EBAY NIGHTMARE!!! please advise

rubdub

Hey guys,

So basically this is what happened

1)I had an auction for a digital camera
2)a bidder from Lithuania won it, he also asked for me to send via DHL one day at extra cost.
3) he pays for goods from a uk paypal account, says it's his friend who was paying for him as he didn't have his own paypal.
4) paypal clears transaction - says it's ok to send item - which I do.
5) now 3 days later paypal email me saying paypal account owner never authorised transaction and they want me to provide proof that I sent to customer - I have for Lithuanian guy - not for UK guy, or else refund money.

Do I have any legal standing here or is paypal not at fault for saying it was ok to ship - or will I have to just refund the transaction?

Thanks for your time guys.

Judgement Day

I'll let someone better qualified answer the main points of your question but I would suggest that the first lesson to be learnt from this is to specify what countries that you will post to in your listing. I only post to USA/Canada/UK/Ireland/Australia/NZ/Sweden and Germany. Most of Western Europe has a Third World postal system and the former Eastern European Soviet Bloc states... well you've found out for yourself...Similarly when buying I don't touch anything from countries that I don't post to. Sorry for not being much help and good luck.

RoadKillTs

3) he pays for goods from a uk paypal account, says it's his friend who was paying for him as he didn't have his own paypal.

It's very possible this guy is trying to scam you.
Did you except payment for the camera outside of eBay?

rubdub

RoadKillTs wrote: »

It's very possible this guy is trying to scam you.
Did you except payment for the camera outside of eBay?

Thanks, It seems he has scammed me, he paid me directly through paypal as he wanted a different method of postage.

Thanks judgement day, yes I definitely have learnt a lesson from this alright!

RoadKillTs

Thanks, It seems he has scammed me, he paid me directly through paypal as he wanted a different method of postage.

Sorry OP its a common one. Always deal within eBay.

jor el

Even if you had kept within eBay, you may not have been covered anyway. Paypal's seller protection is fairly crap, to say the least.

old_aussie

You only post(registered post) to the paypal address of the person who pays via paypal.

I thought that was a requirement of ebay/paypal.

registered post is your proof of posting

old_aussie

rubdub wrote: »

Hey guys,

So basically this is what happened

5) now 3 days later paypal email me saying paypal account owner never authorised transaction and they want me to provide proof that I sent to customer - I have for Lithuanian guy - not for UK guy, or else refund money.

Do I have any legal standing here or is paypal not at fault for saying it was ok to ship - or will I have to just refund the transaction?

Thanks for your time guys.

Paypal should be starting leagal action against the guy in Lithuania for fraud.
If the owner of the paypal account did not authorise the payment, then his account must have been hacked by the lithuanian guy.
Forward paypal your proof of postage ( you say, "proof that I sent to customer - I have for Lithuanian guy - not for UK guy")

jor el

old_aussie wrote: »

You only post(registered post) to the paypal address of the person who pays via paypal.

You can add any address to Paypal, it doesn't get verified by anyone. The seller has no way to know if the address is the card holder's address, or if the buyer is even using a credit card. It could easily be Paypal cash or bank account funded.

old_aussie wrote: »

Paypal should be starting leagal action against the guy in Lithuania for fraud.

They should, but probably won't. At the end of the day, Paypal won't be out of pocket, nor will their customer who's account was defrauded, so there's no incentive for them to do much about it.

Fraud happens, and when it does, there's very little you can actually do about it. If it's domestic, you can go to the Gardai, but even that may be fruitless. When it's international, like this, there's very little you can do.

RasTa

This isn't PayPal's fault it's the sellers btw. Why didn't you ship to the address supplied by PayPal? Did it not some strange coming from a UK account. Lithuania is the new Nigeria for scams.

rubdub

RasTa wrote: »

This isn't PayPal's fault it's the sellers btw. Why didn't you ship to the address supplied by PayPal? Did it not some strange coming from a UK account. Lithuania is the new Nigeria for scams.

RasTa if you read my original post it says why I sent to the ebayer not the paypal account, I have done this for my friends that live in the UK, and when I was living in spain my I had stuff sent there, when my original paypal account was reg'd to Ireland, all without any questions. I admit it was my own fault, I should have checked it out further, but Paypal & ebay need to introduce some measures to tackle this kind of fraud, which they are not bothered to do, as Jor El said, as long as they are not out of pocket, they couldn't give two f*cks!

There also needs to be more protection for the sellers, at the moment it is completely biased towards the buyers, sellers don't have a chance.

Paypal has taken action on the matter, without even any input from me, I will be seeking legal advice to see if I can recoup any of my losses from paypal for this(although I am 99.9% sure I wont)

olaola

I know it's a little late, but after a bad experience trying to sell electronics on eBay - I'll never do it again. It's a nightmare as you say! TBH I stick to adverts for electronics, and eBay for other things.

rubdub

olaola wrote: »

I know it's a little late, but after a bad experience trying to sell electronics on eBay - I'll never do it again. It's a nightmare as you say! TBH I stick to adverts for electronics, and eBay for other things.

Yep, I definitely have to agree with you on that one olaola, never again!

anneboleyn

Paypal have fairly good antifraud systems , if you're the account that's paying out.. so they obviously sussed the account was hacked or used fraudulently. Sad sign of the times I'm afraid, can't attribute our own morality to others. Trust no one

old_aussie

jor el wrote: »

You can add any address to Paypal, it doesn't get verified by anyone. The seller has no way to know if the address is the card holder's address, or if the buyer is even using a credit card. It could easily be Paypal cash or bank account funded.

I think you need to check facts first, please read below......

Product Disclosure Statement - PayPal... In this case, PayPal will mail a six-digit PIN to your home address. ... When you have
completed these steps, your PayPal Account will be verified and you can ...

Legal Agreement - PayPal... your name, email address, your bank account, credit or debit card and street address. ...
Accounts that are Verified by adding a bank account and setting up Direct ...