eBay & Paypal: A Cautionary Tale

texasmame

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 21, 2011
Messages
3,776
Reaction score
421
Location
Plano, Texas
Rating - 100%
37   0   0
Long and short, I sold a Macbook on eBay opting for the immediate payment option from the buyer.

So far, so good.

I ship that day and tell the guy it's on the way. Then, at about 2 a.m., I see a hold has been placed on the funds by Paypal. As usual, there is no explanation given, just the typical "F you, we're holding your money" crap that Paypal does to you. I provided the delivery confirmation number to them but figured they would find a way to screw things up so I began to take action to get the package back.

So, I immediately check where the package is via the online delivery confirmation number. It's left my local P.O. already. Uh-oh.

I head on down to the P.O. the next day and, amazingly, they have a form you can fill out to get the package returned.

In the meantime, I contacted the buyer, curious as to what he would say. No reply UNTIL the tracking info was updated with a RETURN TO SENDER flag. Then, he contacts me and offered to pay via Money Order if I would ship the Macbook. Told him I would take a Capital One Cashier's check from him, go to my branch and confirm it's good, cash it and ship him the laptop. He got all bent out of shape then disappeared.

Just got the package back today.

As of now, the buyer is still registered on eBay. I contacted eBay several days ago with the tale and urged them to cancel his account. So far - nothing.

Paypal STILL has a hold on the nearly $400 as well, driving my account into the negative balance range. And still no further contact from them, now 6 days in to their "investigation." I emailed them today and told them to cancel the transaction.

I fully expected to have the package get there and have Paypal say that mere delivery confirmation was not enough and screw me out of my money and product.

Anyone have similar stories?
 
Last edited:
They take forever. And I truley believe emails sent to them slip through the cracks 50-60% of the time. I am still waiting for them to release $125. This has been a 3 month ordeal.
 
Im lost in your story...

It looks like you tried to make a transaction thats outside of ebay after the transaction was made through ebay.

You said you shipped the package to him after you cleared a check and right after that you say you got the package back.

As far as paypal is concerned the rest makes this really confusing.
 
Im lost in your story...

It looks like you tried to make a transaction thats outside of ebay after the transaction was made through ebay.

You said you shipped the package to him after you cleared a check and right after that you say you got the package back.

As far as paypal is concerned the rest makes this really confusing.

Briefly:

Sold on laptop on eBay. Immediate payment made via Paypal.
Hold placed by Paypal on funds.
I take steps to have package returned before he gets it.
I get package back.
Buyer contacts me again offering M.O.
I countered with specific bank cashier's check request.
He gets pissy then disappears.
Clearer? ;)
 
Last edited:
... Clearer? ;)

Don't forget... you shipped it right after he paid, and then he put a hold on the money after you gave him the tracking #. :mad:

That's all I needed to hear. You stopped him from scamming you, and that's friggin AWESOME. ;)
 
Interesting. I had almost the same problem.

Someone bought 5 SC200 PSUs from my store who was an international customer. Shipping option was Express so I shipped it out within 24hrs, cost me $54. The next morning I get an email that the funds are being put on hold to investigate the payment.

The next day for some odd reason my package was returned to me because it lacked a declaration form which it didn't. A week later paypal reversed the payment to the buyer. And to make things better, since USPS scanned the shipping label I could no longer void the label. So now I'm out $54 and trying to get a refund for the shipping since it didn't get shipped out.

Paypal did nothing for me since they said that is strictly handled by USPS's side.

I wish paypal would have notified me right away to avoid that situation. I'm still pissed about it.

Messed up part about it was that I've done several deals with the buyer and was emailing him throughout the process. Even he didn't understand the purpose of the investigation.
 
So in the end you're not out anything but the shipping costs and some aggravation. Sounds like a nice end to the story.

Unfortunately w/o you (sellers) being able to leave negative feedback for creeps like this, Ebay has poured gasoline on the fire for fraud and scams.
 
