Interesting Chargeback Case - How to Proceed?

[everard6920]

Just want to start by saying that it's only for a $17 transaction, so financially it isn't a big deal. I'm more concerned about letting a potentially sketchy buyer go unchecked.

Had a chargeback opened yesterday, for a transaction at the end of December (as I said, $17). "The buyer stated that they didn't authorise the purchase".

So I do a quick transaction history check and find that the same buyer has purchased from me prior to December - in 2015 and 2016, in fact - with a different account, but with the same name, address, and the username almost the same as the chargeback username (the only difference being a full stop).

Not knowing exactly what the buyer is claiming (eg: whether or not they're claiming that their eBay was also hacked, and so forth) I messaged the buyer.

To summarise, my message was, "I see you've filed a chargeback. I can also see that I have previous transactions with your name, address, and similar username from 2015/2016, so I'm confused. Please advise, otherwise I'll need to send all relevant information, including the above, to Paypal regarding this case."

This was a bluff: I have no intention of contesting the case because I don't have tracking and I am not paying a $15 fee. 

Buyer replies and says that he let his friend use his eBay  and Paypal accounts to make purchases, and that his friend put his card on to his (the buyer's) Paypal. The buyer said that he didn't realise that his friend's card was set as default payment method on the Paypal account still, and that he had inadvertently made purchases and used his friend's card to pay. He said he was "sorting it out" with his friend.

Hmmm. So if this is true, then technically it IS an unauthorised transaction ...

How would you proceed?

[curraone]

he had inadvertently made purchases and used his friend's card to pay.

I think this means that he did mean to buy.    Therefore it should not be a case of a dispute with you.

He used his mate's card to pay instead of his own.    Surely that's his problem.

Nobody "inadvertently" buys anything.   He has the goods.      I would continue to wait,  and perhaps reply thanking him for undertaking to sort it out with his friend.

Keep all you emails from him in case he follows through further.

[imastawka]

Buyer replies and says that he let his friend use his eBay and Paypal accounts to make purchases, and that his friend put his card on to his (the buyer's) Paypal.

I would keep that message and send it to Paypal, for a start.

I believe it's in the User Agreement that you can't let anyone else use your account.  I may be wrong.   I can't find the relevent policy atm.

The card used didn't belong to a member, so I can't see that it has anything to do with you being involved.

The name on the card and the member's name would be different.

It's between the member and their friend IMO

[enigmabear]

I agree. hardly everard's fault if this person 'let his mate add his card' and then his mate (assumingly) did'nt remember his card was on the account........why not pull his mate up and ask what the heck man? and get his money back off the mate and remove his card from said account

Sounds sus to me and makes me wonder if this is the only time this has happened or if the mate knows exactly what is going on and taking advantage. Hmmmmmm

[brerrabbit585]

That doesn't make sense. He would have already had his own card on file with paypal so how could his friend have added his own card with a different name on it? When you open a paypal account they check the name on the card that you register and deduct a $1 payment to check that it's legit, then they refund it later. I can't see how they could add a second card later, not with a different name on it. If they bought as a guest they may be able to do it but I'm not really sure about that. It might be a good idea to ring paypal and ask is it possible to do what he's said.

Possibly the only way they could have done it was if your buyer opened a brand new account for his friend and then kept buying on it, but that doesn't really make sense and it certainly wouldn't tally up with what they've told you. I'd threaten to send their details to ACORN, perhaps ask for the friend's details so that you can include their details when you send a report to ACORN.

[digital*ghost]

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@everard6920 wrote:

Buyer replies and says that he let his friend use his eBay  and Paypal accounts to make purchases, and that his friend put his card on to his (the buyer's) Paypal. The buyer said that he didn't realise that his friend's card was set as default payment method on the Paypal account still, and that he had inadvertently made purchases and used his friend's card to pay. He said he was "sorting it out" with his friend.

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It's an interesting reply, but I'm not sure I buy it. I mean, if I have a credit card, which inherently carries significant protections, and I can use eBay indiscriminitely without even needing to sign up for an account, why would I bother using my friend's eBay account, and also going to the trouble of putting my credit card on file with their PayPal account? I don't understand the need for that, nor what the benefit would be.

Or how afer going to that kind of convoluted effort to buy stuff, basically forgetting about it, but notice some charges 2-3 months later, and automatically assume my card was compromised instead of checking whether my friend might have inadvertently made a purchase.

Also, my friend never picked up on the fact that they never had to pay for stuff they bought. 

There's really only 3 options available to you, though - accept liability, fight the chargeback, or do nothing (which I believe just ends up with the same conclusion as fighting the chargeback without meeting the requirements for protection, since you're not complying with any requests for further info etc, but has the potential to buy time for the buyer to sort it out, if they are on the level). 

I'm usually a bit more dramatic when I contact buyers about chargebacks, I want them to know there can be serious real life consequences to these kinds of things - no matter which way you look at it, unauthorised transaction claims mean credit card fraud (unless one believes the bank initiate them willy nilly, which I don't), so I straight up tell them that because it's an unauthorised use claim, I am required to report the fraud to ACORN, which of course involves handing all of their personal information over to what is (in a nutshell) a federal agency dealing with online fraud, who not only keep a permanent record of the incident, but pass on the data to the police local to the recipient of the item for them to investigate (this is all technically true, but how far it goes is best left to their imagination). 

[enigmabear]

To me,it actually sounds like the modern day version of ‘I was holding it for a friend’ 

[digital*ghost]

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@enigmabear wrote:

To me,it actually sounds like the modern day version of ‘I was holding it for a friend’ 

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Yeah, me too - the story is unique, but at the core it's still one of the most common replies these people make - it wasn't my fault, and I promise I'll sort it out.

Still waiting for my blameless buyers to "sort it out". -_-

[brerrabbit585]

Was that ID a new one at the time they bought from you? Have they got much feedback from other sellers? If they have, especially feedback left after December, perhaps contact some of the other sellers and ask have they also had chargebacks against them. It wouldn't make sense for the friend to have still been buying using that account, and if they have been then your buyer should have been pretty aware of what's going on. I still don't believe you can add someone else's card to your account though.

I mentioned using a different card as a guest in my last post but that wouldn't apply because they've said the mate's card is the default one attached to paypal, which I find hard to believe. If you ring paypal you'll find out whether that's even possible, which will also tell you whether they're blatantly lying.

I think you'll find that the terms of use re credit cards and the like is that you can't give your details to anyone else and you're responsible for the safety of your account details.  Surely that'd mean you can't attach your card to someone else's paypal account.  I'd ring the bank concerned and explain a few things.

[brerrabbit585]

When the bank does a chargeback, surely you'd be given the name of the cardholder, which would be different to the owner of the paypal account. If that's not the case I'd be asking why.