Best way to appeal incorrect dispute denial?

[aurelian1]

On March 21st I ordered an item from a website called wowitus.com (hadn't heard of it before, but it looked professional and legitimate). Because I hadn't heard of it I specifically chose to pay with PayPal for the buyer protection. About a week later (March 27th) I get an email from PayPal saying my tracking information is available for the item. When I punch in the tracking number to UPS, it tells me the item was delivered two days prior, left on front porch. I check the front porch and everywhere around the house, there is no item. I also notice something fishy on UPS website, the package weight on UPS says 0.9 lbs. The item I ordered is well over 10 lbs. At this point I open a dispute with PayPal and say everything above. After opening the dispute I decide to call UPS. UPS asks for my name and address, then tells me this item was shipped to a completely different person and different address. UPS sends me an official proof of delivery which states a totally different address and name from mine. Also, it turns out the 0.9 lb item was sent from Amazon! At this point I figure I am dealing with a scammer, who just ordered something off Amazon to my town so they could upload a tracking number that shows my town name when you punch it in.

So I open PayPal message center and upload the new documents, the proof from UPS that the item was shipped to a different person and address. I ask that it be added to my case. This morning I wake up to two emails from PayPal, one saying they are reviewing information provided by the seller, and the next saying the dispute has been denied "because we received shipment tracking from the merchant confirming that the merchandise was delivered." I also notice that my UPS proof was not added to the dispute, it only has the original uploaded docs (just proof of what I purchased). Even without my UPS upload, the denial makes no sense, because they merely verified any item was shipped ever, they did not verify it was shipped TO ME. I am actually pretty shocked with how poor this experience is, I don't understand how the claim could be denied without the barest minimum of looking into it.

I am looking for some advice here. An item was shipped from Amazon to my town, but not me or my address, and PayPal's resolution procedure is so poor that they determined that was legitimate. I need to appeal this, but there is no button or link to appeal it. Has anyone ever had this experience?

Thanks!

[LiamCaleb1528]

Hi @aurelian1 

I hope all is well. First, I must say, thank you for taking time to use the community forum to be heard as our phone lines are currently closed due to the
pandemic coronavirus (covid-19) emergency. I really appreciate the effort you did there to explain everything about what happened and I'm also sorry that you are indeed having this kind of hassle and I don't blame you if you feel unsatisfied with the result of the case. You are still welcome tho to file an appeal for this to give you a fair fighting chance to get you money back what you need to do right now is you right now is to check on our available chat support since our phone lines are not accessible at the moment due to the worldwide pandemic crisis. Just login on your PayPal account, go to Message Center, then choose the option for Chat. Our friendly customer support teammates are willing to assist you.

This link here might help you as well regards with your appeal concern:

https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/can-i-appeal-paypal%E2%80%99s- decision-on-my-case-faq2050?app=searchAutoComplete

Hope this will help you, stay safe now and God Bless!

[Jeff_Savoie]

@LiamCaleb1528I'm sorry to have to point this out but your link to "How do I add, edit, or remove an e-mail address on my PayPal account?" clearly demonstrates what's wrong with this process and the lack of being able to actually make telephone contact someone in the correct department at PayPal....

[Jaysher]

Same thing happened to me with Wowitus.  Ordered a cordless blower.  UPS tracking said it was delivered, but was not.  Doorbell camera proves it.  I have not been able to talk to an actual person at either UPS or PayPal due to this pandemic thing though.  Thanks for sharing your experience. 

[aurelian1]

@Jaysher That is the same product I ordered. See my response below to the other person. I was able to get a full refund after chatting with PayPal again.

[JTOtis]

Ditto -- wowitus.com scammed me as well, and PayPal closed the case I filed in favor of the seller because the pertinent UPS tracking number has a status of "Delivered".  I am completely embarrassed that I let myself get had.  I make a lot of online purchases and am generally very careful.  I'm also a bit disappointed with how quickly PayPal dismissed the case.  The UPS Tracking Details don't list my address in the details, and the weight of the package is listed as 3.9 pounds; it would have weighed more than 30.

I joined this community just so I could post this.  I'm hoping that if enough of us do it, they might consider appealing our cases, and possibly implement a process to detect bogus/hacked tracking numbers.

[WarrenPink]

Hi @JTOtis

Thanks for reaching Community forum! 

Apologies for that experience. There's indeed a way for you to appeal this type of situation. In respect with PayPal's process for Item not received cases. We rely our decision mostly with the answer of the shipping company. We ask them if  tracking is valid and shipped on the buyers address. We don't also check the weight of the item due to PayPal cannot see the item that was shipped. Most transaction does not show item description unless it is an ebay purchase. Since PayPal is not physically involved or checked the item that was shipped, we rely our decision with the shipping company confirmation. To appeal a case denied due to valid tracking, you just need to secure a document from the shipping company that will show tracking not involved in your address. Shipping Company provide this documents, once you secured a copy of it, a big chance that we can reopen the case and circumvent it in your favor. I hope this helps!

Stay Safe! 

If you find this or any other post was helpful, make our community better by giving kudos or accepting it as a solution

[aurelian1]

@WarrenPinkSorry, that is wrong. In my case, as I already said above in the initial post, PayPal did not verify the shipping address. They ruled against me because an item was shipped and marked delivered. So maybe the experience varies from employee to employee. Maybe it was just that employee not following procedure. Either way, what you said is not the case for everyone. If it were, this post wouldn't exist.

[aurelian1]

@JTOtis You shouldn't feel bad. You paid with PayPal which offers you protection against this. PayPal's gross incompetence (in my case) so no reflection of you or me. After going through the customer service chat, I ended up actually getting to a live person. I explained that the PayPal resolution person did not verify the address or person it was shipped to, and therefore they closed the case without the proper information of where the item was shipped. I was told to wait while a resolution specialist came to the chat. That person promptly resolved my case in my favor, and I was immediately refunded my money. In this case I had proof from UPS of what the shipping address was. However, a PayPal employee below claims that these disputes are resolved based on the shipping address. Maybe that is their normal procedure but that is not what they did for me. However, if they have the power to do that, you should bring up that issue in the chat.

Overall I am pretty shocked with PayPal's poor performance. After all of this blows over I want to make a specific complaint about the employee who aided and abetted a fraudster with their horrible job performance.

[Jeff_Savoie]

I too am a victim of this type of scam and lack of a satisfactory resolution. I physically went to the UPS customer service center and received a print-out proving that the tracking number was for a customer and a package that was not me... I attached a copy of this print-out to the thread of messages and yet my claim has since been denied.
The tracking number contains a shipper ID (7V266F) which is easily confirmed as Amazon - and not the seller I purchased from.

It appears that scammers are taking advantage of PayPal's current situation - the messaging system - and that PayPal is enabling them via insufficient investigations.

I use PayPal because of the buyer protection it offers! I am extremely disappointed that this protection and my good faith in it has failed me. I'll have to seriously reconsider using PayPal in the future.

Epic fail PayPal! 😞