give us an item #? I love snooping around in this kind of stuff.

tasha99

No. They can try taking money out of the seller's account, but a scammer would be sure to have that account empty.

Your protection is in using a credit card.

al_bundy

if you do a cc dispute, you have to go through paypal first. it's in their TOS.

DVD Josh

Peach my dear, I hope you know better than to play armchair lawyer. It would be illegal if it were a tying arrangment (meaning you HAD to use PP in order to use eBay). That's not the case (only in certain BIN situations, but that's the SELLER's not eBay decision). So it's not illegal at all. It's part of the normal business efficiency process.

MISS PEACH

The Anti-Trust issues that are most definitely present in EBays tactics are relative to the waiver of your Federally-protected consumer credit card rights viz fraud. It is, if not patently illegal, then certainly actionable to interfere with those rights, and I meant absolutely what I said earlier: One of these days the Buyer they interfere with will be an attorney with both the expertise and the resources to bring them to account. But it isn't that response that I look forward to; it is Federal legislation that governs (any) online auction transaction that I expect will happen, but not any time soon.

There is a conflict between the credit cards rights we (all) have and EBay's attempt to disenfranchise Buyers' of their rights. This is headed for a lawsuit(s), if it hasn't already commenced on a state-by-state basis, which is the first step toward getting the attention of Congress. And it will, just not any time soon.

PEACH

RevLiver

Yes, they can and do. I paid $500 for an item from a buyer with perfect feedback. Never received it, he never responded to my emails. So I filed a complaint with Paypal and within a week I had my $500 back.

Remember, you are not purchasing anything from eBay nor Paypal, they are merely facilitating the transaction. If you won't trust Paypal, pay with a money order. Of course, the seller can still not ship the item and then your recourse is to file fraud charges with the postal service. I have no idea how long that would take before you got your money back, if ever.

As in any transaction anywhere, and in life itself, there will always be unscrupulous people. Best bet is to only bid on items when you have complete confidence in the seller. Check the feedback. Check previous and current sales (if a buyer is selling multiple copies of the same rare item, you can bet it's a bootleg). Look for sellers who offer insurance or delivery confirmation and always pay the extra cost for it.

As for legal action, I'm not sure how you can hold eBay and Paypal responsible when people steal your money. If eBay/Paypal can't get it back from the thief, should they have to pay you out of their pocket? What's to stop someone from racking up great feedback and then listing tons of pricey items and never delivering the goods? What's to stop many someones from doing that? How much does that cost eBay/Paypal?

I think one thing that can be done is to force a seller to truly confirm their existence before allowing them to sell. Mail a letter to the registered address requiring an action on the part of the seller. If that action is performed, the seller would have confirmed his mailing address, so if any future legal action is required, the seller can be tracked.