Todd got ripped off by a scammer on an eBay purchase. He made sure to insure the device before shipping it off via the United States Postal Service, but it turns out that an insurance claim won’t help him get PayPal to step up.
So I had a old Palm TX that I did not use anymore and thought if I could get $150 for it I would be happy. I sold it on eBay, and I sent out the item via USPS and insured it for $300.
It was shipped on 10/28/09 and I emailed the buyer that info. Didn’t hear back from the guy that he got the item nor did he fill out feedback.
I then got word via PayPal on 11/23/09 that the buyer was disputing the charge since he says he never received the item. I thought it was odd that the buyer took almost a month to tell me he did not receive the item.
So now since I think the item was lost I file a claim with the Post Office on 11/24/09 in order to pay back the buyer. The claim gets denied because the Post Office records show delivery of the item:
I then submit that information to PayPal and they say that it is not enough information. They need a date and time that the item was delivered. So now I spend way too much time trying to get in touch with a real person at the post office. Finally I get through but they say they are not able to give me the information and I would need to call the St. Louis Office which handles insurance claims. Now I call the St. Louis office, and I am told to go to my local Post Office branch and they will be able to print out a delivery record which shows the date, time and who signed for the package.I get the delivery record and it shows the item got delivered on 10/30/09 at 11:09am.
Again I submit this information to PayPal and they come back and say that this is not enough information to settle the dispute. PayPal says they have to be able to look online and see for themselves that the item was delivered.I’m at a loss of what to do. The USPS considers the package delivered and will not accept the insurance claim and PayPal will not rule in my favor since they feel they need more information.
I can understand why PayPal won’t just accept a printout from a stranger as proof of delivery. It seems to me, though, that since PayPal can go to USPS.com and view the insurance delivery confirmation, there’s no way they can honestly say there isn’t proof of delivery. At that point, now that delivery has been verified, if they want more details on the delivery date they can and should accept print outs–especially if that’s how the USPS provides such information.
I would also think that PayPal could arrange for some sort of special relationship with the USPS to allow customers to directly send such delivery info upon request. I mean, if Netflix can strike a special deal with the USPS to improve its business, surely PayPal can.
Does this all sound too complicated? If so, then should PayPal even be in the business of making money off of wire transfers?
I know it’s an extreme position, but I still feel that if you can’t use CraigsList to sell an item face-to-face, for cash, in a public setting, then you’re out of general-purpose online options. Scammers ruined the eBay party, and PayPal–with its useless link farm disguised as a “Seller Security” section–has repeatedly shown that it doesn’t care what happens to your money, just so long as it gets a cut.
Todd, you might want to try making a case to the executive level of PayPal and eBay. Here are some email addresses that may or may not work:
eBay
John J. Donahoe, President, CEO
jdonahoe@ebay.com
john.donahoe@ebay.com
exec.relations@ebay.com
matthewb@ebay.com
government_relations@ebay.com
billcobb@ebay.com
PayPal
Scott Thompson, President
sthompson@paypal.com
aucr@paypal.com
moldenburg@paypal.com
mhentges@paypal.com
crme@paypal.com
executiveoffice@paypal.com
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Heads up to all who sell on Ebay – buyers are doing all sorts of things like sending returns back filled with pop bottles instead of that fancy vase you sent them. If you get a return, you might want to take all printouts to the post office and open it in front of the postmaster. I don’t know if this will save you and you can file mail fraud but opening it at home will get you no where.
Ebays recent policy of not being able to give buyers negative feedback is partially responsible for this. Since all buyers can only get positive feedback, there is no way to sort out the terds.
Instead of blaming systems and jumping on as a mob, i would say think of the root problem. The problem is with either the seller of buyer being a fraud. Or USPS being a fraud. USPS might not be a fraud, its either buyer or seller or BOTH being fraud. In order to make sure that people are not misusing the system, every company has the make multiple checks in order to assure that its a legitimate claim and something like this is not releated. Paypal has not denied your claim, they are asking for more information, which if you are a genuine seller you can provide, and ask what all they want, If there something like a presidential letter they are asking you should raise alarm. Think of this, if both seller and buyer are fraud, its so easy to misuse the system to siphon off money. So stop being a mob, and understand the specific problem. There are some 100 or more disgrunted people who just misguide the resolution and take it to specific companies. Do you think google or amazon would have immediately refunded without asking a question ? Try and see and then complain who is bad .. its all process and process takes time, every company has to make sure its not a misuse. Everyone wants money isnt it .. so in the craze for getting back money you forget rules and regulations. Also this was a specific problem, who know who is fraud ? Who says both buyer and seller are not fraud … ? I used amazon payments and i lost money to a seller , should i bring that up here ? That way every company is a fraud.