The most absurd PayPal situation ever...

I remember AOL getting blasted by the media when someone recorded a customer service call and posted it. I say call them back and make them sound as stupid as possible then post it all over the net for all to hear. It seems that nowadays the only way a company changes their ways is when they are shamed into it.

 

~20.000Â¥?

I tried to get some shoes shipped to Japan from Europa, but the store would only ship with Fedex, which meant 14.000Â¥ shipping costs for 1 pair of shoes...

 

Three boxed Dreamcasts.... More than 20,000 yen ($225).

I heard that AOL conversation before...pretty good stuff. The guy wanted to cancel and the AOL rep wouldn't let him. "How can you help me? Well you can help me by canceling my account. And that's the ONLY way you can help me."

I'm seriously considering calling PayPal back to record their answers, then adding it to a video with some pictures and uploading it onto YouTube. There were so many utterly silly parts to the conversation:

PayPal: Well, technically he hasn't received it so technically his claim is valid.

Me: But he's put, in writing, that his purpose for the claim is to extend his protection period, not because he believes there's any problem with delivery.

PayPal: I can see what you're saying. But since he hasn't received the item yet, it hasn't been delivered, and that's what his claim says.

Me: But you're looking at a screen right now which shows you the comments that he wrote. You're talking to me as if you and I don't know what's really going on.

PayPal: I'm sorry, but he's within his rights to do it.

Me: He's within his rights to file a dispute that he knows isn't valid because of the delivery method that he himself chose?

PayPal: Well, Sir, he hasn't received it yet, and the dispute is for non-receipt....so technically it's valid.

Me: But the intent of the non-receipt process is to give Buyers problem resolution....but the Buyer admits that as of right now there is no problem. He's simply filing a bogus claim now so he can reserve the right to make a potentially legitimate claim later. This isn't an abuse of the system?

PayPal: Well unless he's received the item he has the right to file a non-receipt claim.

Me: So when I buy on eBay and use PayPal, I can file a non-receipt claim the day after the Seller ships, and essentially turn PayPal into my personal escrow company?

PayPal: Well, we don't recommend that you do that, Sir.

Me: And I can file the claim knowing it's not valid, put it in writing that I know it's not valid, and PayPal will still consider it to be valid?

PayPal: Well, we don't recommend that you do that, Sir.

(imagine that for about 10 minutes)

 

Do it. They need to be slapped in the face for their ignorance.

 

Fucking jerks.

 

The service I ended up using for cross-Atlantic payment was Moneybookers, which is based out of Germany and does pretty decent business. They're also regulated by EU banking laws, which is something that Paypal can't claim and actively avoids. If you ship to Asia, you should check out Alipay. I haven't used them myself, but I understand they have the backing of The Party in China and are actively seeking a higher level of credibility and exposure than they have now.

When I hooked up with Moneybookers, I just did a random search on Paypal competitors. Also, the place in Taiwan that I bought my Dreamcast BBA from accepted them for payment. My experience is that it's totally worth sticking it to Paypal and looking for alternatives.

 

empathy for your situation

I'm having problems with paypal myself at the moment because a guy sold me a banned xbox on ebay claiming it was 'perfectly working'.

My problems are not as utterly ridiculous as yours but are very very frustrating none the less as paypal do not seem to be doing ANYTHING to get my money back at all.

They have claimed they would contact ME by the 12th if they needed any extra details.

They didn't, I had to call THEM to find out they wanted a fax of my receipt for the return postage costs which was sent recorded (paypal admit that the item has been delivered but claim they do not know where to).

So I sent the fax showing my receipt of postage including the address it was sent to but apparently they still claim to have no records of receiving the fax (even tho I have a perfectly legitimate delivery report in my hand).

I am spending more and more money (so far around £15 not including the cost of phonning them) just to try and get a refund from a guy who LIED to me from day one.

I quizzed paypal about this stance in the first place "why am I responsible for return postage costs?" I asked. They just replied with the usual 'you signed our agreement' get out clause.

"So I have to pay to be lied to by your users?" I asked.

"Yes." was paypal's response.

Says it all in my opinion.

They are more than happy to defend deceitful users all day long and let the honest users pay for it.

