Ebay- Looks like I've just lost £200

[T16GEM]

DH had a mobile phone that he wanted me to sell on Ebay for him - being the great wife that I am I duely did this last week and the bids went up to £195 plus £5 P&P any way the auction went well and a guy emailed me asking if i would finish the auction early I said no and then he eventually won the phone through the auction anyway.

I waited for him to pay by PayPal and then sent the phone, this monring when I looked at my paypal account its overdrawn by £197 and Paypal have placed the payment on hold as he has cancelled his payment.

I have emailed Paypal with all of the details but I don't think i am covered by their protection policy as there are about 500 things that you have to be compliant with in order to qualify.

I am really upset about this as I have been selling on ebay for 3 years and never had a problem - you really get to trust people (stupidly) and these dishonest few have to spoil it.

Gems

 

[muffy0110]

wait til the payment clears

 

[T16GEM]

it had cleared in the Paypal account it's instant payment. You just don't expect it - maybe I am being naive or something, some people are just awful.

 

[disney13]

I'd write to Paypal and tell them. How can they accept a payment that goes through and allow the buyer to cancel the payment. I didn't think that you could do that with paypal. If you sent it to their registered address you may be able to claim under their seller insurance.

I'm sorry that you've lost all that money. eBay is a great tool but some people do take the pi££! and spoil it for everyone else.

Let us know how you get on,
Andy

 

[Clare D]

I'd also add something onto Ebay to warn other people about this user and if you have his home address maybe send him a letter. What a rotter let's hope that they get their comupance!!!

I don't really use E-Bay as 1) I don't have a clue what goes on 2) a friend works for Trading Standards and has all sorts of stories about it.

 

[mandymouse]

I don't know much about ebay, but I hope you get it all sorted soon

 

[Ware Bears]

Lots of for you. Some people are the pits. I have only used Ebay and paypal a few times, but luckily without any bother.

 

[Tron[ADS]]

I have heard of exactly the same thing happening to a friend of mine about a year ago. He lost about £150 worth of phone. PayPal didnt want to know.

I myself recently tried to sell a phone on ebay and had my auction, and 2 subsequent re-lists just hijacked by idiots, these people all had zero feedback and pushed the auction up to silly money right in the last few seconds, or just didnt contact me or pay me.

I was really annoyed about it, and Ive not bothered to relist my phone, it will just rot in a drawer now.

I think the Mobile Phone category is just full of idiots, as ive had no trouble in selling anything else. I do however, always insist on cheque or postal order on selling, as I just dont trust paypal for receiving money, given what happened to my friend.

 

[DisneyRGB]

Wow Gems that's really bad. The first time I read it through I thought you'd sent the phone before receving the payment which I thought was a bit unwise, but now I see that you received the payment and it was then cancelled I'm really shocked! I can't believe Paypal woud allow that to happen! If people catch on that they can easily cancel a payment after they've sent it and after they've received the goods then lots of dishonest people will do it. Makes me think twice about using Paypal if I were to sell an expensive item now.

I really hope you can get your money back, please let us know if you have any success.

 

[Hilary]

What a pain! I've been using eBay for a little while now, and have always (so far ) been really impressed with the whole trust ethos that seems to be an accepted way of behaving - what a shame that some idiot spoils it for the other 99.9% of eBayers who are genuine

I didn't realise a paypal payment could be withdrawn I have always preferred paypal because it avoided waiting for the cheque to clear, and I thought it was water-tight!

On a positive note, I bought an eBay item last week and paid for it, then had a refund from the seller for £1.50 because she'd over-estimated the postage cost! How thoughtful was that? I'd bid on the item knowing full well how much she was charging and had accepted that as part of the full cost, so I was really impressed that she'd bothered to adjust the charge afterwards

Let us know how you get on with any recourse you decide to take.

 

[Laurajean1014]

Just a suggetion, but why not immediately extract the payment from your account, once it is in?

I don't know how Paypal could take back funds it's approved. (It sounds illegal - but I am not up on English Law).

Next time, take a personal check, wait for it to clear and then send out item.... sorry for your dilehma.

 

[wicket2005]

Dreadful story. I too didn't realise Paypal could withdraw the money like that. I will pay attention to that when I am using Paypal. I have never had any problems with Paypal or Ebay (up to now) but thanks for the warning.

 

[DMRick]

HI. I assume some sort of problem was listed with Paypal before they did the chargeback? I wonder if they went through Paypal, or if he had paid with credit card and had them do a chargeback.
Also, it doesn't help to remove the money right away, as they will just go into your checking account or charge card that you have assigned to PP, or if you emptied the checking account and don't have a cc assigned, next time you get money, PP will take it.
Had he had timt to receive the item, and had he had a complaint about it?
Sorry this happened to you.

