I've been to paypalsucks.com and heard many bad stories around here, but nothing bad ever happened to me. I even had to do a claim last year because I purchased something that never arrived. That claim went smoothly. I was fairly confident in using paypal, up until last month.
I won a bid for a set of 4 speakers on ebay. They were listed as 2 pair, and the picture showed 2 pair. It said they appeared new, but one of them had a torn grill. Bidding ended at $105 or so, and then shipping was $20. I promptly paid with paypal and received the item about a week later.
The box that showed up on my doorstep was totally mangled. When I opened it, it contained a bunch of pieces of speakers. I didn't even know what exactly it was until I laid it out side by side on the floor. At that point I could see that I had 2 speakers, broken into roughly 7 pieces, and a grill that was snapped in half. I had drivers sitting loose outside of the cabinet, I had cabinets with tops and bottoms cracked off.... it was quite a mess. And the other pair was missing altogether.
The seller was a large company that had 10,000+ feedback, in the low 90% range, so I figured they would take care of it. Their response was to offer a "store credit" for half of the amount I paid. This was not acceptable to me because A) I didn't trust them to package anything else properly, and B) 50% would cover the missing speakers but not the damaged speakers. I politely declined and told them what I wanted. They never responded.
So I got paypal involved, first using the dispute option so I could continue communicating with the seller. The seller eventually answered, advising me to ship everything back to them for a full refund. By this time I had used the drivers , tweeters, and terminal cups from the speakers in another project. I responded with this info, and asked for a refund of $80, and we could pretend I had paid around $40 shipped for some speaker components. They never answered that, so I escalated the dispute into a claim.
I summed everything up for paypal, and was confident they would grant me my partial refund, given that all the facts were on my side. They responded saying the seller agreed to a full refund and I needed to provide tracking numbers when I sent the item back.
I replied several times to help clarify my case. Each time I got a canned response asking for a tracking number. I could not seem to get an actual person to read my request and either approve or deny it. Even though I had several emails waiting for an answer from them, they closed the claim stating that I had failed to reply with a tracking number. I continued appealing the decision: not based on the fact that I lost, but the fact that they didn't bother to read my request and answer it.
It's been maddening to receive replies from them with the same information every time, despite repeated attempts to escalate it to a supervisor or appeal process. Every reply I get points me to their automated system, and advises me that nobody monitors the account so don't bother to reply. I once had someone refer me to their 800 number, which no doubt has a 30+ minute wait time... at which point someone would have to read my entire claim and start from scratch. I still intend to call when I have a free block of time, which is rare for me.
The worst part is that I was told that the decision was done, but I could appeal it by emailing appeals at paypal.com. I did so, and just received a reply saying "From researching your account history, I can see that your issue has
been resolved." And again pointing me to their website.... What? Nothing has been resolved! I don't think it is asking too much to get someone there to read my claim and give me a yes or a no. A no wouldn't make much sense, but at least it would be better than where I am at now.
I really don't know if I can trust paypal anymore. If they won't protect me when merchandise is missing or damaged, then I'll have to try and find another way of doing business.
Cliffs:
*I buy 4 speakers from ebay that should be in good shape
*2 arrive with major damage, the other 2 never arrive
*I make use of some parts from the 2 speakers, ask for partial refund
*paypal wants me to ship everything back for full refund, won't even read my requests
*I'm disappointed with paypal and seeking an alternative service (and grumbling about them everywhere I can)
I won a bid for a set of 4 speakers on ebay. They were listed as 2 pair, and the picture showed 2 pair. It said they appeared new, but one of them had a torn grill. Bidding ended at $105 or so, and then shipping was $20. I promptly paid with paypal and received the item about a week later.
The box that showed up on my doorstep was totally mangled. When I opened it, it contained a bunch of pieces of speakers. I didn't even know what exactly it was until I laid it out side by side on the floor. At that point I could see that I had 2 speakers, broken into roughly 7 pieces, and a grill that was snapped in half. I had drivers sitting loose outside of the cabinet, I had cabinets with tops and bottoms cracked off.... it was quite a mess. And the other pair was missing altogether.
The seller was a large company that had 10,000+ feedback, in the low 90% range, so I figured they would take care of it. Their response was to offer a "store credit" for half of the amount I paid. This was not acceptable to me because A) I didn't trust them to package anything else properly, and B) 50% would cover the missing speakers but not the damaged speakers. I politely declined and told them what I wanted. They never responded.
So I got paypal involved, first using the dispute option so I could continue communicating with the seller. The seller eventually answered, advising me to ship everything back to them for a full refund. By this time I had used the drivers , tweeters, and terminal cups from the speakers in another project. I responded with this info, and asked for a refund of $80, and we could pretend I had paid around $40 shipped for some speaker components. They never answered that, so I escalated the dispute into a claim.
I summed everything up for paypal, and was confident they would grant me my partial refund, given that all the facts were on my side. They responded saying the seller agreed to a full refund and I needed to provide tracking numbers when I sent the item back.
I replied several times to help clarify my case. Each time I got a canned response asking for a tracking number. I could not seem to get an actual person to read my request and either approve or deny it. Even though I had several emails waiting for an answer from them, they closed the claim stating that I had failed to reply with a tracking number. I continued appealing the decision: not based on the fact that I lost, but the fact that they didn't bother to read my request and answer it.
It's been maddening to receive replies from them with the same information every time, despite repeated attempts to escalate it to a supervisor or appeal process. Every reply I get points me to their automated system, and advises me that nobody monitors the account so don't bother to reply. I once had someone refer me to their 800 number, which no doubt has a 30+ minute wait time... at which point someone would have to read my entire claim and start from scratch. I still intend to call when I have a free block of time, which is rare for me.
The worst part is that I was told that the decision was done, but I could appeal it by emailing appeals at paypal.com. I did so, and just received a reply saying "From researching your account history, I can see that your issue has
been resolved." And again pointing me to their website.... What? Nothing has been resolved! I don't think it is asking too much to get someone there to read my claim and give me a yes or a no. A no wouldn't make much sense, but at least it would be better than where I am at now.
I really don't know if I can trust paypal anymore. If they won't protect me when merchandise is missing or damaged, then I'll have to try and find another way of doing business.
Cliffs:
*I buy 4 speakers from ebay that should be in good shape
*2 arrive with major damage, the other 2 never arrive
*I make use of some parts from the 2 speakers, ask for partial refund
*paypal wants me to ship everything back for full refund, won't even read my requests
*I'm disappointed with paypal and seeking an alternative service (and grumbling about them everywhere I can)
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