Paypal put me in the negative.

[Notsureifserius]

Recently I was scammed into selling an item from a game for money.  I was naive and thought this was going to work well.  So I sold the item for $249.  Two weeks later I receive a notice about a reversal of the money going back to the buyer.  After doing some searching I found that if you sell an intangible item, you have absolutely no hope of keeping the money and also found that paypal even allows people to do reversal without returning the item with a tangible item.  Ok, well I figured this was a good life lesson about people scamming you and that paypal doesn't care about the seller.

Now today I get an email that I owe Paypal money.  I owe them $20.  I was curious how I could owe paypal money and found that I was actually charged $20 for a chargeback settlement.  Not only did I not do anything wrong, but I was scammed by the buyer and now by Paypal.  All I did was sell an intangible item from a game for money, was scammed and the buyer was rewarded the money back, but now Paypal is making me pay $20 to cover the fee to get the scammer his money back.

Please tell me Paypal how this is even legal.  How is this fair and is this another life lesson about everyone trying to  *bleep* you, even Paypal.

[Very_Annoyed]

Not just me then....

What a disreputable company this is! Any one contemplating using Pay pal should read these and run for the hills. It will take your time and money....

[PayPal_Olivia]

I'm sorry to hear that you lost your chargeback.

The risk with digital goods lies in the fact that there is no solid, reputable, universal means for tracking their delivery like there is with physical goods. For that reason, PayPal doesn't offer protection to either buyers or sellers when it comes to the transfer of those goods. PayPal will act as a payment processor for intangible/service/virtual transactions once the buyer and seller have considered their own risk and decide to proceed with the payment.

What that means to you, the seller, is that while you won't lose a PayPal Buyer Dispute for non-receipt of intangible goods, you also won't win a case where there was fraudulent use of someone else's funds, or a chargeback where the credit card company decides in favor of the buyer.

In situations where a chargeback is filed, different credit cards handle digital goods transactions differently. If PayPal is unable to successfully dispute a chargeback that is made on a digital goods transaction, the seller is responsible for the loss, and for a chargeback fee.

Another area of concern I have for you is that some online games have restrictions against buying and selling of in-game items for real-world money. To prevent running into issues with your account with them, you may want to check that game's Terms of Use before entering into any other similar sales.

For more tips on buying and selling safely online, I recommend checking out our Security Center at http://www.paypal.com/securitycenter

I hope this helps!

Olivia

[Notsureifserius]

Can you explain to me why I have to pay $20 for a chargeback I did not authorize.  Why I get scammed by the buyer and also have to pay $20 for paypal to literally steal my money and give it to him.  I understand you can't do anything about what happened, but making me pay $20 for a chargeback that I did not request is rediculous.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi Notsureifserius,

Chargebacks occur when the buyer goes to their credit card issuer to dispute the payment. The credit card issuer makes the determination to give the funds back to the buyer, and charges a chargeback fee. PayPal is not the decision-maker in a chargeback. The credit card company is.

PayPal actually employs a team of people to fight these chargebacks on behalf of you and all our other sellers. If we can dispute the chargeback and win, the funds are released to you and there is no fee. However, if we lose the chargeback, the funds and the fee go to the credit card company.

If we lose the chargeback but the transaction met the requirements for Seller Protection, PayPal absorbs the entire loss! If the transaction did not meet the requirements of seller protection, then the seller is responsible for the amount of the transaction, and a portion of the chargeback fee that PayPal paid to the credit card company.

These are factors to consider before entering into a digital goods transaction. Knowing that the coverage is not there for intangible items, it's important to really look at what you know about the buyer, and whether it's enough to feel comfortable with the risk.

I hope this helps clarify!

Olivia

[Notsureifserius]

Thank-you for the replies.  I'll just never use paypal again because the overall system doesn't care.  If people like you were actually looking at what is going on, things might be run differently.  However for now it is a shoddy system that allows for the buyer to easily scam the seller and then the seller actually loses money.  Good-bye paypal, may we never meet again.

[miamigirl]

I sold a mink coat to a buyer. She took 2 months to get the forms to Customs. Customs delivered it to her but she says the box was empty. I was scammed and Paypal refunds her the purchase amount and shipping totaling $247.00. They still charged me the paypal fee and e-bay charged me their fee totaling over $25.00. If I have a choice in the future, I will not use Paypal ever again. What a scam artist and paypal helped her do it. WAY TO GO PAYPAL.  YOU **bleep**ED ME GOOD. 

[AngelsBridal]

I own a custom made bridal business. All of my dresses are handmade and made to order. I suffered through a few charge backs last year. One, a bride found a dress at the goodwill,,,,told me so, then filed a chargeback because she wanted her money back for the dress I spent months on because she found a much cheaper one last minute! Another because a bride didn't like the color on her after approving the dress and color before shipping! And this last one after a buyer agreed to all shop policies, signed a CONTRACT agreeing to a no return no refund policy, the dress was exactly like she ordered she approved final photos, she ordered the dress in June, received it in Sept, her wedding was in November, then she forced the chargeback in December. This is OBVIOUS FRAUD but in not one of these cases even having the buyer sign a contract thinking it would protect me, did paypal protect me against the chargeback. It's ridiculous. Can you please tell me what the ******* PayPal consideres a wrongful chargeback if that is not a wrongful chargeback?

But get this,,, I filed a dispute for an item not as described when a seller on Ebay plainly listed professional photos of an item that she did not make then hodge podge put together something that looked like a kindergarten student tried to assemble and my claim was settled in favor of the seller???????????????

Is there any kind of payment or card processing company I can go through other than paypal who will protect me against chargebacks?

I have been using paypal for several years,,, I have given them enough of my money for NOTHING!

[AngelsBridal]

Oh and she still has the dress!

[Notsureifserius]

I wish this was surprising, but it isn't.  Any buyer can pretty much use your item for free then return it and get full money back.  They don't even have to return it in its original shape.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr_7--e5A1g

Check out what happened to this guy.