Buyer collected item in person, 1 month later claims on Paypal it was a fraud transaction

[istevenh888]

So I sold a phone on eBay, valued at £795. The buyer paid on eBay and opted in for the collection. Collection was made on 27/12/2020 and it was only today the buyer claimed it was a fraud transaction on Paypal. I scanned the buyer's collection code on the day.

Does anyone know what's going to happen?

[red_magpie]

Does anyone know what's going to happen?

If the buyer opened a case under PayPal's buyer protection policy, it should be found in your favour, as Paypal's user agreement excludes items sold for collection from their buyer protection policy.

However, if the buyer paid by credit card and has now made a chargeback claiming not to have authorised the transaction, you have a problem. This is such an old and well known scam. We always warn sellers not to accept PayPal when items are collected, as PayPal's seller protection against chargebacks requires proof of posting, which you don't have.

It's likely that PP will cave in and accept the chargeback, and require you to repay them the value of the phone, and also to pay their own admin charges.

If so, apart from anything the police may or may not do, your only resort would be to sue the buyer. For that, you would have to know who they are, and their address. You would also have to prove that they knew about the purchase, and collected the phone. I don't suppose you asked for ID, noted their car reg, got them to sigh a collection receipt, and had a witness present?

Get your evidence ready. Make a copy of the listing, including the options for delivery or free collection. If the buyer paid the free collection option the price they paid should support your case. Ditto the collection code you provided.The buyer's blue star shown in the feedback you left them shows that they have received between 100 and 500 feedbacks. So unless this was a hijacked account, you may be able to establish who and where they are, and sue them. However, if this was planned by criminals you're unlikely to be able to get anything back.

[m25jet]

First of all appeal report the matter to Action Fraud and get a crime reference number.  Pass this on to PayPal, as well as the collection code that you were given when the buyer collected the phone from you, as PayPal check cases far more thoroughly than eBay do, and if you can provide evidence that strengthens your argument that you've actually been screwed over by the buyer then the matter is more likely to be decided in your favour.  If it does indeed go that way then the buyer will more than likely find himself or herself at the centre of an Action Fraud investigation if they feel that they have good reason to believe that the buyer has deliberately sought to fraudulently obtain the goods from you at no cost to himself or herself!

In the event that you supply the above evidence and PayPal decide the matter in your favour then you won't lose any of the money that you made from the sale, as PayPal will have ascertained by that point that the buyer has no justifiable claim to a refund and therefore will not transfer the money across to the buyer's account.

[istevenh888]

If the buyer was actually hacked where can I find eBay's policy regarding collection? Does eBay provide seller protection at this point as it was their fault for security / failing to warn me about collection scams and what not?