I recently attempted to file a transaction dispute with paypal. I checked the status a few minutes after posting the dispute and it was already closed because it did not meet the filing requirements. I sent payment via paypal on 8/10, and received no contact of any kind from the seller. I then sent an email to the address listed on their website and it was returned as undeliverable (twice). I included all of this information in the dispute form. After initializing the dispute but before filing, I was prompted by paypal with a message saying something about the seller being currently unavailable for contact. After filing the dispute, but before listing my dispute as closed, an email was sent from paypal to the seller. The cutoff date for filing a dispute appears to be 45 days with no exceptions. I can’t help but feeling I’ve been scammed, I only ordered from the website because it was ‘paypal secured’.
My question is this, has anyone ever filed a dispute with paypal and successfully been refunded? Also has anyone else had similar experiences with paypal?
Did you fund paypal with your credit card or with your bank account? It makes a difference how paypal treats it, as you can always file a chargeback with the credit card company. With a bank funded transaction it’s up to paypal.
I’ve only done it twice, but was successful both times.
PayPal asks the seller to provide proof of postage of the item sold, and if they fail to do so will pretty much automatically decide in your favour and refund your payment. It’s very strongly favourable to the buyer, as I recall - the burden of proof falling on the seller to prove that he has fuflilled his part of the transaction (I suppose that makes sense - PayPal already knows the buyer fulfilled his part of it since they procesed the payment).
Also, as I recall (it has been a while), they won’t intervene in the case of digitital purchases (i.e. a download or equivalent), only physical purchases. Presumably because it’s pretty hard to prove anything there.
I struggled through my last transaction, really didn’t have a dispute with PayPal itself. The seller was not responding. I had to open PayPal account to make the purchase and not one of the previously allowed “one-time” accounts either. I see Google Groups with posts of how to steal from PayPal. Then I hear about them losing account numbers to hackers. When my transaction was complete and I finally had the product, I went back and canceled the PayPal account. In the future, I will certainly opt for sellers who deal directly with credit over a PayPal user.
I have used paypal in my home business and as a buyer and have never had an issue. I can tell you as long as you fund your transactions with a credit card, you will be fine.
NEVER use paypal if you don’t fund the transaction through a credit card. I mean you can, but it’s not worth the risk. I realize there are some people with very bad credit, and you have no choice, but if you have a choice attach a credit card and make sure you are using that credit card to fund your transaction. (Be sure you pick this option, paypal defaults to your bank account).
I actually use a pre-paid visa for all my online purchases. Call me paranoid, but I don’t like the idea that I could accidentally subscribe to some service which could start charging me $10 per month. There are scams all over the internet that do, and they are pretty difficult to cancel.
back on topic, I think I have figured out why they denied my dispute. The email listed on their website differs from the email listed on the paypal transaction. I did not email the correct address, because they did not update their website. Seeing as it is august now, I am past the 45 day limit. Is this a hard limit, or do they make exceptions? Seeing as I did make a good faith attempt to contact the seller within 30 days of purchase and their contact information was outdated.
With a prepaid Visa is a bearer instrument for all purposes. So you can’t chargeback. It has no credit card protections. I do realize not everyone can get a credit card though
BTW if a service started billing you ten dollars a month reoccuring all you would do is have to report the credit card stolen, then you’d get a new number. If they tried to bill you, the number would fail.
Paypal should investigate the situation after 45 days, but their obligation would be limited. As long as you follow paypal rules you should be fine, but if you vary from them, they aren’t terribly sympathetic toward you.
When they deny you because of a rule they usually send you a list of the rules and it’s up to you to figure out which one you didn’t follow. Not exactly helpful, but what are you gonna do.
You may want to go to eBay.com and check out their forums. There must be a lot of people with similar stories to yours and the forums over their probably have suggestions.
And keep trying, just because someone doesn’t get the result doesn’t mean you can’t.
I have twice received Paypal refunds for items paid for but never received. In each case, the complaint was made more than 30 days after payment, but less than 45.
I use Paypal extensively, mainly as a seller. The key for protection is to have some sort of proof of delivery. As a buyer if you are sumitting a claim 45 days, or longer, after the fact that’s kind of long in the tooth (really long) to be looking for a refund for an online ebay deal.
What are the specifics of the sale that left you believing that you were scammed?
