Ebay refund against a purchase I made but insist I open a paypal account

[MARTIN3030]

Top and bottom of it is that I bought an X box from ebay.Seller was not too far from me so arranged to collect.I had asked during auction if everything was included.

Seller said yes.

Arranged to go and collect.Xbox was wrapped up and already addressed to someone else.

Seller claimed that another buyer had failed to pay so she had relisted it but prior to him winning had packaged it ready.

She came outside from house and gave me parcel-I gave her money.

I asked if all was inside she said yes-any problems call me.

Got home and checked.

No power supply no cotrol pad no leads no Hard drive.

Called her back she didnt answer call.

Tried a further few times over next days again no reply.

Then decided to check her feedback and saw my Xbox had been won by another guy who had paid but she did not send.He had won a case and got his money back.

Decided to file an item not as described case.

ebay sent me email-giving her until xxxx etc to sort.

This passed/

They then sent me return label saying take item to your PO.

Once we see its been delivered back we will refund you.

I sent them email asking how they would be doing this as I had no paypal account.

They did not respond to that.

Today I get email from paypal saying they have found in my favour and are making a full refund to me but to have access to this need to open a paypal account.

Now I dont want to open a paypal account and think that by requesting that I do to get my money back is an unfair business practice since I paid in cash.

There was no indication that they would be refunding by paypal and neither did they answer me when I raised the question BEFORE they upheld my complaint.

Any ideas ?

[rebel11]

Can they not refund you by cheque, as you paid by cash or a bank transfer?.

 

Don't forget they try to promote Paypal, thus encouraging people to open Paypal accounts.

[MARTIN3030]

Yes I know.

The reason I dont want a paypal account is that I have read lots of nightmare stories.

[andydd]

How can Paypal decide in your favour when they know nothing about you ?. (i.e you dont even have a Paypal account). Too qualify for the extra protection offered by Paypal then you clearly need a Paypal account, bear in mind that sometimes the resolution process is soley done by Ebay (without any actual Paypal involvement).

 

I was under the impression it was now impossible to operate on Ebay without a paypal account and that you had to at least offer it as a payment method, but not neccasarily use it.

 

P.S. Remember to be eextra careful when buying selling desireable high cost items such as consoles, laptops, phones...they are the no.1 sca.m/fraud target, its is not wise to 'pick-up' high cost items and you should always check to make sure they are working. You do realise that the seller could of denied all knowledge that you picked up the item and you would have no proof of postage.

 

Andy

[MARTIN3030]

Hi Andy,

There is only a need to open or have a paypal account if you are selling.

I am only buying so have never needed.

If I win something that can only be paid by paypal-i ask my neigbour to pay and give her the money beforehand -just means contacting seller before bidding and asking for their paypal ID they always say ok.

[perplexity]

I buy on eBay, without a Paypal account of my own because they allow a member to use a Paypal account owned by somebody else.

 

Are they willing to pay the sum to somebody else who could act as a trusted intermediary?

[andydd]

Aha..But using 3rd parties to pay or receive money adds further complexity and risks to buying online. Im no fan of Paypal but I use it as it does make buying and selling far easier plus you do have the benefit of protection if things go wrong, Im not sure at the moment how Paypal's protection differs to Ebays protection, Im sure the Paypal protection is more comprehensive.

 

It sounds to me as if the original poster actually had his dispute settled by Ebay and not Paypal (I cant see how PP can settle it, if he had no PP account) but of course it still leaves the question of how Ebay will reimburse him ?

 

Andy

[MARTIN3030]

I will send them a letter.

I have all the comms-I guess thats one good thing about ebay-everything is well logged in your messages.

Am not frightened of taking them on.

Obv they will try the usual "our terms and conditions" bla bla bla...

I wont bother using their online processes as I know it will go on forever.

As regards paypal,yes this is really not a paypal issue since I didnt pay that way.

I remember them being forced to have an office registered here to bring them under FSA regulation after they were avoiding any recourse by their Lux only offices from UK regulation.

As it stands I have paid for the goods,and following instructions and by arrangement with ebay,have returned them to the seller.

At no point during the complaint procedure did ebay indicate that any refund would only be made by paypal.

It is reasonable to expect them to know I did not have a paypal account,and even if they didnt,I did send them an email informing me of that a week before they sent the last email.

I will just send them a 14 day LBA.

[rebel11]

Hi Martin

 

You've got the CEO of E-bay, e-mail address:-)

[MARTIN3030]

I have been doing lots of reading.

Seems that service of anythingg has to be done right.

I even saw one Cagger from 2009 who discontinued a claim because it was served wrong.

I guess there is a lot of apathy here because they are so big,but big should not mean unbeatable.

