Paypal rant

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What goes through PayPal's mind when there is disputes. They seem to always side with the buyer and leave the seller out of pocket.

I sold a Honeywell evohome starter kit, I bought back in 22 because I thought mine was faulty but turned out it just needed a firmware update.

It's been sitting in my garage since so decided to sell it.

I sold it for £50.

Guy comes in Facebook says can I send him a video of it working which I did, to do this I had to wire the relay and pair it.

Sent it to the guy, next day he messages me and says it's a counterfeit item, tell him no it's not.

Then day after he says it's broken, I say it's not and I proved it in the video I sent him prior to sale, says he's going to get a pro round at the weekend because I told him they are notoriously difficult to setup (they can be difficult)

Then the next day he says it's not charging. I said it was clearly charging in the video I sent you.

Then he says he's had a pro over and they've written a statement saying it's faulty. I ask for the statement he refuses.

Then he opens PayPal dispute.

Turns out the guy had a MK1 evohome, and purchased a MK3 screen. They are compatible but the charger is different and it doesn't use the wireless gateway as it's built into the MK3.

Explain all this to PayPal, I prove the purchase and the serial number is recognised by Honeywell as authentic. I showed them the evidence that he bought the new unit as a replacement for his old one and he needs to modify his system with proof from Honeywell that's the case.

Then PayPal give the guy my address to send the unit back, without my authorisation.

When it arrived the guy hadn't done a factory reset as it still had the old settings I made playing with it showing him it worked. Which meant he didn't get a professional out. I then took a video and photos of me pairing the relay and it all working.

Advised PayPal I would be returning the unit and expect not to have a charge back.

I didn't send it I thought I would wait a couple of days as I had zero response from PayPal.

Today they confirmed I received the unit and refunded the guy. Then Charged me a further £12 for the dispute.

I phoned customer services and they refused to refund the £12. I explained to them I proved beyond doubt the unit was not faulty for them to tell me I have recieved the item and as it's not faulty I can sell it again.

I know it's only £12, but I'm also £15 down due to the postage, so I've lost £27 and I've done nothing wrong.

I'm more annoyed about the principle of it than anything, 20 years I've been using PayPal and not 1 dispute until now.

Very frustrating.
 
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I joined PayPal in 2001 and I raised my first ever dispute today.

It took about an hour so I assume a human looked at it. I got my £13.98 back.
 
@sx_turbo I had a very similar experience with eBay

Brand new sealed collectible item ~£500

Guy opens it says bits are missing and then sends it back as eBay told him to

My item is no longer sealed, the missing parts clearly pilfered, they charged be the best part of 30 quid for him to return it
eBay even stated that they were celarly in the wrong, I had that in writing and hadn't followed the correct processes despite this neither would refund me

I did request them to do a GDPR erase on both accs, they said they would once I had updated the contact details to the correct ones so they knew they were GDPR'ing for the right person, clever of them but I wasnt biting haha
Luckily due to how both my eBay acc and Paypal Acc was setup neither were tied to a bank Acc or a bank card, so after a short but pointless argument with both payapl and eBay blaming each other the email address got deleted and both the paypal and eBay acc aint been logged into since.
 
I tried to delete my PayPal, that I basically never used anyway, and I went through everything and did it.

Yet I still got the occasional marketing email with my name on, and when I TT to login and go to the forget my password section it still has my mobile number.....
 
I still use PayPal as a payment mechanism to recognised institutions. I do not use it for selling or buying to unknown quantities, Joe public etc.

Insofar as it goes, it works and affords a degree of security and hiding bank details. But only insofar as it goes and will be sacked if found to be misbehaving.
 
Cheeky ******* still had everything, I've gone through and deleted my account again, we'll see....

I had the same **** with Facebook I had an account once around 2008, deleted it.

Several years later I get some random something I can't even remember what it was, low and behold all my **** was still on there.
 
Cheeky ******* still had everything, I've gone through and deleted my account again, we'll see....

I had the same **** with Facebook I had an account once around 2008, deleted it.

Several years later I get some random something I can't even remember what it was, low and behold all my **** was still on there.