 

[florida sun]

Well Gem,

Must be a day for it, as I have just recieved notification that a payment paid to me through paypal, accepted by paypal, is now under investigtion as a fraudulant payment, and they have deducted the amount from my paypal account.

Nowhere near the amount you are talking, but I am beginning to think this paypal is not as secure as they boast it is, after all they accepted the payment to start with,then took 7 days to tell me they think there is something wrong, in which time like you, the goods have already been despatched.

You will have to let me know how you get on, but it's a minefield to log a complaint, I have a feeling I may be going back to good old cheques and postal orders, I know you have to wait for them to clear, but you dont pay a fee and you have,nt got the hassle, as we have at the moment.

What worries me is that I know so many people buy because the option to pay by paypal is there and could this then mean, sales will fall????

Sue

 

[Englands Disney Gang]

Hi

I am an Ebay seller with over 4000 feedback but also lately have lost all trust in Ebay and Paypal. I have just come back from Caribbean Beach and just before I left I transferred my balance from Paypal to my bank account leaving £25.00 in it. 2 weeks later on my return a buyer had put a claim into Paypal for £30.00 for an item I sold her stating it was 'not as stated' as I was away at WDW I never replied to Paypals mails in the 10 days given so they refunded her!!!...I am now out of pocket by £30.00....the buyer STILL has the item and Paypal charged me for being 'overdrawn'. I rang Paypal though and explained that I had not had the item returned (buyer states that there is a mark on it...I think as she knew I was on holiday as I told her in a little note that I put in the parcel she knew I would not be able to respond and she could get her money back!!) and they agreed they should not have refunded her but there was nothing they could do apart from giving me the credit back for being overdrawn!!....I have had to put a claim into Ebay stating the buyer has been fraudulent. How stupoid is that when Paypal and Ebay are part of the same company!!.
Gem.....have you tried telephoning Paypal??? I have realised its the only way to get things done with them!!

I left a job to do Ebay part time (I do declare it!!) and now have decided to go back to work as I dont enjoy it anymore as I have lost all faith in it. The stories I could tell you!!

 

[DisneyRGB]

What worries me is that I know so many people buy because the option to pay by paypal is there and could this then mean, sales will fall????

Sue

It looks like this is more common than we thought, this is really worrying. I agree Sue that not offering Paypal as a payment option may cause sales to fall. I have only sold a few odd things on ebay (books, CDs) etc and at first didn't bother with Paypal, but then an American lady bid on something and asked if I'd take Paypal as it was the only simple way for her to pay without changing dollars and sending me cash. Plus a lot of people prefer to pay by Paypal if they want their item quickly. But perhaps it's better to be safe than sorry and stick with cheques?

There was a Watchdog on a while back that said although ebay problems were rare, when a problem did occur, ebay were just not interested in helping

 

[Floridadreamlel]

Gems, have you tried getting the personal details of the buyer from ebay. This can be done if you click on 'site map' at the top of the page, then scroll down till you come to the topic heading 'search' and click on 'search for members', on the left hand side of the page is Members, Find a Member, Find Contact Information. If you click on Find Contact Information you can then Enter User ID of member and enter Item number of the item you are trading with the above member and this way ebay will send you an email with there name, address and telephone number (if they are genuinely registered with ebay).
Hope this makes sense. I have been buying and selling on ebay for a long time and have never had any real problems. It's difficult with mobile phones because there are alot of fraudulant people out there that seem to home in on this sort of product and alot are from abroad.
I do hope you get this sorted.

 

[Miffy2003]

That is really bad Gems


I must admit I also thought your money was safe with PayPal.

The only exception I can see to this is if the payment was made with a lost or stolen Credit card - and to be honest I am not sure what anyone could do to protect anyone from this. Even more worrying in the current climate of CC fraud being a growing problem.

I would be gutted to lose £200 though so I am so sorry to hear your bad luck

 

[Scottish_Maleficent]

That really is the pits Gems......

Sending you lots of pixie dust you get it sorted out soon......that's a lot of money to lose

 

[DMRick]

Well Gem,

Nowhere near the amount you are talking, but I am beginning to think this paypal is not as secure as they boast it is, after all they accepted the payment to start with,then took 7 days to tell me they think there is something wrong, in which time like you, the goods have already been despatched.

Certainly not meaning to stick up for Paypal, but it sometimes takes more than 7 days for them to find out an item was paid for with a stolen credit card or bad check. I did have that happen to me once when a woman got her purse stolen and she stopped payment. It was finally righted and Paypal was repaid and they gave me back the money.