My sympathies Andy. It is a frustrating and often fraut way of accepting money. It definately works pro buyer and for that reason most buyers insist on using it. I too have had a couple of bad expiriences with selling this way. Problem is without accepting it them there is not much chance of selling, certainly abroad.

Jonnie

Ive sold for 6 years on ebay and only this year ive had problems x3 all very similar. The system offers a better return policy than John Lewis! If they dont want it say it is faulty or smashed in the post and hey presto paypal gives you your money back. Im sure ive had people swap items??

Im not a business seller just like finding things fixing them and selling them on. From now on with anything slightly post vulnerable it will be collection only and cash! The frustrating thing is the last two problems have been from delivering to Europe the auctions were UK only but these people pursuaded me to send abroad. Im too soft!!

Ebay has lost some of the fun I have to say, it is now focused on the pro seller. Perhaps its time for a new site that offers a fairer system that protects both buyer and seller.

There must be some hotshot lawyer that would have a field day with paypal?????

The problem is that as a buyer, Paypal is wonderful. I have never returned anything or made a claim (though I should have done once - crooked US seller never sent anything and tried to con more money out of me) but the ability to pay instantly is a huge bonus. There are good sellers and good buyers but there are also dishonest sellers and buyers. If the feedback system worked, it would allow both to be identified easily. The present system is still ridiculous.

PayPal is a great system for buyers and also a great way to send money abroad for any purpose. Think how expensive/ risky it was before PayPal. As long  as 30 years ago banks would want a minimum of £15 in charges for you to send any small amount of money abroad.

The fault with fraudulent claims against sellers is not with PayPal but with the rogue making the false claim. As Peter says, the feedback system is pretty useless. There is a tendency for everyone to steer clear of negative feedback for fear of having their own 100% feedback record destroyed (and if I'm not mistaken eBay no longer allows sellers to give (retaliatory) negative feedback.) In some cases the claim of damage or postal loss will be genuine.... don't forget that the buyer has no control over how well an item is packed by a seller.

There is no easy answer to this problem, because even if you put clear sales conditions on your eBay entry that the buyer must insure against postal risk, this will conflict with the standard PayPal conditions/guarantee.

I feel for the OP and a loss of £300! I think I would pursue DHL for not returning the item as undelivered rather than allowing someone to change the delivery address. (Don't their terms allow for a limited number of delivery attempts before return to the sender??)

Graham

Back in the day we used a company called Nochex, who offer cashback protection to sellers and immediate payment for buyers.

They were brilliant, but now we are forced to use the notorious Paypal.

I'd rather move my money by bank transfer!

Everything is slanted against the seller...

eBay was once great.. a joy... now it is something I approach with trepidation.

vikinger wrote:

The fault with fraudulent claims against sellers is not with PayPal but with the rogue making the false claim.

Paypal's system attracts fraudsters. They make it easy for buyers to submit a false claim and get away with it.

To continue the saga of paypal. I decided to take on paypal and file a complaint against them. Using the complain about paypal button. Within one week of making the complaint my account was closed. They say I am a risk to paypal security and closed it forever. The money I have in there is frozen for 180 days!!

The problem is now I cant sell anything on ebay because you require a valid paypal account. I am completely stuck my ebay account is virtually useless unless i can pay by cash or cheque! Has anyone experienced similar paypal bullying tactics?? Something really needs to be investigated how can they have such control and steal my money??

That is absolutely disgusting!

Surely if they close your account they have a duty to give any money in there to you immediately. Unfortunately they aren't subject to Banking legislation so they can do exactly as they want.

Chris.

Apparently its in the terms and conditions!! They can hold onto it for 180 days. So they have nearly £250 which legally belongs to me but I cant access it. I have been to the banking ombudsmen as you say they can do nothing.

Perhaps i will try my MP they should understand about someone keeping money that doesnt belong to them!

Ebay dont care particularly I personally think they are going down the line of supporting the big power sellers. The smaller "hobby" sellers like me are a problem to them.

There needs to be a rival site to initiate competition and prevent this monopoly getting bigger and more unjust.