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Registered Member #135
Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735
1. By Science Shack
I ordered a glass Bell Jar and the dummy didn't mark the box fragile Glass Handle with CARE! AND he sent it USPS like a dammed fool. Well, our USPS monkey decided that since he couldn't figure out to pull harder on our gate string OR ring the doorbell, that he would just throw it over the fence. Next thing I know I have a broken Bell jar. I write to Science Shack, but he Never checks his email BEFORE feedback is left, so like a fool he leaves you negative feedback after he recieves your feedback. He's a total abuser of the feedback forum and doesn't know how to package glass items. A larger box would have prevented this whole scenario.
2. I am still waiting for my 15kv/60mA transformer (I don't have to mention any names, he knows who he is) It has been paid for for over 6 months now. I was sent the wrong transformer. So I sent it back to him at my expense. He's promised to compensate me another 15kv/60mA for the inconvienence. I said that wasn't necessary but appreciated. I have given up now. I'm not mad at him. The point is if you're going to do business you have to respecet the contract and uphold your end of the bargain. I ended up having to run out and buy a 12/60, which cost me an extra $135 for my Tesla coil, and then we ended up not even using it. This whole thing caused me a lot of un-necessary stress.
I'm really disappointed with the whole thing. I would expect someone to refund the money if they're not going to send the correct merchandise. But you know...with me...I'm almost brutally honest and I want to make sure that I'm in the right.
Registered Member #63
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:18AM
Location:
Posts: 1425
An inherent problem with Paypal is it offers total buyer protection and zero seller protection.
One has to suffer at your own expense, credit card fraud (through paypal)... and almost every single buyer from lebanon, indonesia, romania, syria, or nigeria will try to reverse the paypal transaction after shipping.
The solution to the latter is to tell them you've shipped, and if they don't reverse the transaction, ship. The solution to the former is for Paypal to get off their arses and "protect" both the sellers and the buyers if they're going to "protect" anyone at all. The sellers are well milked with fees, charges and risks, whilst the buyers may defraud/cheat at will because the system is so weak. That's what boils my blood about Paypal.
Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
So it's a case of caveat vendor then?
I once ordered a controller kit for turning a CD-ROM into an audio CD transport, from a Romanian company. Believe it or not, it didn't arrive and the company stopped returning my e-mails. I assumed I had been ripped off and put it down to experience.
Two days ago (three months from the initial order) I got an e-mail from "AudioKitLabs" saying they had taken over the kit division of the original company and were going to honour my order, what a nice surprise
Registered Member #193
Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022
2 replies out of 3 aren't about being ripped off by paypal. P.S. I have used paypal quite a bit and haven't had any problems. OTOH, I have been buying stuff and I understand that it's sellers who get the raw deal.
Registered Member #49
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:05AM
Location: Bigass Pile of Penguins
Posts: 362
I got ripped off once, about 5 years ago. I fell for a phishing scam, back when they were new and I was dumb. Someone got my password and used it to buy lots of Diablo II itemz d00d.
At first I was confused, and I called the guy listed as a transferee on my account history. He said he was a victim too, and that the scammer had consolidated accounts with transfers and then used it it buy his l33t itemz.
Paypal took about a week and a half, and gave me all my money back.
Registered Member #15
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 01:11PM
Location:
Posts: 3068
Paypal really isn't bad at all. Sure, you could get ripped off every once in awhile, but you can get ripped off too by accepting credit cards through a standard processor as well. I've probably over 10,000 transactions with paypal using several different email accounts, and only had a problem once. And paypal, ended up reimbursing me anyways (for an item i sold)
As with anything, just use common sense. If you are selling a high dollar item, and someone buys it with a credit card using paypal from Pakistan and wishes to have it shipped to an address is London, then be suspect.
Also, with niche market type things, getting ripped isn't as common. Just be real careful when dealing with home electronics, audio, video, cameras, etc... especially when the price is too good to be true.
Geometrically Frustrated Registered Member #6
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:18AM
Location: Bowdoin, Maine
Posts: 373
EastVoltResearc wrote ...
Paypal really isn't bad at all. Sure, you could get ripped off every once in awhile, but you can get ripped off too by accepting credit cards through a standard processor as well.
I wouldn't say that excuses paypal from any of their wrondoings, but it certainly lowers the bar to their level. Credit card transactions are only really secure if you get a signature when the transaction takes place (obviously this can't be done over the phone or online).
PayPal provides a convenient service, and I'm sure that they have had many more successful transactions than problematic ones. This would be fine if the problems were little random things that were resolved, however that's not the case. From wikipedia:
wrote ... PayPal's Seller Protection policies do not cover intangible goods or goods that are "not as described". Many scammers have used this lack of policy to their advantage. They will buy a product and pay for it via PayPal. When the product is received, they will dispute the charge as "not as described." This freezes the seller's account until the dispute is finalized. After the freeze, PayPal is unlikely to gain back the funds, thus leaving a negative balance to the seller.
Another problem involves using paypal for large transactions. Simply put: don't. PayPal likes to freeze accounts with large amounts of money in them, or accounts where large transactions have taken place, so that they may 'investigate' it for an indeterminate amount of time. The implications of having such a thing happen are obvious.
I have yet to be ripped off by PayPal.. On the other hand, all of my transactions have been relatively small, and I have never had to refund anything.
Registered Member #223
Joined: Mon Feb 20 2006, 06:42PM
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 125
Well I sold ten PC133MHz 128MB SDRAM sticks on ebay about a two years ago to raise some cash. The buyer asked for the cheapest shipping option and didn't want to pay insurance. I agreed and sent the package by Canada Post regular parcel. It cost $2 dollars or so. I guess Canada Post either lost the package or the buyer lied that he never got them. I explained to paypal that I shipped the item and even had the receipt that it had been shipped. I also explain that I offered insurance but the buyer declined and that I shouldn't be held responsible for the loss. However paypal thought otherwise and tried to deduct the amount from my bank account but since I had a warning ahead of time; I got my bank to switch my account type which in turn changes the account number. This of course made the transaction fail which probably didn't make paypal to happy. I got a rather angry email from Paypal Saying that i needed to pay an additional $30 for the failed transaction and if I didn't they would take legal action against me. Almost 2 years later and they never did. In short never use your real name or address when you use paypal just in case. Besides thats what P.O. boxes and ING Direct (or any other bank that doesn't need your proof of address) are for.
Registered Member #56
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445
Wow, sucks to be you guys
I have been using paypal for years now, and have bought ~$5k and sold ~$2k (that is my biggest problem with it, it is way to easy to buy stuff) and have yet to have a single problem. I have sold tons of stuff arround the world, never had anyone try to scam me. I did have a problem once that it sucked the checking account in my bank dry (well it actually had $300 in it, but since the visa card is a 'registered' it keeps $300 that you can't spend) and instead of telling me it just racked up a few $20 fees Lucly I caught it 2 days after it started and transfered a few hundred bucks from the savings account over to the checking and it was happy again.
I have had a few issues with ebayers in the past, but have yet to recieve a negative feedback (out of ~150 transactions), so I guess I am doing ok
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