I had a customer purchase a few Pokemon cards from my Ebay page and unbeknownst to me they were using a freight forwarder to have their items routed through Miami toward their international address. The buyer reached out almost a full month after the item was delivered in Miami and claimed they received the item damaged, after allegedly receiving at their residence in Chile. I very quickly explained to the buyer, Ebay, and Paypal what had happened and that I would not take liability for a freight forwarder damaging the items by removing them from my package and sending them in a paper envelope. Paypal chose to immediately take the entire transaction amount from my account leaving it with a negative balance and causing me to be unable to purchase shipping labels, purchase supplies and items, make personal sales, leaving my business in a very precarious financial position because of a fraudulent shipment. Now Paypal says they believe it is in the best interest for the customer to return to item to me. If the customer admits they used a freight forwarder, admits and sends evidence that the item is now damaged, and the address is a paypal verified address then how is paypal holding me accountable for a third-party shipping this item after delivery? I intend to fight this as hard as I need to and have already spoken to legal counsel on things to do moving forward, but does anyone else have any experience successfully battling paypal to actually uphold their seller protections and not leave businesses in a dire financial situation due to a fraudulent foreign international buyer? How can I prevent this again besides not using paypal as google searching every address and canceling orders isn't very cost effective? Thank you for any advice you have.
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