I have no faith in PayPal as a payment processor any more. There's these problems, problems with PayPal placing random account holds etc.
They really don't want business from the little sellers any more.
Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
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Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#162Have you called an attorney? If you have one that you're on any kind of friendly basis, I've generally found that you can get a quick read on your case (30 minutes' worth of time) without any cost. IANAL -- first and foremost -- but I would think the best tactic may be to go after PayPal to get them to discharge your supposed debt to them, given that you've already swept the money out. Their seller's assurance contra…
LOL! What attorney would give a crap about a $500 phone? The sad truth is that in this system of ours, you can screw someone for up to $50-100k and get away with it because that's the minimum potential damages amount that would pique a decent attorney's interest.
Jaded much?
I think that depends a lot on what you mean "a decent attorney". Sure, a partner at Proskauer isn't going to take your call, but in my experience, the nice woman with the office down the street might be glad to help you put together a plan, critique your demand letter, etc. This kind of "decent attorney" is willing to work with you on the small stuff, in the hopes that you'll come back to her in the future with bigger business, and refer your friends and family as well.
A piece of advice -- as you mature and your life becomes more complex, it's not a bad thing to have a good relationship with an attorney. Here are some situations that have come up in my life:
Reviewing my ISO and non-compete agreements when I took a start-up job
Getting my security deposit back from a landlord who would not pay up
Reviewing the sale agreement for same start-up 10 years later
Representing me at closing when I bought my first home
Advising me when my bank "misplaced" a $10,000 deposit for over a month (they cashed the check but didn't credit my account)
Discussing will and estate planning when my first child was born
For all of this, and probably some other things I'm forgetting, I probably paid him less than $2,000 total -- and half of that was in closing costs on the house.
More recently, a different attorney (I moved) handled another landlord-tenant dispute for me with a couple of letters to the landlord's attorney, and never even sent me a bill.
Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#163I would have expected David Marcus (PayPal CEO) to chime in by now but apparently not.
Counterparty risk is definitely a hard problem to solve but this situation seems easy to solve: if the buyer is complaining "not as described", there should need to be some sort of attempt to return the item (at seller's expense or split).
Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
What attorney would give a crap about a $500 phone? A class-action attorney?
The attorney will make millions, the guy will walk away with a coupon for 5% of his next Ebay purchase. There has been some success recently in suing corporations in small claims court. There is an argument that a genreal delivery address should not have been 'verified'.
Class action suits are less about getting restitution and more about forming a large enough clue-by-four to beat misbehaving companies with
Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#165If this happened to me, small claims court.
Small claims court requires you to be physically present in almost all states.
You also have to sue in the state they reside, not where you reside (there are a few exceptions, none of which are remotely applicable here)
He may be able to pull off filing remotely with a few friends, but at some point he's going to have to fly/drive to ohio and show up, have a place to stay, etc.
Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#166OP here. Interestingly enough, my conversations with Paypal became more and more surreal and I felt more and more powerless with every one in the end. I had a trail of information and there was evidence of multiple fraud, but I never felt as powerless as I did after my phone calls with Paypal. I am in contact with the police captain in the small town where the item was shipped, but I have very little faith in their a…
FYI--what you describe is not limited to eBay. I sell software through PayPal and I have been defrauded by someone who downloaded, marked it as "Significantly not as described". Once they did that, my money was pulled. I proved the buyer still had my software installed on their site, PayPal refunded my money, the buyer contacted their credit card, PayPal pulled the money again.
PayPal can be gamed in many different ways, but the credit card is the buyer's shield that even PayPal can't defend against. :(
Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#167Is this behaviour of PayPal possible only in USA, or it also applies to EU countries? Does EU regulations enforce some additional protection mechanisms for both sellers and buyers?
Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#168To jump on a point totally unrelated to the post's complaint but related to selling smartphones, I've found that if I'm selling electronics (especially generation-behind iPhones for the family) I can do much better than eBay, even before you discount both their listing fee and paypal use fees. And there's comparatively no risk. For cash: gazelle For slightly more cash (usually just a few percent), in the form of a gi…
You can get much more on Ebay or Craigslist than Gazelle or Amazon trade-in!!
Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#169Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can't sue a fake identity
Presumably the OP has an address where he sent his iPhone. Not sure as IANAL, but he theoretically could sue a Doe at a given address and subpoena for an identity.
The scammer had it sent General Delivery. For those not familiar with the term (it's not used commonly these days), it's possible to have something shipped General Delivery to any post office, then walk in and pick it up. See https://www.usps.com/manage/forward-mail.htm for more info. This seems like one of those arcane system hacks that's ripe for abuse.
He/she presumably had to show some ID and sign something to get the package, but I'm betting that the ID was fake.