several people have posted similar statements about Paypal. Maybe I missed something, but I'd like to know what the specific problem is.
In my case, I bought a silent compressor on EBay a few years ago for
just under a thousand dollars. Long story short, the compressor did
not exist, several other people got hosed by the same guy. He ended
up being arrested, charged and convicted of grand theft.
OK, here’s the short version. I contacted PayPal about the payment,
and their guarantee. They told me the buyer’s assurance plan rules
specifically stated that I must wait thirty days and resubmit. I
waited 31 days and resubmitted, they responded, “sorry, we can’t do
anything after 30 days.” That set the tone and foreshadowed what
their actions would be for the next six months. Another sixty days of
wrangling, investigations, EBay telling me they weren’t involved in
the payment process, only in the auction, nothing they could do, so
sorry. PayPal also told me at the end of this three months or so,
tough cookies, not gonna do a thing about it. About six or seven of
us had the same issue, fortunately my claim was under a thousand
dollars, one guy got taken for almost $10,000 for a chiropractic
table.
I ended up doing a charge-back on my credit card (my one and only
charge-back ever - thank you USAA) after another sixty days of
investigation. They were very thorough and wouldn’t just do a
charge-back without really checking it out, I had to get a police
report and everything. They were insistent that every requirement of
PayPal’s buyer’s assurance had been met before they would intervene.
Come to find out, that’s why PayPal really wants you to use a debit
card, you can’t do a charge-back so easily - if at all - with a debit
card, regardless of the circumstances. Next day I got an email from
PayPal saying they were going to sue me. I told them “Get on with it
then. I’d love to explain to a judge how PayPal’s buyer’s assurance
plan really works and show him or her the entire string of emails
from this whole fiasco” (which I included as an attachment to my
response). They backed off, but sent an email threatening to limit or
cancel my “PayPal privileges” if I ever attempted another
charge-back. Yeah. Some kinda privileges those turned out to be. I
ended up closing my PayPal account, and I will happily tell anyone
who’ll listen what a bunch of jerks they are.
If a seller demands I use PayPal and won’t consider another form of
payment, I find another seller. Period.
By the way, I love Stuller and have had zero unresolved problems
with them of any kind since Matt was delivering findings out of a
catering truck some thirty-plus years ago.
Dave Phelps