Unreceived Item, Uncooperative Seller, Inflexible PayPal

[babycino356]

Here are the facts:

2 Nov - bought item located in the US. Posted to Aus via regular US airmail.

21 Nov - item not arrived, followed up seller.

29 Nov - seller initiates trace and provides tracking number. Asks me to wait till 10 Dec.

10 Dec - Aus Post has no record of the tracking number

12 Dec - Package hasn't arrived, I follow up. Seller asks me to wait till early Jan to see if package arrives.

16 Dec - I open dispute on PayPal to start 20 day dispute process. I ask seller to refund me. Seller says wait till 2 Jan just in case it arrives.

3 Jan - Item still hasn't arrived, followed up seller. No response.

5 Jan - Deadline for PayPal claim. Power outage due to heat wave. Deadline passes. Power restored half hour later! Seriously.

6 Jan - Emailed PayPal to ask if late claim can be lodged. Provided some evidence. Request denied.

My questions:

1) Is there anyway of escalating my request "up the line" at PayPal? My request seems to be blocked by low level supervisors who have no discretion.

2) Can I leave negative feedback on the seller?

3) Assuming #2 is yes, I expect the seller to leave negative feedback on me for being a difficult buyer. What protection do I have from ebay?

[a_beautiful_room]

None - from ebay or paypal. Once the paypal deadline has passed, that's it. You need to do a credit card chargeback if your paypal payment is funded with a credit card, that's your only option at this point.

Might be worth a call to the financial ombudsman, however you agreed to paypal's rules when you signed up .. so not sure if that will be of any help.

The deadline to leave a neg for the seller has also passed (60 days) .. they could not leave you a negative in any event, as sellers can only leave positive feedback, and it has been this way for years.

[***super_nova***]

it is always advisable to open and close disputes couple of days earlier; just in case there is some problem that will prevent you to do it in the last moment.

If we are talking about the big power failure that affected large part of state of Victoria, which meant no possibility of using computer elsewhere, I would call paypal back and ask for higher up supervisor.  Mentioning financial ombudsman often helps. 🙂

As far as FB goes, you do not have to worry about getting negative FB.  Sellers have not been able to leave negative FB for buyers for many years, and if they leave negative comment it will be removed when you report him. 

[phorum_junkie*]

Why on earth did you let the seller string you along for so long? I would have opened the dispute after 5 weeks max and as it was over the holidays i may have given it another couple of weeks before escalating to a claim.

If you funded your payment with a credit card you can ask your bank to do a chargeback but you really can't blame Paypal because you chose to leave it until the last minute.

[babycino356]

Thanks super_nova and a_beautiful_room for clarifying all that in a constructive way.