paypal seller protection warning for all sellers

[babyjane62]

I learnt something recently that I was not aware of so thought I would share it as it has cost me $110 which I really am not pleased about.  I sold an item early december, after payment by paypal I signed into the "View Order Details" section of ebay to get address, posted item thinking I had done everything right.  The seller opened a dispute with paypal 3 days after I posted item saying they had not received it yet, mind you, I am in country Victoria and they are in sydney, express post takes 2 days to get anywhere, I sent a copy of the postage receipt to buyer stating they should at least wait a week before disputing but still no reponse.  I replied in the paypal dispute section, the response was I should have sent item to the work address listed with paypal not the home address listed with ebay as the buyer often has parcels go missing from the home address, would have been nice to know this.  To cut this saga short, the dispute was escalated when the buyer didn't receive item (or so we were told), after talking to paypal, they agreed I did have proof of sending item but as it was to the ebay address and not the paypal address they had to find in favour of the buyer and reversed the payment back to the buyer!!!!  I ask, I have proven postage, they know it, the buyer admits that parcels go missing from home address, why are they still using it as ebay registered address, why did they not tell me to make sure item was sent to work, or better still, pay the extra $3 for registered post.  This has left a bad taste in my mouth, christmas day I received a notice from paypal to get my balance out of negative or I may hear from debt collectors, so my warning to you all, PLEASE SEND ITEMS TO PAYPAL REGISTERED ADDRESS NOT EBAY REGISTERED ADDRESS.  Why aren't we told this more often, the little paypal protection icons are everywhere, share the rules more openly please.  I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else because it was a very unpleasant experience after building up nearly 1200 positive feedback responses which went nowhere to help my case.  Sorry for the longwinded post but I am annoyed that I was punished when paypal said they could see I had posted the item, they could see it was the buyers home address, they couldn't prove the buyer was telling the truth, but I am sorry, we have to reverse the payment!!!  I must say in closing, the paypal operators were very easy to contact and talk to, although perhaps velvet sledgehammer is an appropriate term.  Happy New Year everyone and may your ebay experiences be better than this one.

[babyjane62]

Yes you are right, my purpose of posting my story was to alert others who were ignorant as I was, in 10 years I have never had a problem so stupidly didn't read the fine print, I now know the rules and will of course follow them closely, thanks for all your thoughts and advice.  Hope someone will benefit from my mistake.  The other thing that really bothered me about this transaction was that the buyer never contacted me directly to discuss the problem, I am big on communication with buyers and this would have been a better option I think.

[foxette-in-sox]

Babyjane-presume you have receipt from post office for the express post satchel that shows postcode ?

JMO but you could TRY asking Paypal to reverse the decision & if no joy,complain to Banking & Financial Services Ombudsman.

I normally wouldn't suggest this but its worth a try-you could also 1stly ring Paypal & ask to speak with Supervisor & tell them what you will do if no refund to you.They CAN make a discretinary refund if they choose.

As I said though,JMO.

[***super_nova***]

 Luckily I contacted the buyer immediately and they were wonderful in replying and sending it to my address.   So, Paypal is not always the correct address!

Sorry, but PP is always the correct address for the seller's PP protection.  When you go through the PP payment there is the address which will go to the seller; I check it every time I pay; it is there on the left top.

Your kind seller could have had a problem if the item got lost.  what they should have done was to refund and send you new invoice and you should have gone through the payment again making sure you have the correct address as default.

yes, the eBay address shows in the original notification, and it is basically only used if the bidder pays by DD.  eBay cannot know what the buyer will do when paying.

[foxette-in-sox]

OMG-spellcheck is my friend-discretionary :8}

[antiquegoldandjewels]

I rarely read the forum however have some advice for you. It seems to me that your buyer likes to try and catch sellers out and uses Paypal to their advantage.

I recommend that you contact the buyer: phone calls are good to gauge the type of person you are dealing with.

Ask them to sign a Statutory Declaration stating they did not receive the item at their home address so that you can lodge a complaint with Australia Post about non-delivery of the parcel so you can get compensation. If they agree, send the Stat Dec by Registered Post.

Just because you did not pay for Registered Post does not mean AP will no investigate the whereabouts of a parcel if the recipient is claiming it has not arrived.

Also, send them a letter of demand (by Registered Post) for payment of the item if they refuse to sign the Statutory Declaration:

http://www.lawlive.com.au/letter-of-demand-templates/

Why should people get away with defrauding others? It is illegal and this person needs to be made aware of it.

I hope this info is helpful. 🙂

[davewil1964]

Save the paragraph

[lyndal1838]

Antiquegoldandjewels, how is the buyer using paypal to their own advantage?

The buyer has their work address registered with paypal as the delivery address of choice because items go missing from their home address.  This is actually protecting the seller, but only if the seller uses the correct address.

The buyer is actually acting responsibly by using an address where they can be sure of getting their mail.

As for asking for Stat Decs and sending letters of demand....that is just asking for negative feedback because in effect you are calling the buyer a liar when it was the seller who did not send to the correct address.

[mini-meez]

Just to note, when an item is sold, you receive an email from ebay saying congratualtions your item has sold, with the address on that email.

Yes, but you also get an email when they pay either by Paypal, or when they complete checkout to pay with Bank Deposit. We get many who change the address to send as a gift, or to work etc. We always send to the address on the checkout form.

[fixnwear]

As for asking for Stat Decs and sending letters of demand....that is just asking for negative feedback because in effect you are calling the buyer a liar when it was the seller who did not send to the correct address.

Sorry to say, but I think the buyer almost certainly is a liar.

Reading OP's story, it has all the signs of a deliberate set up to cause the confusion, counting on the fact that thousands of sellers do not know yet that they have to post ONLY to PP addy.

As the OP said, buyer was so ill manered not to even make contact - just open a dispute virtually straight away.

OP, I would most definitelly question this buyer some more, would be asking for stat dec by all means, it doesn't hurt, as you have the tracking so someone must know what happened to your parcel!

And of course, if the PO does confirm it was delivered to the home address, ring PP and they'll reverse the payment.

[phorum_junkie*]

Just to note, when an item is sold, you receive an email from ebay saying congratualtions your item has sold, with the address on that email.

That can be any one of a number of delivery addresses the buyer has stored in their ebay account, it usually defaults to the primary delivery address but sometimes mine shows in checkout as the last address I used for delivery.

If a buyer pays by Paypal after going through checkout then the address they have chosen for delivery will match that in Paypal.

If a buyer pays by bank deposit then you should certainly check, before posting, that they have not completed checkout and changed the delivery address.

I find it strange that anyone thinks the buyer is being dishonest, they wouldn't know that a seller would fail to realise they had changed the delivery address in checkout, not knowing to post to the Paypal address if you want Paypal seller protection is hardly the fault of the buyer.

I have at least half a dozen delivery addresses spanning two continents stored in ebay, I would be extremely annoyed if I didn't get something I purchased after going through checkout and selecting whichever of those addresses i wanted used.