PayPal eBay Theft of money. San Jose California
6 months ago, I sold an item on Ebay using PayPal as the preferred payment method. Keep in mind that eBay has a 30 day return policy; PayPal has a 180 day buyer protection return policy. My return policy was 14 days. Which one wins? --PayPal's 180 days is extremely buyer-friendly.
Keep in mind that my eBay feedback is a perfect 100%. Within that 180 day window(but almost at the 180 day mark), that item that I sold was put on dispute using PayPal's claim system. The buyer didn't contact me at all first, but she filed a claim with PayPal claiming that she wanted a refund, because the "item was not as described." --Apparently...
Ebay's return policy did not matter with this transaction, and neither did mine. The only policy that mattered was PayPal's. The buyer waited 6 months until I wasn't paying attention to file a dispute --hoping that I wouldn't check my email since all PayPal disputes are handled through EMAIL ONLY. PayPal gave me only 10 days to check my email in regards to this claim. I was on vacation when the claim was filed, and I didn't check my email until I returned. When I checked the email, I saw that PayPal had refunded the buyer in full without ever speaking to me first, and PayPal did not require the buyer to return my item first. When I tried to contact PayPal, they just told me that it was my fault for not checking my email when I was camping in the mountains with no cell phone signal or internet. eBay also didn't take responsibility and filed no complaint against the buyer. Together, eBay and PayPal facilitated a scam that caused me to lose not only my valuable item but my money as well and my time, and I had to pay for shipping. Neither PayPal or eBay want to help me; I spoke with 3 high level managers at PayPal, and they all blamed me for not checking my email(like robots) while I was on vacation. So, waiting 6 months after an eBay item sells in order to attempt to get money back through PayPal was an easy way to scam me out of my money and my item, and PayPal protected the scammer as the end result.