A cautionary tale. Apologies for the length but I haven't seen this anywhere and I feel it's important.
TL:DR:
Seller protection is worthless if your buyer pays by PayPal. The buyer can open a chargeback and PayPal won't even bother reviewing your evidence as they're no longer linked to ebay (from the mouth of an ebay agent). Ebay will close any open ebay dispute case and will give the money back to PayPal within 48 hours and then come after YOU + £14 chargeback fee. There will be no way to challenge the case with PayPal direct since the case was between them and eBay - you're just the fool at the end of the chain.
Long version:
ebayer of approx 10 years - 1,600 100% feedback. Not a professional seller, just sell surplus family stuff.
It was a reduced final value fee weekend and I ended up selling a fair amount (for me of stuff) - circa £1,300. One of the items was a Lenovo Tablet which my mother had outgrown. Went for £82 plus postage.
I shipped using Hermes tracked and insured. I've been using them since I started selling on ebay and apart from the odd hiccup, they've been pretty good.
Tablet shipped on Monday was with the seller on Thursday. Got a message from him saying he'd received an empty box. Bear in mind due to the weight of the tablet (it came with it's own weighty dock) I'd had to purchase shipping at a weight tier above normal. I told him I would contact Hermes. Hermes asked for 48 hours to respond but we're getting into the weekend and so I called ebay. The agent said not to worry, there was no way they believed that I would ship an empty box and I had five working days to resolve the issue. After discussing the buyers options with ebay, I messaged the buyer the next day, told him Hermes were going to take 48 hours to get back to me, but to protect himself he should probably open an item not reveived case.
He messaged me later saying he'd tried but because there was tracking for a delivery he couldn't. I told him to contact ebay regardless to see his options.
The next message I got was from the buyer saying he was going to talk to PayPal. I didn't really think anything of it. Over the weekend I got a message from ebay stating that the buyer's financial institution was asking for evidence regarding a chargeback. Bear in mind you can only send jpegs - no docs or pdf's. Sent off photos of the tablet along with Hermes proof of delivery.
The following week got a number of emails from ebay all stating that my payouts were on hold and asking for the funds since unknown to me, PayPal had rejected the evidence I'd provided and found for their buyer. After the first email I called ebay and was told categorically that the case had been closed and found in my favour (no mention of PayPal) and that there would be no more emails asking for funds from ebay.
Received another email demanding funds the very next day. Finally spoke to an agent who explained what was going on. As the buyer had opened a chargeback case with PayPal they effectively bypassed all of the ebay Seller protections. The agent said he knew PayPal rarely bothered looking at your evidence since they had no connection with ebay any more and pretty much automatically found for the buyer. Since the case was between PayPal and ebay, I couldn't even get my point across or bring in my history or relationship with PayPal.
What's more ebay will add £14 on top, as well as keep their final value fees. And this is all AUTOMATIC.
As for the current situation, I'm planning to close my ebay account. I've realised everytime I've shipped something recently, it's given me anxiety as to what was going to get stuffed up. I have taken detailed notes of all the calls I've had and ebay terms and conditions. We'll see what happens.
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