Unfair Dispute Resolution Claim

[kerristein1]

Hello,

I'm hoping someone can help offer advice here.  I sold an item on Ebay in October of last year.  The item was sold on Oct. 29, paid for and received by the buyer.  On March 31st, 5 MONTHS after the close of the sale, the buyer filed a dispute on the item with her financial institution claiming the item was not as described.  A hold was placed on my account, which also caused me to have a negative balance, until the dispute is resolved.  I called and was able to speak to a customer service agent on April 1st (which is impossible to do now) to discuss, and they told me I would not have to add funds to the negative balance until the dispute was resolved.  I provided documentation showing that the buyer never filed a claim through Ebay, which provides them with 90 day protection; nor did she offer negative feedback.  Unfortunately, since it was older than 90 days I was not able to pull information about the sale itself, however I did send a screen shot of my 100% seller rating, which also shows that the buyer could not have given me negative feedback.  

Earlier this week I received this from Paypal customer service:

"After reviewing the info we received, we were unable to cover the payment in this case. However, we might be able to recover this from the buyer's financial institution.  Once we file a case on your behalf with the buyer's financial institution, it could take up to 75 days to get a resolution. If we're able to recover the payment of $xxx.xx USD, we'll refund the money to your PayPal balance."

After I received this I now have an 'action required' button next to the negative balance, and a fee has been added on (even though I received an email last week saying no fees would be added to dispute resolutions.)

Here are the questions I am looking for help with:

1.  Do I have to add this amount to cover my negative until the entire case is resolved?  If I don't, will it be reported to collections and negatively affect my credit?

2.  If the buyer's financial institution does not find in my favor, does that mean the buyer gets to keep the product AND the money?  How is this fair????

3.  I feel this is a completely fraudulent claim.  What are my rights and options at this point to either get the product or the money?  Can I file a dispute to the buyer after this to get product back if it is not found in my favor?

I am completely disgusted by this entire incident.  This has left me with such a bad taste that I will never use this service to sell and item again, and I will tell everyone I can about the experience.  As sellers we act in good faith and it is completely unfair that is process allows the buyers to take advantage like this.    

[BerniSM1]

I have been facing a similar situation today, although not as dire sounding as yours. A buyer filed a dispute against a payment that was made as the item being sent was a couple of days later than I'd anticipated (I should have altered the default delivery date on the postage) They received the item, but didn't close the dispute, so when I tried to make a purchase using PayPal, my account was (unbeknown to me) showing a negative balance, and wouldn't allow me to use the account. I tried to transfer funds from my bank whilst I attempted to sort out the issue, however, the transfer, I was told would take 10 days - helpful - I don't think. 

I tried to contact PayPal with no joy, I contacted Ebay to find out where I stood and found that payments can and are, disputed all the time. When I finally spoke to PayPal I had a 'conversation' with an extremely arrogant lady who did not help in the slightest but said that this was likely to happen again in the future.

My dispute was resolved, my PayPal balance is now fine and I can use it as normal. However I'm not sure I want to and am considering taking all my listed items off of Ebay so I don't need to face the hassle in the future.