Long story short, found a motor I wanted to buy. It was in a city I was traveling to for work, so I was only going to be in town one day. Asked the seller if he took PayPal, and he said he did. So I paid him and told him I’d be in town in 24 hours. Fast forward a couple of hours, seller said PayPal wouldn’t clear for 7-10 days, so he would no longer take PayPal.
Problem being, the money was already wired through them. So I’m out the money, he hasn’t technically received it, so I call PayPal and I’m told to file a dispute. So I do the dispute, just to have them review the dispute and claim it doesn’t conform to their standards or use.
Seems like PayPal is creating an environment ripe for fraudulant sellers.
Anyone else deal with this sort of situation before. Not sure what next steps I should take. I called the bank to try and get the debt card purchase reversed. They said they would have to work with PayPal, but they warned me it might be a losing battle because PayPal is famous for this sort of situation.
I don’t use PayPal very often, can’t say they’ve inspired much confidence in me to use them again.
I think the issue is you used a debit card to pay, so it’s going to be up to PayPal and the bank to work it out which is probably going to be a giant PITA. Sounds like the bank is dumping responsibility on PP.
I use PayPal everyday, for my business and invoicing and for other purchases for things like car parts and I have always had good success with it and their customer support has always been good.
What I’m being told is if a seller decides not to sell an item after they’ve been paid, PayPal is not liable and can’t reverse the transaction. Great for a seller, not so much for a consumer.
I have generally had good experiences with PayPal, but many years ago I got burned when I made a mistake in the amount that was sent to a seller. Basically they seemed to favor the seller over the buyer.
What is confusing to me is the 7-10 day period. In this day and age does anything take that long to “clear” and why would you just go with cash?
If the seller is an honest person I would hope you could arrange payment using some other form and if there was overpayment he would return the funds.
If it’s not a scam (which it probably is) see if you can talk to the seller. Whenever I use PayPal I never use the family and friends option, even with people I know, just to be on the safe side.
Pay Pal holds your payment for three weeks and it cannot be overridden.
I’d talk again to pay pal - the three weeks is there for exactly this reason, you pay for something and don’t receive it.
“ Kindly note that all received commercial payments are subject to hold for 21 days, it is an essential feature applied to ensure safety and protection for our users.
It’s important to note that the hold is applied firmly by the system,and cannot be manually overriden.”
You need to speak to them and let them know the seller didn’t provide the goods and they’ll return your wonga.
Make sure your bank is aware of this holding policy & then hold their feet to the fire. Getting your funds returned should be a no-brainer.
Putting your money in a bank is a favor to them. Don’t be conned into thinking otherwise. Expect service & make sure you get it. Otherwise, fire them & hire a better one. Yes, it really is that simple.
PayPal just informed me that even though the money was sent to a business account, and I didn’t receive the item, my purchase is not covered by their “purchase protection” program.
I called my credit union and they are looking into it. What pisses me off is the 7-10 day thing. If the money isn’t in anyones hand yet, and its stuck in the system, why can’t it be reversed?
Also, if something like this (buyer not getting the item sold) isn’t covered by their consumer protection program, what is exactly?!
Well it looks like I’ll never use PayPal as a consumer, this is ridiculous.
Seller said the funds just hit his account. Worked out a deal with him, where both of us will drive 2 hours and meet in the middle to do the exchange. So Hopefully this will reach a happy ending, but not because PayPal did anything. I’m still blown away how they handled this (or in my case) didn’t handle this.
Luckily for me I was dealing with another Karter getting a kart item, so its a small world. Or else I would have been out $2,500 bucks.