Time to forget Ebay?

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 20:45:54 on Fri, 28 Dec 2007, The Natural Philosopher remarked:

So eBay didn't charge you anything after all.

[rant deleted]

[Roland Perry]

In message , at

17:32:45 >

Yes you do, I have a printout in front of me.

What is that, if not "tracking".

In the first case, what you need to know is if and when it's been delivered. Which they tell you.

In the second case, you get the item back, so what's the problem

"Tracking" does not imply a real-time itinerary of the item's every move. What they track is when it is delivered - which is all you are interested in. Paypal couldn't care less what happened to the item en-route, all that matters is whether or not you can show that you sent by a method that claims to tell you when it was delivered.

Did PayPal's T&C specify a "100% reliable" tracking system? Although I agree that if you lose a dispute resolution only because Royal Mail screwed up getting delivery confirmation, I'd be wanting to have a serious word with them.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 20:43:41 on Fri, 28 Dec 2007, Andy Hall remarked:

No, they probably don't. Just like people who spend an hour or two taking the bus to town and shopping around to save 50p don't, either.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 15:18:08 on Fri, 28 Dec 2007, Andy Hall remarked:

I have found many items on eBay that are unobtainable elsewhere. Well, unless you happen to know the one specialist shop in the country, that doesn't have a website, and which might have the item if you are lucky.

I'm currently looking for a Pentium II processor chip for a 1990's Compaq server; any offers on a shop that might have one? There's one on eBay for £8.95, and frankly, if it arrives and doesn't work I'll just chuck it and try again.

And for many retired folks, housewives, unemployed, part-time workers, time is their greatest asset.

One size doesn't fit all.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at

12:01:52 on Fri, 28 Dec 2007, Jules remarked:

It's possible to spend ages, but I would suggest that if you think it was "way too much" then perhaps you are using the wrong channel to get rid of them. Depending on how much you value your time, and the expected revenue, it should be fairly easy to decide if it's worth while or not.

[magwitch]

Ok Roland... I bought a Mac G4 in the summer on Ebay for £250. The seller rejected my Pay Pal payment by mistake, and shortly afterwards sent me an email to apologise and asked if I'd phone him to sort out what we should do.

The best way (from trawling through all the FAQs seemed to be for him to cancel the transaction) and for me hit the Pay Now button again as soon as I got the confirmatory email from Ebay acknowlwedging the cancellation. So I waited until I'd got the email and paid again.

Only trouble was PayPal took £250 from my account, then another £250 from my account, then when I'd phoned the bank and had the second transaction charged back took another £250 this time from my credit card, meanwhile the seller still hadn't received his payment as I was in dispute (although not with him, with PayPal). Both of us had a totally stressful 3 week period trying to keep track of what the f*ck was going on, resulting in my having to cancel every card PayPal had heard about.

I had to wait over 2 weeks to get £250 back and the seller waited even longer to get his payment out of PayPal.

Concrete enough for you?

[magwitch]

Try this:

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 13:01:48 on Fri, 28 Dec 2007, Owain remarked:

I would have expected that telling you the proprietors name was well into "no, because of Data Protection" territory. But if the Card Companies are happy to reveal that stuff (having built it into their merchant agreements) I'll take my hat off to them.

[geoff]

Say £100 for a month ...

interest of 50 pence ?

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 10:31:45 on Fri, 28 Dec 2007, Lobster remarked:

You are confusing two different procedures. Chargebacks work for any value of transaction.

So you didn't leave some fierce negative feedback?

If you think it's a deliberate fraud, then there are other options available.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 11:31:53 on Fri, 28 Dec 2007, Andrew Gabriel remarked:

Do you have a cite for that, as it contradicts advice I've had elsewhere.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 21:42:18 on Fri, 28 Dec 2007, magwitch remarked:

it's full of sellers who have had the rug pulled from under them as a result of buyers mysteriously being able to "reverse" payments at a whim; and buyers who can't get their payment reversed however hard they try. Something odd is going on.

[Andy Hall]

I might have a couple of those :-)

Of course.

[The Natural Philosopher]

How about a £50 penalty for exceeding overdraft limit?

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 21:40:31 on Fri, 28 Dec 2007, magwitch remarked:

Was that the first £250 that the seller had rejected, and after it had been confirmed by eBay?

And that was the second £250?

So you got the second £250 back.

So this is a third payment; what do you think triggered it? Was it perhaps the earlier requested "Pay Now" transaction you had asked for, but subsequently pulled the rug from underneath? What were you expecting to happen - especially if your expectation was that the vendor had already received the money. The first £250 is caught in a warp somewhere, but if you asked to send it again, that's what they are trying to do.

This is of more concern. Who started the dispute, and over which of these £250's was it?

Why did you think that a third £250 might have been withdrawn? They already had £500.

Is that the first £250 back?

Was there some delay in telling eBay that the dispute (whatever it was) had been resolved?

A good tale of woe (and mainly it seems about delays in the dispute process) but not nearly as bad as you originally suggested.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 11:54:35 on Fri, 28 Dec 2007, Andy Hall remarked:

I do wonder what this is for, if not as a way to reimburse buyers when the seller has emptied their PayPal account - but that goes against all anecdotal evidence of what happens, and what the PayPay T&C describe. I have yet to get to the bottom of this one, unless it is as simple as being necessary to make the test payments to validate the bank account, and for withdrawing funds (assuming the trader never uses PayPal-via-DD to buy things himself, of course).

The trader sends them a classic Direct Debit form, so I guess the answer is "yes".

The Financial Ombudsman will adjudicate disputes with PayPal.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 13:03:49 on Fri, 28 Dec 2007, Owain remarked:

My CC (not Natwest) doesn't seem to treat it as a Cash Advance (there's no 3% fee, anyway; nor is there any interest charged at the end of the month).

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 15:06:52 on Fri, 28 Dec 2007, Andrew Gabriel remarked:

Since July, PayPal are under a voluntary agreement to continue to be regulated by the FSA.

[geoff]

overdraft ?

never had one of those

What failed, your maths or your logic ?

[magwitch]

Yes they *were* unauthorised withdrawals and I can supply documentary evidence of them.

Being £500 in the red for 3 weeks might be peanuts to you, but I can assure you it was the most frustrating and worrying financial experience I have ever had (even worse than when my card was skimmed to the tune of £1600 ? at least then I could contact the bank and they were both sympathetic and rectified the problem as soon as they were informed).

PayPal not only stonewalled both me and the seller, but also without my authorisation helped themselves to £250 on two occasions.

When the FSA tentatively started to act on the many complaints they'd received, PayPal scurried off to Luxemburg.