5 replies to this topic

[BladeRunner]

Paypal policies are heavily in favor of the buyer.  If you sell a phone the only thing a buyer has to say is "speaker doesn't work" and paypal will force you to refund the money once the buyer sends the phone back to you.  They have 45 days to file a dispute so your funds are essentially hostage until that time is up. So, in essence, a person could buy your phone, use it for a month and a half, then claim the speaker was broken and get a full refund from you as long as the phone is returned to you in its original condition.

[livinginkaos]

Now, this all depends.  If you are a relatively new Paypal user, they do take precautions that protect the buyer more so than if you are an established seller.  Once you are established, funds become available immediately.  For eBay, this is can be a problem as they don't release funds until there is feedback or so many days have passed.  As for claims, the best thing is to protect yourself upfront.  The term As-Is is very important to use.  Also, you are not required to accept returns on either service, but is set to allow them by default.  I have sold many devices and have only had a couple of issues.  Both were resolved in my favor in the end.  I will say that I don't sell hardly anything on eBay anymore.  Prices are lower there, especially after the fees are taken and your exposure to fools is much higher.

[BladeRunner]

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. I had the policy straight from a PayPal rep on the phone today. I have been a PayPal and eBay user (over 600 positive and zero negative feedback) In once instance I provided PayPal with the conversation, on swappa, I had with the buyer where he stated, even before he received the device, that he wanted to return it. A week later he says "speaker doesn't work" and opens the dispute on PayPal. They literally took 5 minutes to rule in his favor.

[BladeRunner]

So neither person has shipped their phone back yet. I suspecting it's a scam where they try to get you to refund the money before you get the device back.  This has still exposed a big flaw in paypal policies for me however.

[BladeRunner]

The saga continues.  One of the buyers failed to supply a tracking number within the 10 days so the claim was decided in my favor and I got my money. The second buyer provided a tracking number 2 days before the deadline but the tracking number is showing as "not found" when you track it.

[BladeRunner]

The final chapter:  The Note 3 finally arrived in the mail. Different tracking number than what was supplied. Fortunately it was in perfect working condition. Unfortunately I did not receive the charging cable or the charger back. Paypal did nothing, of course.  The are complicit in both dishonesty AND theft.