Scammed and robbed by a buyer and PAYPAL does nothing to help me as a seller

[ReldaUSA]

I recently put my old iphone for sale on ebay, offering international shipping to paypal confirmed addresses only.

A buyer from Thailand purchased the iphone for me and immediately paid for the item. After making sure the address was confirmed and Paypal said OK to ship I shipped the phone to the buyer via Fedex and tracking information provided.

After a week of delivery, the buyer opened a dispute on paypal stating the item was not as described. The buyer claimed the screen not working and demanded a complete refund. I as a seller immediately uploaded pictures as evidence showing the screen working perfectly fine the day I posted the item on ebay. There was no way the phone could have been damaged during shipping because of the way i carefully packed it on bubble wrap and all.

After a period of time Paypal finally ruled on the buyer's favor and demanded the buyer returned the item to me for a full refund. I agreed to do this because I had no other options. I thought I would just repost on ebay and sell it to some honest buyer. Then time passed by and the buyer did nothing, no tracking information or anything. Paypal closed the claim and ruled in my favor because the buyer failed to provide tracking information showing he mailed the item to me.

After a few days the buyer appealed the case and provided a tracking number. Paypal reopened the case. Here comes the best part. When i received the package back, the buyer only sent me the back plastic part of the iphone. Nothing else, when i originally sent him the complete working phone with original packaging and materials. I immediately took pictures of what i received including the box and its contents. By this time Paypal had already confirmed the delivery by the tracking number but I called a Paypal representative right away and told me what just happened so they didn't send the money to the buyer right away.

Paypal asked me to file a police report with my local police department. I called my local police department and told them my story. The police instructed me to go through the IC3.gov web site which is the Internet Crime Center for the FBI. There you can file a complaint for a crime committed over the internet and after review they would decide if they need to forward the complaint to any law enforcement agency. I provided proof and a copy of this complaint to Paypal via FAX and I also uploaded pictures of the complaint to the claim's page.

Paypal sent an email back to me stating the documentation I provided does not adhere to the guidelines established in the request. The documentation needed to include name, address, and phone number of the person who is supporting my claim. The IC3 is an agency, not a person and they did not provide any name or numbers. when I tried to contact them their toll free number is only for information. I called my police department back and told them about this. They kept telling me I need to go through the IC3 agency and they refused to provide me with a telephone number for any person that could explain this to Paypal.

While I was struggling to find any answers and what to do Paypal closed the case and sent the buyer the money. Now the buyer has both my iPhone and my money. I've called Paypal repeatedly with no luck, they keep asking for the supporting documents which the police department will not provide. Im out of options.

If any of you has any ideas on how to help me I would really appreciate it.

Thanks 

[iowa68_us]

sorry to hear about this, you and I seem to be in the same boat with paypal, they do nothing and let people take advantage of things and if you make a complaint to them, they call you the liar, its rude and wronge and paypal needs to be hauled to the carpet by everyone that is wronged.

I think that we need to stand up and start emailing the owner there complaining about services, the good thing is that I can go to the one here in Omaha, its right up the street and I am going to do that on monday and demand to see the ceo of the company.

enough is enough

[Aussieinca]

Im on the other end of this type of behavior from paypal but as a buyer, I had a guy sell me a fake juicy purse. I emailed him when I got it as he had a 7 day return policy. I emailed him and he didnt respond, so after 2 days with no answer I opened a dispute with paypal. The seller responded with the buyer has 7 days to return it for a full refund. So I returned it fast as we were up to day 5  and I didn't want to risk losing that window and I didn't want him to have any excuses. I returned the purse with a tracking number. You would figure that would be it and Id get my money back but NOOOOO....  Paypal then sends me an email telling me to return the purse and provide them a tracking number. I sent them the tracking number I had from returning the purse a few days ealier and explained to them that I sent it back once the seller said I had 7 days as he stated right there on the response forms filed with paypal. 

Well because I sent it before pay pal told me to they said it was invalid. WTH? Are you kidding me I explained it to them and it showed it was delivered. They didn't care and ruled in his favor so the seller got his fake purse back no doubt to sell to some other sucker on ebay and my $65. Mean while the seller is sending me tormenting emails and being smart saying Oh god bless you, are you kidding me your a dam theif and your trying to tell me you hope god blesses me. 

