Has Paypal actually helped anyone?

[wpd121]

After reading about all of the victims of Paypal and the scammers, I am going to post the question: Has anyone actually been helped by Paypal?

All I have read so far is the moderators talking about all the protection they offer but I have not read of anyone actually been helped.  I am going through a chargeback right now and after reading about all the other people that have had the same experience,  I already know what the outcome will be.  The scammer will get my phones and money and Paypal will profit from the scam.  Anybody think this is messed up?

[iamjaredk]

In my personal experience... no.

I would have rather used my credit card because I know atleast they will look into it.

Paypal has a rule where when the buyer files the dispute, the seller has to respond within X-days.

If this is not done, the case is automatically won.

I bought a cable from racegunusa to hook my paintball trigger frame to the computer for tuning.

This was an authorized seller. 

Bought my item in July 2006 and filed in August after reading their forum with people complaining that they sent in their gun for upgrades and did not recieve it back (6 months had past and no guns back). 

I won my case due to the seller not responding within the alloted time.

$54.78 was awarded back to me but $0.00 was able to be retrieved from sellers account.

SO.. I won, but they couldnt get me the money.  I was assured that PayPal would be looking into the case to get me the $54.78 back.

Well today's date is March 6, 2011 and almost 5 years has passed.  THANK YOU PAYPAL for NOT giving me my 54.78 back from your AUTHORIZED seller.  If you buy something... you are on your own.

ENJOY YOUR PROFITS PAYPAL... I KNOW I WILL ENJOY MY INVISIBLE MERCHANDISE VERY MUCH!

[wpd121]

Sounds like your story is the norm around here.  Paypal does not care about anyone as long as they get their money.  It's down right criminal the way they act.  THey give their blessing to these shady companies and I am sure they get a kick back from them or "license fee" to make it sound legit.

[undeadkingpr]

Sounds oh so very true but occasionally there is a light in the darkness,

Basically you have to learn how the system works to take advantage of it.

Example, I just got 2 cases exteneded for 7 days by saying that I had filed an insurance claim. This lets me have more time to work the case out with the buyer.

Also, I can use bank accounts that are easily canceled to protect myself from unfair Chargebacks which btw, THE SELLER ALWAYS LOSES.

Should these measures be neccesary for running my business? NO! But you can use them and some other more shady methods (I will not mention here or PayPal may actually do something about it) to protect yourself.

Oh and FYI-For eBay transactions, always file for a cancellation of transaction if you have an issue. If you do this you can have feedback or fees refunded with a phone call even if the buyer rejects the case. Oh and even if there are no issues but the buyer simply does not respond=fees back as well.

[wpd121]

It is truly sad you have to go to these lenghts to protect yourself not only from the scammers out there but from Paypal itself.  I was leary of the same I made on Craigslist when the buyer wanted me to open a Paypal account.  I waited to ship the phones until I got the money in my account.  When the "buyer" started to claim he did not get the phones a month later, it confirmed my suspicions.  I have closed my bank account so I am not victimized again.  It Paypal wants to give the scammer his money back, it can come out of their own pocket. 

Thanks for the post, you have done a great service to help others not get scammed by the scammers or by Paypal itself.

[redpower]

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@wpd121 wrote:

After reading about all of the victims of Paypal and the scammers, I am going to post the question: Has anyone actually been helped by Paypal?

All I have read so far is the moderators talking about all the protection they offer but I have not read of anyone actually been helped.  I am going through a chargeback right now and after reading about all the other people that have had the same experience,  I already know what the outcome will be.  The scammer will get my phones and money and Paypal will profit from the scam.  Anybody think this is messed up?

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Look at how many people are on here complaining, then look at how many people use PayPal. That should answer your question

[iamjaredk]

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@redpower wrote:

Look at how many people are on here complaining, then look at how many people use PayPal. That should answer your question

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Look at how many people are complaining here and then look at how many issues have been resolved.

Typically, the generic "We do everything we can to take care of [insert seller/buyer].  It is unfortunate that..." is given without anything actaully being resolved.

This is "typical" of Customer Service departments when 95% of the people who use it are happy.  Skate around the issues until the person says "**bleep** it" or forgets about it.   Like I said, still waiting on my 54 bucks (almost 5 yrs).

 I would be happy to get $1 back which would show that they are listening or atleast figure they can lose the profit they gained off the purchase.

[redpower]

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@iamjaredk wrote:

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Look at how many people are complaining here and then look at how many issues have been resolved.

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Think of how many issues aren't brought up here because they have been resolved? i bet it's more than there is people on here complaining.

[13579]

I agree that a lot of people are happy with paypal, but most of us do not trust paypal. Paypal has a bad image. Most of the info that you google about paypal will be negative, but people still use it because it's become the preferred method of payment for obvious reasons. We're all just holding our breath, waiting for another company to take it's place. I think paypal is not particularly less safe than any other merchant like this, it's just that paypal lies to you to make you think trading here is safe. But it is far from the truth. You always have to watch your back. If you're selling on ebay, don't bother watching your back because you're pretty much inviting people to scam you by selling on that site..