Complaint Review: PayPal - Internet

I have been a member on eBay and Paypal since 2008. I have done over $10,000 in transactions with 100% positive feedback, can't get much better than that huh? Until one transaction happened. I have been a seller for approximately 3 years now and recently have been selling iPhone 4's on eBay. I have been selling these iPhones for about a month now and typically are selling most items internationally. 

I have had one buyer from Russia who has purchased 4 iPhone 4 models from me, for approximately $4,000 in total. This particular customer turns out to be a complete fraud, shocker huh? Of course this was never realized ahead of time, as the user has 8 feedback on eBay with 100% feedback, how does that work? It turns out that this buyer purchases large ticket items on eBay, pays for them immediately and to the seller everything is all good right? Good buyer, fast payment, all is peachy. But actually there is one strange fact, that doesn't seem very strange at all until you look back on it. What he then does after winning and purchasing the item is suggest that the items be sent to him via USPS First Class Mail International as he claims "it's cheaper and gets to Russia faster." What the innocent sellers (the victims, such as myself) don't realize is that once you mail out the item and confirm shipment, you don't realize that what you have documentation wise will be a Customs Code form with an ID# and a stamp from USPS confirming shipment date as well as the "To" and "From" addresses, but no tracking number for delivery confirmation, as this buyer intentionally selected. The only way to have tracking information on international packages via USPS is with Express Mail service, which varies from $40-100. So what happens after the fact? Once the allotted time passes for this Russian Fraud man, he then opens a dispute via Paypal claiming he "never received any of the items". 

Because he has mastered the loop holes in the system, he then knows (as I didn't since I have never had a single confrontation with selling and have 100% feedback for over three years) that Paypal will contact me, the seller, and request a tracking number to confirm delivery confirmation, and that is the only way Paypal will opt in the seller's favor. So what happens? The buyer requests a shipping method with no tracking on $4,000 of product, then claims he never gets them and opens up disputes for all of them and as a result, Paypal refunds them by automatically debiting my account. While these disputes are opened up, Paypal requests the custom code forms with ID#'s, To & From addresses, and USPS stamp and I provided them with all of that information via Fax as they requested. I call in on 3 separate occasions, all of which I have documentation of via email confirmations on the 14th, 15th, and 17th of September directly after the first dispute was opened on the first iPhone, explaining that I have discovered his trick and that he is scamming the system and committing fraud, and that I guaranteed the Paypal representatives that he would open more disputes on the other 3 iPhone models. Paypal Reps inform me that after looking into his account he has even more disputes going on with other sellers for similar instances and his account has very suspicious content, so they were going to have their fraud team look into it and ensured me that I would be okay, but to call back if he opens any more cases so they can add that into the notes of the other disputes. 

Well guess what? Within one day he opens another case on the other iPhone saying he never received it, shocking. So I call back to Paypal again on the 15th explaining the situation and they again inform me everything will be alright and that they have placed this information in the notes section and I will be okay. So I relax slightly and await their response, 3 days later I get an email confirming the cases have been closed, thank God. Oh wait.Paypal has opted in favor of the buyer (Russian Scumbag) and has automatically debited $1,300 from my account for the first iPhone. What? 

I call back into Paypal again on the 19th, absolutely furious and I speak with a Rep from the Fraud Department and we look in further to the details of these cases. It turns out, this one eBay member has paid with 2 different Paypal accounts, with 4 different shipping addresses, and 4 different names in 4 different cities of Russia, all of which are unconfirmed by Paypal. Who on Earth was working on these cases?! To go even further, as a result of these disputes, my Paypal accounts were frozen so I no longer had access to any of my other funds to the account, if I needed to purchase any materials or products to continue my business I was not able to do so. I also had customers via eBay purchase other products from me that I was not able to access funds to in order to ship out items, then backing up shipment processes. Essentially, my business has been completely put on hold. So not only has my business been completely screwed over, I now lost all of my profits on these phones, I have lost all of my inventory, and to top it all off eBay then bills me the same day for $907 worth of Final Value Fees (Fees taken by eBay as a cut of what the products sold for, which is now completely nothing). So essentially I paid $1,000's of dollars to give away free product on eBay, what a bargain? 

I am completely dumbfounded on how this incident could even of happened, I can't imagine how screwed other sellers will be who weren't as proactive as me calling Paypal 3 times even before the next cases were even opened saying that this Russian buyer would claim he never received the items. When Paypal sat down to make a decision on this case, they see one College Student running his own business, a seller since 2008 with 100% feedback on over $10,000 worth of transactions, and then they see a Russian guy with several disputes on his account for the same issues, intentionally requesting no tracking shipping on thousands of dollars of product, with four different names and shipping addresses, two different Paypal and bank accounts tied to the same eBay account, in four different locations in Russia, all of which they cannot confirm. And they decide in favor of this man, supporting fraud, and screwing over the good consumer, the honest victim seller who simply did all the right things and mailed out the items the exactly right way as stated, following all Paypal's requests for information. 

Paypal must be shown to the public for their absolutely terrible customer service, their support of fraud, and their screwing of the victims and the good customers who provide them with excellent business and keep their company running. I will never use Paypal or eBay ever again. The result? Just spoke with the Supervisor to get her "final call" and her result was that "she couldn't do anything about it because of the lack of tracking, but that out of the goodness of Paypal's heart they would credit me $1,110 to break my account even on my personal PayPal account for one dispute, but they couldn't do anything about the other thousands of dollars on the business account." It took them almost a month to come to this conclusion.