Just so we can get a clearer picture, it went like this:
-You ordered something on 8/10, and payed through PayPal
-You didn’t get a confirmation email
-You attempted to contact the seller through email, but it was bounced back
-You filed a dispute with PayPal
-PayPal attempted to contact the seller
-PayPal closed your dispute a few minutes after you filed it
-You came here and posted this
…correct? Let me know if I have anything mixed up.
That said, it may be a little premature to start panicking. It’s possible the seller is having technical issues or something. 4 days to respond to something isn’t totally unheard of, but it’s bad customer service to be sure.
What, exactly were the filing requirements you didn’t meet for the dispute? Maybe someone here can help you re-open it.
When I had to file one, it was done in 2 stages: The first stage, the seller and buyer contacted each other and tried to come to an agreement on their own. If something couldn’t be agreed on, it was escalated, and PayPal arbitrated it. After getting statements from both parties, and any documentation that could be offered, PayPal made a judgment (in my case, they sided with me and refunded the purchase amount).
Yeah payment was sent on 8/10, but my original dispute was made within 45 days, it was rejected however for the reasons I stated above (presumably). I did not receive any emails from paypal (not even for the initial purchase). Under closed cases in the disputes section(on paypal.com), no reason is given beyond not meeting the filing requirements. I am going to give the new email address a few business days to respond before filing another dispute, this time including a screen-capped picture of the sent email. Of course there is always the chance my order got lost in the site owners system, and they will rectify the situation upon reading my email. I will keep this thread updated if anything interesting comes of it, but I don’t have high hopes. I would still be interested in hearing other stories of paypal disputes however.
I also want to state that I am not irresponsible enough to miss multiple unapproved charges on any of my accounts, but many people are. It is very common for people who fill out online surveys/sweepstakes to fall into scams which have small recurring monthly charges. It is well known that many higher paying ad companies engage in such tactics, hiding costs in the fine print so that they can basically skim money off ignorant people’s accounts. Some of the blame lies with people who manage their finances poorly and do not notice recurring fees, but its a nasty business.
Didn’t mean to go off on such an unrelated rant, its a discussion for another thread perhaps.
You got pretty much everything right electronic chaos. When I filed the dispute paypal said the seller was not available for contact, and I had to escalate the dispute immediately before I was able to even fill out a forum explaining the situation. The coming to an agreement step was mentioned, but for some reason not accessible due to the seller. This was an independent website selling R4 cards. I filed the dispute shortly before my 45 days was up, fearing they would not refund my money if I waited any longer for the package to arrive. There were no details listed as to the specifics of my case, it simply stated I did not meet the filing requirements (in the dispute log).
edit
I received no package, and no email or contact of any kind. Short of being out my money (and the paypal log) you could never tell I had visited the website.
haha omg I can’t believe I did that. I really should proofread my posts better. The actual date I sent payment was June 10th, 2010. I apologize for any confusion, I had to many dates rattling around in my head when I posted this.
Yeesh. Well, if it’s been over 2 months then you probably don’t have many options left. Check for sure to make sure your Pre-Paid Visa doesn’t have any protection on it. Then, you’ll probably have to call PayPal and figure out how to talk to a live person and explain your situation.
Yes it is. Sad part is I already own one, I was purchasing this for a friend. After paypal rejecting my initial dispute, I had all but written my money off as gone. After realizing the email the website listed, and the paypal email were different, I decided to give it another shot.
And copied directly from my cardholder agreement:
We are not responsible for the delivery, quality, safety, legality or other aspect of goods or services that you purchase from others with the Walmart MoneyCard.
I think that is pretty clear, if paypal denies my claim than this website just got away with fraud and there is nothing I can do. God I love America.
(short of spending money on a lawyer, over a fairly cheap flash card lol)
I just had a successful refund. I checked how my transaction was going and noticed the buyer had been suspended, made a claim, they said something about ‘vendor having sufficient funds’ which made me nervous given you’d expect people to normally withdraw if they’re scamming, but the money came back no problems.
I’ve had a dispute open with them for several weeks. After ten days and no response from the seller, I escalated it with Paypal and they closed it almost immediately saying:
The situation: I ordered a DVD set. I received a box containing the wrong DVDs. I called Paypal to get some clarification on their robo-response above and was told that as long as I received something… anything, there was nothing they could do. I could have received a box of rocks, and they would not be able to do anything to help me. My next step is to contact my bank and have them reverse the charge on the credit card.
So it appears that they only thing a Paypal dispute is good for is when you receive nothing at all.