Oh and the icing on the cake. Because I had said that the xbox had been modified etc the woman asked me "you do know that it is illegal to send counterfeit products?" to which I replied "No. Why would I know that? I didn't sell it I am just returning the goddamn thing. Tell that to the lying idiot who sold it to me in the first place"

They are piss taking c***s and I have nearly lost all patience with the whole situation.
:dammit:

 

It doesn't surprise me. I'd have said around $250-300 for the three Dreamcasts.

Something needs to be done about the whole eBay / PayPal thing. Someone one day will offer a rival service that will take off, and that will be that. They'll need to throw a HUGE amount of money into it, though!

 

Amazon could do it

 

Google could but only if they offered their own cheaper auction house. That would be perfect think about you could link google search into it, your gmail account, google checkout, chrome, your calendar, the contents of your fridge all in googles hands.

 

I swear Google is working on an OS as we type.

 

If they aren't they should be.

 

It's called Chrome.

 

Buyers should really only use PayPal with a credit card. If you do that then you're 100% covered. PayPal will not fight for Sellers if a Buyer does a charge back through their credit card. They will simply take the money out of our accounts. Since Sellers don't have access to any of the Buyer's credit card information we can't even go to the credit card company and file a dispute there even if we're 100% certain it's fraud.

Buyers have to pay return shipping since it's the only protection Sellers have from people who simply change their minds. If a Buyer does return an item and pays for the shipping return then the Seller has to give a refund, which will include the original shipping cost to the Buyer. That's the Sellers incentive to make sure we don't send out faulty items. I know it's not perfect, but it would be pretty scary if a Buyer could just say he wants his money back and then I have to pay to have him ship it back to me. It's also a really good incentive to make Buyers and Sellers work together and resolve the problem since we both stand to lose equally on shipping.

The Dreamcast shipping with FedEx was about $800. I've only used FedEx once in 7 years...and that was because the guy worked for FedEx and got a 75% discount. Companies like FedEx and DHL only offer 1-2 day shipping which is their most expensive shipping. I think some countries make it that way so FedEx doesn't compete with their domestic shippers.

 

I understand where you are coming from and that would suck if people could just change their minds but I am obviously looking at this from the other end from you.

From my perspective, I paid the original price in good faith, I no longer have the item as I sent it back recorded delivery, and still haven't received a thing.

So far I'm down nearly £100 and don't have anything to show for it at all.

 

It looks like pay pal has things corner here in good old USA.



Can we really trust anyone else?



Has anyone got a history with customers?


Grrrrr..... :rambo:

 

PayPal/eBay is just getting ridiculous and I've almost given up on them.

I'm currently trying out EBid to try and sell a few things and it doesn't seem that bad but untill i actually sell stuff i'll reserve jugement.

 

I've priced these services, so I won't ruin the "fun".

I can't wait until sellers start waiting until the 46th day AFTER payment to ship. Seems to be the only way the sellers balls aren't out on the line.

 

$800 - wow!

The problem with competitors to eBay, at least at the moment, is that there aren't enough users. This means you won't get as much for your item as there will be less bidding. Because of this, people won't list items there. So there's fewer items, so people won't bother going to the site to look for things to buy.... Catch 22.

I'm surprised Yahoo pulled out of the game so early in the West. They were in a very good position and had a lot of users.

 

I despise Paypal/eBay...

I had well over £100 of dvd's stolen from me (just like in this case, the buyer very clearly owned up to it.) What was the result? I had a 10 bad feedback reports left for me > even though eBay agreed this dude was a non-paying bidder they still left it up to me to write to them to remove it (It took at least 3 seperate attempts until they did, finally, remove the negative comments).

What happened next?

Well, this scum-bucket from France (tontonbdm is his name) 'kept back' two of the feedback replies > So, once I had the first 10 removed, he waited 45 days and posted the other two comments he had left.

Now, I cannot remove them because he waited 45 days and it's too late for me to make any counter-claims (even though eBay have fully admitted this prick was a non-paying bidder)

eBay sides with the scum > even when they KNOW they are guilty. It's a rotten system, period.

I'm down well over £100 GBP and that cocksucker is just sitting there with all my discs, laughing because it's MY account that's screwed. No help from eBay, no help from PayPal. Blatant theft.

To be fair though, as much as I complain about eBay and PayPal = I've had 1000+ dealings with both and never had any other serious problems.

Just as in Japan-Games' case - I really (really) hate/blame the scum buyers for just being assholes. People like this should be locked away in a funny farm until they know how to respect other people and behave like civilised human beings.