I too was scammed and fleeced an additional 10.17 GBP for an item sold on EBay in Great Britain. The item - a 45 record was sold at auction for 5.00 GBP and additional shipping cost of another 3.00 GBP. After the auction the seller sent me a message on EBay asking me to confirm the postal address they would post the item to me. After I made payment by PayPal a receipt arrived in an email message that informed me that I had paid the seller the 8.00 GBP for the item including shipping costs to Australia. The email then stated that PayPal had made an additional payment to Pitney Bowes of 10.17 GBP, which both I nor the seller were ever informed would happen. I never authorised PayPal to make this payment from my credit card to Pitney Bowes, and since EBay and PayPal have been split off as separate companies, it does not give PayPal any legal right to make payment to Pitney Bowes because at no time did I ever authorise PayPal to make any hidden payments from my credit card account. Even if there is some clause in any eBay contract to allow a third party such as Pitney Bowes in the transaction it does not waive any legal obligation PayPal has to not allow unauthorised payments to any third party from a person's credit card via PayPal. I have basically been fleeced an extra 10.17 GBP above the cost of buying the item from the seller and paying the seller to ship it to me. The seller is shipping the item directly to me in Australia and it has nothing whatsoever to do with Pitney Bowes who are apparently based somewhere in Erlanger, Kentucky, USA. I believe that eBay receives a financial kickback from Pitney Bowes for each and every payment received by them from the unsuspecting buyers. The seller is shipping the item I purchased directly to me in Australia and Pitney Bowes has nothing whatsoever to do with the delivery of this item from England to Australia. In the end it is nothing more that a fraudulent payment and unauthorised use of my credit card. I have filed a PayPal dispute and am sure they will make a biased decision in favour of Pitney Bowes, so I intend to go to my bank and request that the unauthorised payment to Pitney Bowes using my credit card be the subject of a bank transaction reversal. PayPal will have no further say in the matter once my bank decides that my credit card was used for an unauthorised transaction.
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