Paypal's buyer protection question

[sea.breeze]

I haven't had to deal with this for many years and I can see that there have been a lot of changes. I have looked at the paypal notes but I am looking to get some real life *current* experience of paypal. I say current because I know for sure that this would have been a problem in the past but I'm not sure how it is now.

Anyhoo, I bought an item from a seller with zero feedback, no real problem there as I've been doing that for many years and this one looked pretty solid to me and I also spoke to the seller. Parcel didn't arrive and seller has disconnected phone and email bounced. I put in a PayPal claim and if I assume that the seller has closed his account, I was wondering how good are Paypal with reimbursing in a situation like this.

[lyndal1838]

As long as you opened the dispute within the 45 day  time frame there should be no problem.

Have you escalated to a claim yet?

If the seller does not answer the dispute you will get your refund from paypal and it is up to them to pursue the seller.

[sea.breeze]

Oh that's good to know. How times have changed.

[sea.breeze]

I've just been reading through the Papal terms and they say that they are not obliged to pay but they will as a matter of 'goodwill' at their discretion. Do you have any idea how arbitrary this is?

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

As long as you opened the dispute within the 45 day  time frame there should be no problem.

[lyndal1838]

You have to open the dispute within 45 days of purchase....no ifs or buts.  Even one minute over the 45 days and you can forget a paypal claim. I have never known them to make a discretionary payment if you are out of time.

[sea.breeze]

Hi, claim has been made in good time. It's just the caveat that that Paypal put in about that even though it's listed with buyer protection and even though all the conditions are met that they still don't guarantee to reimburse the seller BUT they say they will make a payment as a 'show of goodwill'. 

My question is, is this just them being cautious or is there a real possibility that PayPal won't pay up if they cannot recover the money from the seller?

[thecatspjs]

Whilst the wording of the agreement makes reference to "recovery" of your funds, whether Paypal can recover the money from the seller or not, has never affected a claim that I know of.

If the seller does not provide required proof of post to Paypal you will get your dosh back from Paypals pocket, and they will pursue the seller for the funds.

[sea.breeze]

OK thanks for that reassurance.