Facebook never fully deletes your account or data - eventually it will become a "ghost" account - somewhat stripped of identifying information but having a unique fingerprint.
 
Rarely matters how much proof you have, unfortunately. These platforms side with the buyer 9 times out of 10. In my (recent, wasn't like this years ago) experience, most buyers of used tech/electronics are either morons or scammers, genuine buyers are like unicorns. Does seem that certain categories / types of item have issues way more than others though. I have some types of item with zero issues.
 
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There's a reason PayPal are known as the Pal you Pay. Been the same for many many years. I stopped selling on eBay a long long time ago. Plenty of other options to get rid of stuff, might not get the same ££ for it but at least they are less hassle.
 
There's a reason PayPal are known as the Pal you Pay. Been the same for many many years. I stopped selling on eBay a long long time ago. Plenty of other options to get rid of stuff, might not get the same ££ for it but at least they are less hassle.

tbh i hate selling stuff, id rather bin the item, ebay is difficult, facebook is now full of scammers or dead beats that want everything for nothing and rarely do they even show up after begging you to hold the item, i've not had an issue with paypal before but wont be using them again in the future. i've a couple of direct debits that go through paypal, i'm going to transfer these to my actual account and close down paypal.
 
If a buyer wants to scam you, they can basically.

Some are stupid, like the Ops.
At least the item came back.
But if you want a free item, it's easy.
 
As others have posted, this kind of shenanigans is why I no longer use Paypal for anything other than buying on websites I haven't used before (for an added level of protection under £100, anything over that it's credit card for s75 protection), and the occasional interest free Paypal credit purchase. Oh, and friends & family on the MM on here.

Almost got burned before, but having read several horror stories, I've always removed my bank/card details after any sales, to prevent them taking the money back - been put in the red several times, but it's a lot easier to argue the case when they're chasing you for the money rather than the other way round!

Also, selling on FB marketplace for anything other than cash in hand is asking for trouble!
 
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I can't remember the last time I used eBay to sell anything, I just buy on eBay these days. But even then I find myself going to other sites, like AliExpress, more and more.

As for Paypal, I simply don't use my account any more. I've kept it open "just in case", but I'd say it's been over a year since I paid anything with Paypal.
 
With such a specialist item you are always running the risk or some numpty trying to install it and claim its faulty. Best just to suck it up and move on.

My problems lately have mainly been with Evri who said they lost my parcel and then two weeks after the due delivery date just changed the status to delivered and I had to contact Ebay to issue a refund.
 
I had a similar experience selling an AV Receiver on eBay - what stuck in my throat is that rather than risk postage, I offered to deliver it personally (about an hour away) AND helped set it up, showing him how it worked!

Three weeks later I got notification that he was returning it as faulty - despite me taking videos of it all setup and working.

He posted it back to me using Evri, so you can picture the state it arrived in. Down £500 AND left with a battered item.

I may or may not have used this service the following Xmas:
 
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I had a similar experience selling an AV Receiver on eBay - what stuck in my throat is that rather than risk postage, I offered to deliver it personally (about an hour away) AND helped set it up, showing him how it worked!

Three weeks later I got notification that he was returning it as faulty - despite me taking videos of it all setup and working.

He posted it back to me using Evri, so you can picture the state it arrived in. Down £500 AND left with a battered item.

I may or may not have used this service the following Xmas:

I really don't understand how eBay and PayPal make these decisions. Surely they are there to protect both buyers and sellers. Not just the buyers
 
PayPal are *****.

So I went through the process to close my account and remove my personal data.

I did close my account but I got an email saying only "some" of my data was removed. Which amounted to not very much at all was actually removed.

I understand AML regulation (believe me) and I understand they need to keep records, but as I pointed out to them, I have not transacted with PayPal for at least 5 years, probably more like 10, they have no legitimate reason to keep my data.

I put in a complaint but they gave me quite a generic response so I'm not giving up, I'll take it to the ombudsman otherwise.

I get it in the scheme of things this is very much first world, but they have my credit card and bank details and it'll be when not if they get hacked and all that data goes out to whoever at least with your own bank you have a first party relation, where are PayPal you'll get your bank blaming PayPal and visa versa.
 
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