look at this story, one reason I don't use paypal

I'm seething, so I'll try to keep the profanity in my mind from dribbling onto the keyboard. I always read how PayPal sides with buyers against sellers, well here's a nice reverse for ya.

I do a BIN on a piece of merchandise. I follow the instructions in the seller's email and send him the total he requests. I get a followup asking me for $9 additional after the fact. I say no, because that was not disclosed either in the auction or in his payment email. I request that if he is not willing to abide by the terms of his instructions to please refund my payment and we will mutually agree to not complete the transaction.

He gets hostile and things get ugly at that point. We exchange heated emails and he ultimately tells me that I'm getting neither the merchandise nor a refund.

I file a dispute with PayPal under non-receipt. This prompts the seller to send a package with a tracking number. When I see the package at the post office, it is too small to possibly contain the merchandise that I ordered. I ask to open the package in front of a USPS postal supervisor so that there are witnesses and a report of the contents of the package. The package contained an empty CD jewel case, no merchandise.

The postal supervisor gives me a signed, datestamped statement on USPS letterhead reporting on the contents of the package and that it was opened in their presence.

I call PayPal and inform them of this and arrange to fax in the USPS statement. The gentleman in the dispute resolution center then informs me that this statement proving mail fraud on the part of the seller is all well and good, but PayPal will most likely find on behalf of the seller. Why? One of PayPal's arbitrary rules: Once a dispute has been filed under "nonreceipt" it cannot be changed to "significantly not as described." So since the seller sent a package with a tracking number, even though it was an empty box, they will find on the part of the seller.

So here you go sellers... feel like ripping someone off? Step 1: Refuse to send merchandise. Step 2: when a PayPal dispute is filed, send an empty box via a tracking method. Voila! You're off the hook!!

Complete and utter moose excrement.

-Dan
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