Warning for all the ebayers out there...

[maja36]

I posted a while back that I bought 2 park tickets off ebay and the seller never sent anything and so I was able to dispute through paypal... well they have a 10-day period in which to hear her side of things and then settle it. Ten days pass, paypal says yes we side with the buyer... yeah... wait for it... but OOOOH the account is closed, and we can't get your funds. Huh? Doesn't paypal have all her credit information and bank information?

Now paypal, (an ebay company) says go through ebay. So now I have to make claim through ebay which takes another 10 days (and if it is after 60 days of transaction, then forget about any claim at all). And then ebay if it ever gets resolved takes $25 off. So paypal is a scam, no protection for the buyer at all. All a seller has to do is close an account and nothing happens to them.

In the future I make no purchases off ebay only sales. I don't think there is protection for the buyer so be really careful if purchasing.. and I don't recommend it. I lost $240, and maybe willnever see a penny.

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

Wow, that really stinks! I'm so sorry that you may be out so much money. One of the reasons that I use a credit card when paying thru PayPal is because I want the added protection from my credit card company. I had a dispute with a seller only once in the entire time that I've been eBaying and PayPal refunded my money. It was only around $15, so I would not have been too badly hurt by the loss. I hope that you can get this resolved thru eBay but if the seller has closed their account and moved on, I'm not sure what kind of recourse you may have...perhaps the attorney general for the state in which the seller resides?

 

[Luv2Roam]

Even before Ebay bought Payapl, this could happen, and did.
Dozens of us pin people were burned to the tune over over 10 grand, collectively.
The seller did have a Paypal account, that was froze. But the seller owed soooo much money, her funds were promptly depleted by just a few. Once their account is a zero balance, Paypal cannot just tap into their personal funds and deduct $.
Once their Paypal funds are gone, so sad too bad.
I learned from this NEVER have your payment directly deducted from a checking account. A buyer has no recourse whatsoever then, other than the police, FBI, etc.
Best to always use a credit card. Even a debit card with a VISa (etc) logo helps. But is not as good as a credit card.

The seller who ripped us off was in prison last I heard. Hard to say for how long.

 

[Luv2Roam]

I don't know if this web site will help. I have never used it. Someone suggested it to me once. Seems good and worth a look:
http://www.fraud.com/

 

[disneysnowflake]

That same thing happened to me over the summer with an ebay transaction.

Did you pay for the tickets with your credit card? If you did then you can dispute the charges with your credit card company.

I bought an item from a lady in my doll collector club whom I'd "known" for a few years. I bought the doll on ebay from her. Then it never arrived, and she disappeared. I filed for a refund with paypal, but they told me the same thing as you. After they "investigated" the seller withdrew all her funds and now has a zero balance. Too bad for me. No refund.

Had I used my credit card to pay instead of using the funds on my paypal account or having them deduct from my bank account I could have disputed.

Paypal allows people to withdraw funds as soon as they receive them from buyers. You can withdraw funds within seconds of receiving money from buyers, and that is what my seller did.

I have only bought 2 things on eBay since that incident and that was a seller I dealt with before for Disney pins. I'd bought and sold on ebay since 1997 and this was my first big scam. It feels awful.

I'm so sorry that happened to you. I will NEVER again pay with paypal unless it's with my credit card. A lot of sellers won't take credit card payments. If that's the case then I just don't buy. Paypal and ebay don't care about their buyers. I have to look out for myself.

I'm so sorry that happened to you.

 

[lesroi]

I hate to break it to the original poster and everyone else, but PayPal certainly WILL deduct from your personal funds.

I had it happen to me when a person, after buying from me and paying with PayPal, said their credit card had been stolen. A few months after the transaction, I got a nice little note from PayPal that they were going to reverse the transaction and I had better have money in my bank account.

PayPal went right ahead and withdrew the funds from my linked bank account. I guess my story is different as my account was still open, but if PayPal wants the money, they can get it, as long as you have a credit card or a bank account on file with them. They are also legally ABLE to do this as per the agreement you electronically sign when you sign up. You should press on further with them and talk to an actual PERSON and not just use email, if you can.

Bottom line is that they offer just about as much protection for sellers as they do for buyers. I was out almost $500! I even had the proof that the person who used the credit card is the person who the items went to, as I shipped certified mail to Canada, but no luck! That is why I now never ship anywhere but the US.

Tracy

 

[Luv2Roam]

Interesting.
So it sounds like the money may be out of their pocket, then they will withdrawal funds from a seller.
I know with the bad seller we had, the seller had funds. But they were quickly depleted.
Somehow a buyer had gotten wind of what the seller was doing and berated Paypal until they froze the buyer's account. (I can certainly understand why Paypal would not freeze anyone's account just on heresay from a phone call from a buyer.)
Once the account was depleted, it was so sad too bad for all the other buyers. The only other recourse was through credit cards, banks, police, etc.
This was approx 3 - 4 years ago. So things may have changed since.

 

[maja36]

I contacted paypal after reading the posts and they said that unless they have authorization from the paypal user to remove funds from bank account or credit card, there is no way for them to go into someone's account and get funds unless they have funds in their paypal account.

So Tracy I don't know how they did it to you, they should not have been able to unless you authorized them to. Strange.

Again I will say Paypal can't be trusted, it is totally buyer beware, always use credit card through paypal, never money order or existing paypal funds.