What to do about this situation?

[nirv_australia]

I received a message from a buyer asking for the price of a PC with certain upgrades. I gave him the price. Over the course of the next few days I received several more messages, each time asking for a different configuration. As annoying as this is, things are slow so I quoted each time. Finally, the guy comes back to me asking for a price of a PC comprising components he has selected himself. Most of the parts are ones we don't even stock. So I checked I could get all the parts, then quoted the price. He agreed so I sent a paypal request and he paid. So I ordered all the parts (from several suppliers). There were a couple that were hard to find and had to come from online retailers. A few days had passed and the guy asked how it was going. I told him the situation, that I was waiting on some of the parts. The next day he sends an email saying he can't waiting anymore and he has also filed an 'item not received' dispute for both of his paypal payments. I'm not sure what to do about this. I can see him winning (paypal always side with the buyer in my experience) and me being left with a whole load of components I can't use or send back for refunds.

Advice?

[best.buys]

sorry to hear about whats happened and yes your right for the most part ebay and paypal don't like us sellers. always worth a shot though with paypal. there maybe a clause somewhere for work undertaken - who knows. do you need the australian number?

[*crikey*mate*]

Can you get the item built and delivered before the PayPal cases are due to close? I'm thinking as a fall back solution here, I don't know how "work in progress" is treated by PayPal, but it is certainly considered under Australian Law.

However, I am pretty sure that if PayPal does cover "work in progress kind of things" that they would work with you to find an agreeable solution. My best suggestion at this stage is to give PayPal a call.

Communication is the key.

[nirv_australia]

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I can get the PC out in time. However, I would expect this guy to then put in an 'item not as described despute', even though that would be a lie. I can tell this is the type of person he he is. If he does this, in my experience paypal will side with him. So it may be better to just let it go and get on without having to deal with the stress of it all.

[digital*ghost]

Did the buyer send two separate payments for the same item?

Two key things - all other issues aside - there is no buyer protection for custom made items, and I would think a custom-built computer is a custom made item; and there is no buyer protection if the buyer sends more than one payment for one item, so technically the ball should be in your court (although you may have to remind PayPal about these policies if you want to dispute the claims).

The issue of whether the buyer is likely to cause further trouble if they lose the PayPal claim is a pretty big one, though, so even though you could win the claims, supplying the item rather than issuing a refund could be more trouble than it's worth, and it sounds like you've already reached that conclusion, anyway. 

[phorum_junkie*]

Did the sale go through ebay or was it an off ebay deal direct with the buyer? If it was not an ebay deal then you do not have as high a level of Paypal seller protection although the buyer has full protection as long as they ticked the box to say they were paying for goods. You shiuld perhaps go and see what your level of seller protection is.

I think you will probably have to cut your losses unless perhaps there was no delivery charge included on the invoice so you could argue it was a pick up item and thus had no protection, this would not wash if the payment was covered with a credit card however and a successful bank chargeback would add $15 to what you had to pay back.