CAG members have taken on some of the biggest corporations in the world and won.

Knowing that,is of couse good reasons to be willed.

[perplexity]

That was more than a week ago.

 

Did the Earth move or what?

[single]

I do not work for PayPal and have no connection to PayPal apart from being a 'user' of PayPal - and your information or rumours that PayPal is dodgy is completely wrong - PayPal is the biggest and safest bank in the world with over 230 million accounts - it is very safe to use and covers you for internet purchases from £0 to £500 - your credit card only covers you above £100 and your debit card does not cover you at all

The reason you hear bad reports about PayPal is they charge a fortune to sellers to use them and it's the sellers that are complaining and not the buyers - buyers do not pay fees

In my humble opinion - you are very lucky indeed that eBay wants to refund you as there is no proof that you paid cash at all - whereas if you had paid through PayPal your money would have been safe

As you probably know - you do not need to have a PayPal account to send money through Paypal - but you do need a PayPal account to receive money

I highly recommend you open a Paypal account and insist that all internet traders use PayPal - that way only Paypal get to know your credit card details and not every company you buy from - the more companies that know your credit card details the more chance of your details being exposed to the wrong people

[perplexity]

Actions speak louder than words.

 

Paypal is a bank in Europe but not identified as such in the USA and is not a bank, according to Peter Thiel, because it does not engage in fractional-reserve banking.

 

Instead of being so deliberately stupid I suggest to peruse the thousands of warnings posted to online forums where the buyers do indeed complain, as well as the sellers.

 

Were it half so much as good idea as it pretends to be there would not be the need for eBay to inflict the Paypal option by force; it should rather be sold on merit.

 

On ebay.de where it is not so compulsory it continues to fail to convince because the sellers are not so stupid as to wish to pay more for less than nothing. Paypal offers less, not more by way of protection than is already available as a legal right in Europe.

[MARTIN3030]

I do not work for PayPal and have no connection to PayPal apart from being a 'user' of PayPal - and your information or rumours that PayPal is dodgy is completely wrong - PayPal is the biggest and safest bank in the world with over 230 million accounts - it is very safe to use and covers you for internet purchases from £0 to £500 - your credit card only covers you above £100 and your debit card does not cover you at all

The reason you hear bad reports about PayPal is they charge a fortune to sellers to use them and it's the sellers that are complaining and not the buyers - buyers do not pay fees

In my humble opinion - you are very lucky indeed that eBay wants to refund you as there is no proof that you paid cash at all - whereas if you had paid through PayPal your money would have been safe

As you probably know - you do not need to have a PayPal account to send money through Paypal - but you do need a PayPal account to receive money

I highly recommend you open a Paypal account and insist that all internet traders use PayPal - that way only Paypal get to know your credit card details and not every company you buy from - the more companies that know your credit card details the more chance of your details being exposed to the wrong people

 

 

Please dont try to twist my words-I never said Paypal was dodgy.If you care to read again I said this;

 

"The reason I dont want a paypal account is that I have read lots of nightmare stories."

 

I stand by those assertions since a simple search on the internet will show just that.

The CAG has also seen many complaints here since 2006-I suggest you take a look.

Being the biggest in the world does not by any means make it the best or the safest.

 

You are entiled to your own opinions however-and at the end of the day we all make our own choices.

[MARTIN3030]

In conclusion,I decided to play safe.

I have Halifax online banking.

With that there is provision for adding a websaver account,which has a sep account number and sort code from the main account.

Given that there was no requirement to add my card details,I set up the websaver account in minutes and registered this.

I then transferred the paypal balance into the websaver account and once it appeared I moved it to my main account which took 30 seconds.

[rebel11]

Hi Martin

 

Lateral thinking, good stuff.

[single]

Goodness me - and there I was thinking forums were to help each other - I make a post and get aggressive replies - guess I won't bother any more

[rebel11]

I'm not sure how you've managed to come up with the word 'dodgy' from reading Martin's comments. If I said 'I didn't trust the police,', it wouldn't mean they were 'dodgy'.

 

Goodness me - and there I was thinking forums were to help each other - I make a post and get aggressive replies - guess I won't bother any more

[perplexity]

...that PayPal is dodgy is completely wrong - PayPal is the biggest and safest bank in the world with over 230 million accounts -

 

 

Where did the "230 million" come from, anyway?

 

eBay's annual report to shareholders claims "68.6 million PayPal registered active accounts in approximately 190 markets".

[MARTIN3030]

Anyway.I subscribe to the notion that the complaining customer is always right.

[perplexity]

Once bitten, twice shy, I was an eBay enthusiast once upon a time but there is nothing quite so convincing as the cold light of bitter experience, to force a change of opinion.