Buyer payment safety

[tonigau]

Say If I was to buy an item costing $9900, & it did not arrive & paypal could not recover funds from seller(Scammer) would I get my refund thru ebay/paypal.

I would feel mnore comfortable using an escrow service like checkvault as they hold the funds untill a condition agreed by the  seller & buyer occurs, eg:  courier company delivery advise.

cheers

[kopenhagen5]

Spending that sort of money online is risky.

Personally I would want to inspect the item before handing over any cash.

There are certain types of items PayPal won't cover, vehicles for example.

May I ask what type of item you are considering ?

[digital*ghost]

PayPal & eBay protection for buyers does not inherently rely on whether the funds are still in the seller's account, typically what will happen is, if the purchase is disputed and the funds are still in the seller's account, the amount will be frozen until the dispute is resolved one way or another. 

If the funds are not in the seller's account and a claim is awared in the buyer's favour, the buyer is refunded and PayPal seek to recover the debt from the seller directly. (In some cases, the funds will actually be on hold for up to 3 weeks from the payment, which is PayPal's way of minimising their own risk). 

As mentioned above, though, not all items or circumstances are covered by buyer protection, so it's always good to review the policies both on eBay and PayPal before considering spending that kind of money, vett the seller and inspect wherever possible. 

[springyzone]

If you were buying a car or something where you picked up the item then paid, it wouldn't be so bad, but you mention 'if it did not arrive'.

I'd be reading every term and condition on ebay twice over before I would be paying that sort of money for any unseen item. And even then.....

I thought there used to be a money limit on paypal claims-about $2000?-but if so, that was a few years back and may have changed or be different on ebay.

[collect247]

It's $20000 per item claim in PayPal

[padi*0409]

eezi's correct springy it's $20.000. Even so I'd be wary of a purchase for the OP's sort of money if the item is unseen.

                            

[tonigau · Accepted solution]

Hi, Thanks all for your repllies. The item is farm machinery, I contacted paypal & they advised covered up to 20k$.(sounds like insurance cover) but I cant find a document that has specific details on this buyer protection. I have read some complaints where buyers have not received a refund due to not being able to revcover funds from seller (but these maybe hear-say ?). For larger transactions tho... ( I had to supply 2 forms of ID when my paypal account got over 1k$, so they would have ID of seller for significant amount) Anyway I will reuest payment thru CheckVault (checkvault.com.au/one-off-escrow/) as I can inspect & release payment., The freight company has the proof of delivery for seller. (return freight can be pre-negotiated if significantly not as described) or buy somewhere else. cheers

[lyndal1838]

I am very surprised that paypal would give you the OK for farm machinery.   Did you make it very clear exactly what it was?

I would have thought it would come under motor vehicles which are not covered.

I believe the refund being dependent on whether the seller had money in their account is very old and possibly referred to non ebay transactions.   It has never applied to ebay transactions in all the time I have been using paypal on ebay....in excess of 10 years now.

[padi*0409]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

I am very surprised that paypal would give you the OK for farm machinery.   Did you make it very clear exactly what it was?

I would have thought it would come under motor vehicles which are not covered.

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I would have thought that as well lyndal, and I'd want that decision in writing from them before purchasing the machinery. 

[phorum_junkie*]

What are you going to do if you receive a VERY heavy lump of metal or something and put in a claim for item not as described? I should imagine it would cost an awful lot of money for you to return it and I would NOT rely on ebay's claim that the seller is responsible for return costs. From what is being posted on the boards ebay no longer enforce it when a seller pronises to reimburse the seller after the item has been returned.

The only way I would consider such a purchase would be if I knew somebody I trusted in the area who could go and inspect, take delivery and organise transport and pay the seller after it was loaded and ready to go.