Paypal issue re seller protection

[kyjati]

We had a strange thing happen a couple weeks ago with paypal, leaving a very bad taste in my mouth.  Had a buyer purchase a poster and pay through paypal, paypal showed that payment had come through.  OK then, no problem. So being a curteous seller and wanting to keep customers happy, posted item within 2 days.  So far, so good.  Then about 5 days after it had been posted, paypal sends a message saying that

"You have received a payment that we believe may not have been authorised by the PayPal account holder.".

So then paypal said we had to respond within 7 days to fill out there questions about said poster.  We stated that it had been posted, payment had been made via paypal and paypal had cleared the payment.

Result:  Paypal took the money for poster and postage out of our paypal account to refund the buyer, so then we were left without the poster, and a loss of $18.90.  So was very unhappy with this and asked paypal if they were going to repay us themselves as they were the ones to clear the payment, which is why we sent poster in the first place, and it took them 5 days after payment was received in order to find a discrepency with the buyers account. 

bottom line is that paypal took 5 days to realise a problem, and because of this, it has left us out of pocket.  We did everything right as a seller, basing our posting on the fact paypal gave the all clear for the payment.  Is there anything that we can do about this?  Where is my protection as a seller when paypal make a stuff up??

[kyjati]

So just to be clear, if we had registered the poster (we dont usually register unless item is somewhat over $20.00) then we would have been protected against paypal taking the money out of our account or refunding us themselves after taking it out?

[dylan11235813]

Dylan,you must have missed the following in the OP-I read that as chargeback.The ONLY other option I can think of would be that somehow buyer hacked into someone's Paypal account however,my advice would still be the same.:-)

"You have received a payment that we believe may not have been authorised by the PayPal account holder

I take it as someone has hacked the account, paypal at no time asked for a tracking number.

Are chargebacks covered by the banks anyway?

[davewil1964]

I don't think so. It's not an issue of proof of postage; it's an unauthorised payment. Allegedly. I suspect you've been scammed by the buyer.

I would do as suggested - ring Paypal, talk to a supervisor, tell them that if they don't refund the money you will take the matter to the FOS. I believe you have a case, as Paypal authorised you to post the item. If you don't get satisfaction with PP, go to the FOS.

[dylan11235813]

So just to be clear, if we had registered the poster (we dont usually register unless item is somewhat over $20.00) then we would have been protected against paypal taking the money out of our account or refunding us themselves after taking it out?

If it is a chargeback or INR, yes .

[***super_nova***]

bottom line is that paypal took 5 days to realise a problem, and because of this, it has left us out of pocket.

It took 5 days for the bank or the CC owner to realise and initiate chargeback.  Nothing to do with PP. 

There are many possible explanations:

1- the bidder lost their CC and reported it to their bank, and the bank immediately froze all the funds.

2- the bidder used their mum's CC without her knowledge and she found payment came from her CC she did not authorised, so she reported it to her CC and they stopped the payment

3- somebody used stolen CC

4- the bidder's CC was maxed out and the bank stopped the payment

First send message to the buyer and ask what is going on.  If no response, get their contact phone number from eBay and call them; most likely it will get sorted out.  Not many people set out to scam for $20.

[kyjati]

I would agree with you on the not scamming for $20.00, but we checked the buyers feedback, and there was LOTS of posters bought off multiple sellers around the same week, and a lot of bigger sellers set automated preferences for feedback to be provided automatically once payment has cleared through paypal.  No feedback had been left for the sellers from the buyer.  So would be definately a possibility that it was a scam.  Either way, I think paypal needs to look at their system, as this seems to be a bit of a loophole.  Also, although we only got taken for $18.50, when you take into account how many other poster sellers got taken at the same time, it adds up to hundreds lost to us.  And somebody somewhere has ended up with all these "free" posters.  Just seems pretty bloody wrong to me...

[kyjati]

Hmmm.......just went back to check on this members feedback and he is no longer a registered user.    Definately sus.

[***super_nova***]

And somebody somewhere has ended up with all these "free" posters.  Just seems pretty bloody wrong to me...

You have their address; if they indeed did try to scam then police will catch them.  As i said, PP cannot find out there is a problem untill bank notifies them, and the bank does not know unless they are told by the card owner.   Actually, my bet is that their CC got maxed out and the bank just refused to pay. 

If you do not get the buyer to repay immediately, you can point out to them that what they did is a fraud and that you will be reporting them to online fraud squad and if they did this to more people it may add to several hundreds of dollars and they will be charged with fraud.   they might get scarred and pay you.

[***super_nova***]

Hmmm.......just went back to check on this members feedback and he is no longer a registered user.    Definately sus.

pity you did not pull their details before they were NARUd  😞

[dylan11235813]

even more reason to put a complaint in