So in the end you're not out anything but the shipping costs and some aggravation. Sounds like a nice end to the story.

Unfortunately w/o you (sellers) being able to leave negative feedback for creeps like this, Ebay has poured gasoline on the fire for fraud and scams.

That's correct - $12 and some grief is all.

True, I am amazed and still don't understand why sellers can no longer leave negatives. I so wish there was another alternative to eBay. Craigslist is great but the market is limited to locals with cash - if you're smart, that is. ;)
 
I had an issue with paypal here. I sold a board to someone here.

15 minutes after I shipped it, I get a message from paypal. "The person has stopped payment and requested a refund". I thought what the hell are you fucking serious. YOu can just stop payment and get your money back that easily?

Fortuneately it was an honest mistake by the buyer. He immediately re paypaled the money back to me. But that still made no sense to me...you can pay and then unpay right after someone ships something?

That is just setting people up to be screwed.

Paypal and ebay suck...but what are the alternatives. If I had the capital I would seek to create an alternative I would think the competition would be quite lucrative.
 
paypal hold

i sold a ipod 32gb 243.00 on ebay paypal sent payment cleared ok to ship shipped ipod priority mail sent track # then next day i got message payment stopped guy told paypal girlfriend used his account unknowingly. just so happened i knowed post office lady she called post office where it was to be delivered and just cought it in time.the mail man there was just about to leave with it to deliver. was able to get it returned. almost got me. one thing about it they will side with buyer if you are buying. cant say much on the selling end,
 
everyone knows that ebay sucks but is a necessary evil, but within the last year or so Paypal has become just as bad.
Remember, Paypal isn't a bank, so they can do whatever they want with your money. They hold funds on people all the time.
This is what happens when a company has a virtual monopoly on a market (both ebay and paypal).
 
That's correct - $12 and some grief is all.

True, I am amazed and still don't understand why sellers can no longer leave negatives. I so wish there was another alternative to eBay. Craigslist is great but the market is limited to locals with cash - if you're smart, that is. ;)

ebid.net is a great alternative
 
Here's a brief story from about 10 years ago...

Sold something (PCB I think), via eBay, to a guy on the other side of the country.
He paid via PayPal
I was very slow in shipping... something near 2 weeks... totally on me.
We exchanged emails a few times about that
He started the eBay dispute resolution process
They notified me and I shipped the package that same day
I provided the delivery confirmation information 3 or 4 days later proving the package had been delivered.
The remaining "dispute" days continued to go by... I emailed PayPal several times to confirm they received the delivery confirmation information... no response. (There was no phone number to call).
Once time expired they returned his money ($90) and locked my account until I returned the $90.
I asked him why he didn't cancel the dispute after receiving the PCB and he emails back with a bunch of crap mocking me and calling me names and basically patting himself on the back about how he got over on me and PayPal.
I forward that email chain to PayPal and eBay... never hear a word.
I abandoned that PP account and started another.
To this day, if I log into that PP account, it tells me it's suspended pending payment to PayPal.
Never gonna happen.
 
FWIW, Macbook back up on eBay and Paypal STILL holding the payment since the 5th, even thought I wrote to them, twice, and said to just cancel the transaction!
 
Well, I finally called Paypal and it wasn't as bad as I expected.

They removed the charge and had it all cleared up within 25 minutes, and that includes wait time on the phone.
 
That's correct - $12 and some grief is all.

True, I am amazed and still don't understand why sellers can no longer leave negatives. I so wish there was another alternative to eBay. Craigslist is great but the market is limited to locals with cash - if you're smart, that is. ;)

The reason they removed sellers leaving negs is that some nasty buggers were refusing to leave positive feedback for the buyer until after the buyer left positive feedback for them. And if the buyer had a problem and left a neg, they'd neg the buyer, even if it was their fault.

I'm of the opinion that Ebay should be better policing their sellers, instead of removing this type of feedback, but no one asked me.
 
Back
Top Bottom