Protection for services agreed upon on forums?

[Tigro]

I'm planning to import one item which is unavailable in my home country from abroad. Thankfully, a guy on one of the forums where I asked about such a service said he would buy it and send it to me and we agreed on the money I'd be to send him (basically the price of the item there + shipping).

Now since I don't know him personally, obviously I'd like to use the "pay for goods and services" option and here comes the question - since our agreement was based purely on exchanging a few messages on the forums with no rules, terms and conditions or anything like that which we would sign, will the buyer protection still have me covered? Will I still be able to get my money back if they try to trick me or the item ships broken or different than what we agreed upon?

Or am I still covered alright as if our agreement was an eBay offer or something of similar gravity and the proof I have which are the messages we've exchanged enough?

[Whac-A-Mole]

askhim to send you a detail Paypal invoice describing the item,condition and price and shipping.

if you do not get the item or item is not described,you can file a dispute.but ifyou win,you will be asked to return the item and pay return shipping/ 

[Tigro]

But can he issue such an invoice considering:

- I haven't paid him yet

- he's not a shop, just a regular person

- he's not "selling" anything to me per se, just buying something for me abroad and forwarding it to me

?

[DPCreations · Accepted solution]

That's the way it works.  The seller creates an invoice with all product details, pictures, and shipping.  The seller sends the invoice to the buyer and the buyer pays.  You will PayPal buyer protection according to PayPall polcies (read them for details) for the item described in the details.  By the way, he IS selling you something.  He puirchased it with his money and now he is selling it to you, the buyer.

Your previous messages to the seller are meaningless for PayPal protection.

For international purchases you will also be responsible for any and all customs fees in your country.

[Whac-A-Mole]

He will also pay Paypal fee -30 cents transaction and 2.9-3.9% of the payment,so you need to send him more.

will he make up an invoice for you,how would we know?

may be look under Ebay and see if anyone is selling the item,then do it buy it now and you get both Ebay and Paypal buyer protection. 

[Tigro]

I see, thank you both a lot for the help, paid through an invoice stating precisely what I was paying for 🙂