Just thought i'd let you know what has happened to me. Sold some goods through e-bay recently to a buyer i shall call (D). After three days i had no payment or contact from the (D) so e-mailed him via e-bay to ask if he needed any more time to pay. Still got no reply but the payment was made a few hours later (25th Sept 2013) through Paypal using buyers e-bay account details and e-mail address and with the same postal address, but in a different name. I'll call her (T). I posted the goods next morning, 2nd class, not recorded (yes i know what you are thinking) but i had a reciept from post office. I heard nothing from (D) over the following weeks and assumed (correctly) that the goods had been delivered and the buyer was happy. I had by this time (five weeks after postage) 'filed' my postage reciept, in your typical male 'it's in a safe place' fasion and now cant find it. Last week i discovered a claim was being made against my account through Paypal by (T) for unauthorised use of her account in paying for the goods. She was NOT claiming that the goods had never arrived. The claim just happened to be made on the 45th day following payment. ( Hmmm....) I accessed the Paypal 'resolution centre' (contradiction in terms if ever there was) to find no way of putting accross my side of the story. To say it is biased in the buyers favour is an understatement. The only option offered was to admit i hadn't posted it and refund the money which wasn't an option as i had acted in good faith and fulfilled my side of the buyer/seller agreement. I contacted the buyer (D) through e-bay to let him know that should the case be resolved in his favour then he has a legal obligation to return the goods to me (at his expense) in the same condition he recieved them and failure to do so would, technically, be theft. He replied to my message the same day stating that his account had been 'ripped off to the tune of £1800 and he was sorting things out with Paypal'. I contacted the Paypal UK call centre and explained what the situation was whereupon i was advised to send all future sales via recorded delivery (lesson learnt) but more importantly, after some time i was informed that they (Paypal) could see no blame lay with me and that the claim would be removed from my account and i would recieve an e-mail confirming that shortly. Great i thought....sorted. Two days later, no e-mail and claim still active. So i call Paypal UK again and this time i am told there are notes on my file relating to my previous call and 'not to worry, this will all be sorted out by early next week and you needn't respond to the resolution centre e-mails as it will be removed from your account'. And it was....the case was closed....... and found in favour of (T) !! I rang Paypal UK again and am told it was found in (T)'s favour because i could not prove postage !! The claim was never about not recieving the goods, it was about 'someone else' using (T)'s account. How can i have any accountability for that? The goods have been recieved by the buyer (D). If not, he has had plenty of time to contact me and on the one occasion he did, no mention of not having recieved them. Plus, that is not what the dispute claim was raised about. And here's the best bit. When i explained to Paypal UK that i had been in contact with the buyer (D) i was told, and i quote, to 'contact him again and ask him to confirm to us (Paypal) that he has recieved the goods and we can sort this all out quickly'. So, lets think about this shall we......I am being asked to get confirmation of delivery from (D) which will cancel any claim against my account made by (T) (who lives at the same postal address) via (D)'s e-mail / e-bay account when he has allready recieved the refund !! At what level could that be considered helpful advice? The chances of him doing that are fairly slim to say the least!! Sometimes in life you come accross levels of stupidity that simply take your breath away....this being one of those moments. Paypal, you seriously need to sort out your customer service approach as at the moment it is totally in the favour of the buyer and as such the current system is being abused at the expense of any seller/trader. And please don't respond by saying the seller is protected by recorded delivery as there are a multitude of sellers out there who have lost out even when proving postage, and all down to your unfare system. My advice to anybody from this point forward would be to NEVER sell a thing via Paypal. You can buy whatever you want, put in a dispute claim, get all your money back AND keep what you dishonestly paid for!! Beats Nectar points hands down. Think I'll go and buy something off e-bay!
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