So it shows Paypal doesn't give two hoots about the seller or the buyer. Ebay was no help either because 2 days after the auction and after I had paid they cancelled it. Now how does ebay cancel an auction once its been finished and paid for. They have done this to me twice now but lucky I've not had to deal with this crap but once. 

[wolfrat]

I'm happy to see others put their stories up like this.  I had someone trying to scam me off of Craig's List, and I had a bad feeling about it since they were willing to pay more than I asked for.  I decided to keep bugging them about doing it in person and when they kept saying they only did their transactions on Paypal, I decided to go looking around to see how one could get scammed on Paypal.  This thread really  helped  me out. 

I'm sorry to hear your stories, but am glad to see that you posted them to warn others.

Thank you!

[Nevermore]

I am actually trying to get a package back i just send a day ago.

This so called Williams Randy on craigslist saw my ad about me selling a psp.

i told him to meet in person but he said he would pay online and i agreed soi got on email which said he made a $200 transaction and that all i needed to do was send the package to his cousin in nigeria.I send it to him 2 days later and until i was goin to send it i kept getting emails of him reminding me to send it.Once i send the package i gave him the tracking number and responded to the email that was a paypal forged email.

I didnt get a response the same day so i waited until the next day and no response. So I decided to call paypal and tell them that i still didnt get the money put in my account.

They told me that they never sent an email and that they never ask for a confirmation  of a tracking number that the money goes emidiatly to your account once the payment is made. They then tell me that i have been scammed.

I then call the post office and I tell them i want to cancel the delivery.The operator tells me to go to the post office and ask to recall the package form 1509.

I emediatly go to the post office and do this and now im awaiting for their response if they stopped the package before it gets to the address.

This is the address i was sending to

Name: Tosin Williams

Adress: No 63, Ibrahim Taiwo Isale Rd.

State; Kwara State

City: Ilorin

zip code: 234031

country: Nigeria

He said he was buying it for his cousin. PLEASE DON'T BE FOOLED AND DON't SEND ANYWHERE OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES.

also his email was williamsrnd3-gmail(can't put the last @ and gmail.com)

PLEASE DON't COMMIT THE SAME MISTAKE I DID I DON't WANT THIS TO HAPPEN TO ANYONE!!

[Smiley6666]

Sorry to hear about all your grief that Paypal is giving you. I'm trying to sell something online and I recieved an email from a 'potential' buyer overseas, who wants it for his friend's son... That right there rings a bell already, plus he's willing to pay me over the amount and pay for the shipping... I'm glad I read your post and I definately wont be sending anything outside of the U.S.

[libragirl29]

You should've went to the Police Department and filed a complaint. And get a police report or at least complaint I.D like they asked. I know things get funky, but it would of been in your best interest then hire a lawyer or file a small claim against the guy that did this to you or at least to paypal.

[ReldaUSA]

I went to the police station twice already. They will not even let me speak to an investigator or detective. They say since this is a civil case on an online transaction, they are not allowed to file any type of police or incident report. They kept telling me every time i called them and also when I went there to go through the IC3.GOV site like I did. Hiring a lawyer or a small firm to work on this would haven been ended up costing me more than what the item was worth.

After several calls to paypal one agent offered to escalate my appeal on the case to a paypal supervisor. After explaining my situation to the supervisor, she went ahead and placed me on hold and she personally called my local police department to verify they could not provide a police report on this case. She told me she took all of this down on the claims page and that she was going to put it back on the appeal process. I am now waiting to see what happens next, but im relieved someone on paypal actually helped me and i have hopes this issue will get resolved. It also felt nice when she told me she was personally going to follow up on this case. It's nice when finally paypal tries to help.

Let's see what happens next, I will keep you updated.

[luvstampin]

There are MANY MANY versions of scams out there. PLEASE read and educate yourself on them. Ebay has some great info on how to spot all ther red flags.

[duma1300]

I too am sorry to hear about the problem you had with a buyer. Seeing this topic and ponder my own dealings with buyers & "resolution center"

Has a SELLER ever "won" a disputed case?

I've sold several baseball tickets only to have the buyer say they didn't receive the tickets. And even had a situation of a rainout where the buyer got the tickets & his money back per paypal "resolution center"

I was beyond livid; seller got cash & tickets that were turned in for a different game @ a later date. It says on the back of the ticket for crying out loud that the ticket hold CASH value.

Has any seller ever "won" a dispute that was opened by a buyer??