I would appreciate some fulsome response from PayPal staff here, please. Let me first explain my context. I am a new client of PayPal, for business card-processing purposes, on my own websites. I do not have anything whatsoever to do with eBay: this is purely about using PayPal as a card processor. You will be aware that a LOT of criticism of PayPal arises around the world (and this forum is fairly full of it too), all to do with the seemingly 'heartless' way PP often deals with disputes. I have read reams of complaints about withheld monies, unreasonably in the view of the (business) sellers. But I have also heard of a specific 'scam' which some miscreant buyers perpetrate on innocent commercial sellers, which unfolds as follows :- a. Buyer X orders equipment Y (a piece of electronics of some sort, commonly) from experienced, organised, legitimate Supplier A. b. Buyer X pays with a card on Supplier A's website and PayPal processes the transaction. c. Supplier A sees the order, trusts PayPal, so packs up goods Y properly and securely, ships with tracking to end customer X. d. Customer X unpacks and retains goods Y; customer then disputes the type of goods supplied with PP, saying they were wrong type. PP advises him to pack and return to Supplier A. e. Buyer X now uses original shipping carton to pack one bag of potatoes (for weight) ; seals the box, ships it back with Royal Mail or other signed for service (of course claiming it to be the returned goods). Buyer X retains the actual goods he was supplied. f. Royal Mail weigh, scan, ship and deliver the box which is signed for (unopened as always) on return to Supplier A, providing Buyer X with his "signed for" tracking response proving a return - which he emails onward to PayPal. g. Supplier A then opens box to find false shipment: but has already signed for it. He then complains to PayPal who say (of course) that the purchaser swears blind that he returned the goods and of course he has the POD. h. PayPal then SEEM always to side with the crooked customer, not the Seller. So much so that I gather this has become a "standard" scam used by crooked buyers all over the place ? The "potatoes in the box" wheeze is as old as commercial business - doubtless it's been done for centuries - but the issue here is one of trust between PP and their regular, direct customer - the Supplier A above, and it seems odd that PP has a reputation for siding with crooked, transient customer X rather than regular, linked customer A. PAYPAL - PLEASE REASSURE ME, AS TO WHY I DON'T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THIS SORT OF THING: How will you undertake to protect me from crooked buyers in exactly the example above ? At the moment, I think I do need to worry (and a friend of mine got so sick of this in his small business that he gave up working with you a year or so back). I look forward to comment on this. If you're an active seller and have ever had this happen to you, please also post here. Regards all Mike H London
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