Recently I experienced Paypal's understanding of their buyer proctection. I ordered some food items and as the seller ordered some of these items in Germany, it took more than a month. Some of the items arrived damaged and one was missing.
I contacted the seller and got no reaction. Based on that and the seller's BBB rating of "F", I tried to open a dispute. This failed with an error message because of Paypal's 45d rule as it took more than a month for the items to arrive. It's interesting that the seller contacted me right after I attempted to open dispute. Also I got an email that a dispute has been opened.
The seller agreed to give me a refund for the damaged items. I got an email from Paypal that the amount of $21 did not clear with the seller's bank and wanted me to contact the seller again via an email address in the same email.
This email bounced as the email address was invalid and I contacted the seller via his website. He agreed to send me the refund. BTW, I contaced Paypal about this issue and no reaction so far.
So far Paypal did a very lousy job helping me with this very low amount $21 and I would never ever transfer a serious amount of money through them after this experience. They failed with several simple tasks.
Just a few reminders what customer service and protection would normally mean:
o You refund the amount and than it is your job to get the money from the seller
o Nobody with a BBB rating of "F" and bad reviews should be allowed to be a seller
o Make sure your seller's contact information is correct
o Close the 45d dispute loop hole
o Read your customer's messages instead of ignoring them
For further transactions I will use alternatives and will advise friends and famliy to do the same.
