In disputing items bought from ebay...

[casperr]

Will you be able to ask your credit card company to reverse the charges after like a month or two when you were not able to reach a settlement with the seller? I know that the process is you have to open a case with paypal first and I am not even sure if your CC will reverse it if you havent had paypal looked at the case yet but paypal will take at least 25 days or 30 days to investigate what happened, and so I thought I am not sure if my CC will still honor my complaint.

Anyone has experiences on this? Thanks

[mahdi]

Never ever ever EVER use paypal.

[woof]

The credit card companies are far more reasonable than Paypal and will look at complaints months afterwards. I don't know if there is a specific deadline - phone your card company now to find out. Keep in mind that Paypal's deadlines (and in general their many rules and regulations) are designed to make it extremely difficult for you to collect anything.

Paypal has a virtual monopoly so they know you can't go elsewhere. The credit card companies on the other hand have a huge amount of competition with each other and they are anxious to keep your business.

[woof]

Never ever ever EVER use paypal.

And never ever ever EVER get on an airplane because they'll lose your luggage and besides, airplanes can crash.

And never ever ever EVER use the stairs because you might trip, fall, and break your neck.

There are risks with everything. Just about every Paypal problem goes back to an eBay problem, a bad seller or bad buyer which is the root cause of the issue. You are not dealing with WalMart. On eBay you are buying or selling with complete strangers who have been given a eBay account without any sort of screening process. Some of them are outright thieves. Some of them are just idiots. Paypal provides at least some chance of recourse. Yeah they do fix the rules to minimize the risk to themselves but many sellers only take Paypal so you have no choice. Understand the rules, understand the risks, and then make the decision on whether you want to get on that airplane or just stay home.

[ironbaybeedoll]

I have used ebay well over 150 times and only 4 transactions ever went bad. Paypal gives the seller 10 days to respond , if they dont paypal decides in your favor and only takes a few days I think the longest I waited for paypal after they decided in my favor was 4 days for the refund (but that was a refund to my paypal account not back to credit card). If the seller does respond then you might work it out. Also I might add that I'm on the US side and not sure if paypal is different for Canada but figured it has to be close.

[canadianbiz]

"Never never use Paypal"??????

You are very misinformed. I sold on Ebay for 7 years and used Paypal 95% of the time without ever a problem.

OP, as a seller and not a buyer, I can only say that you should have possibly taken action sooner than a month or 2 regardless of the circumstances.
Once a couple of weeks passed, I would have filed a complaint with Paypal right away and at least got the ball rolling.
Hopefully your credit card company can help you out.

[mahdi]

Paypal was created with the buyer in mind, not the seller.

any payments sent to you in advance is not really yours but belong to paypal UNTIL the other person on the other side is FULLY satisfied with the item after a certain amount of days.

The problem is the "fully" part. I once sent a pair of oakley glasses to the states after using paypal on ebay. I made sure I purchased insurance and made sure there was PLENTY of padding and wrote "fragile" all over the box, WHILST making sure that there was almost nothing more I could do to make the package more durable to damaging the pair.

After receiving the item, the buyer notifies me. After ONE WEEK this guy tells me the frame is cracking (now this is an xmetal series). I tell him why did he not tell me in the beginning when he saw it, and how come it took him a week to tell me (implying that it was him who did the damage not me). He then stated it was perhaps shipping and he did not notice the damage in the beginning.

A few days later I received an email from paypal saying I have a problem with a buyer. Turns out that guy filed for a "item significantly not as described" regarding to condition and wanted his cash back.

I told paypal my story telling him the amount of time he took to check the glasses out, AND the fact that xmetals do NOT just snap.

In the end, they awarded the settlement to him, granting him a chargeback, and I had to pay paypal back 500.

After receiving the oakleys back. I checked them out and CLEARLY noticed that the top right frame ridge of the glasses were cracked, showing signs of crushing pressure. Moreover, there was SCRATCHES made on the glasses and on the rims of the frame.

People who own oakleys know that these things are pretty much indestructible. People have claimed to have run the classes over and still have them intact. I don't know what this guy did to have my glasses damaged up so bad but he did and blamed me.

I took pictures of the glasses earlier, however paypal awarded the settlement to him because the pictures I took were CRISP clear enough to show there were actually NO scratches or cracks. (I used my 2mp camera back then)

I know this is just one story, but I can assure you its enough for me to never use them again, hell its because of paypal that I don't even use ebay all together.

RFD ftw.

Anyways posting just as a response to the 2 posts up. Apologies for straying off topic.

[HowEver]

With luck, we'll base our reviews on more than one tale.

PayPal is fairly reliable but only buy from sellers who accept PayPal sourced from a credit card.

That way, if you don't get reimbursed by PayPal after a deal goes sour, you can still do a chargeback on your credit card.

Start the chargeback process as soon as your credit card company lets you, even if you have to cancel it later when PayPal pays you back or there is some other resolution you accept. You don't want to be too late.

[casperr]

It is actually some cables I bought, some VGA cables and it is cheap but I just wanted to know how things of this sort work so I would know in the future.

I notified the seller the day I got the item and even took pictures of the pins that were lying flat hence the item isnt usable at all because of that.

He didnt want to do anything not unless I close the case I opened with paypal and I didnt want to close it either because I dont know what he will do when the case is closed, that's why I asked so I would get an idea if I should escalate the case or call up my credit card company. But probably for something cheap, I can just disregard it, Id just like to know the idea or the process but with the seller's attitude, I might just pursue it.

[CheapMike]

I once disputed a charge through my CC. I bought the item through paypal using my CC and decided to go through my CC since I had heard of sellers complaining about CC disputes. The process involved writing a letter to the CC company stating my claim. They immediately credited my account with the amount disputed. However the seller has the opportunity to respond, and if they do the amount is automatically taken back from you. The credit card company then sends you a letter with the evidence provided by the seller and states that the case will be closed in 2 weeks if you don't respond. I then faxed a letter and included about 15 pages of "evidence" (ebay listing, paypal receipt, high resolution pictures, ...). A few weeks later the money was put back in my account and a brief letter was sent to me stating indirectly that the case was closed.

My guess is that the initial complaint and the sellers initial response are done almost automatically with out much regard to the evidence. The 2nd letter that you write is the one that is actually read by someone in detail. In my case the sellers response letter was that I had not sent the item back. Typically you would at this point ship the item back and send the evidence (tracking number) to the CC. In my case the seller offered a double refund if the item was found to be used. So my response was that I would ship the item once the seller had provided me with the additional refund. In the end I got a full refund and I kept the item. :D