On November 15, I bought an HP Compaq NX9010 P4 3.06Ghz laptop computer on Yahoo Auctions. I paid $650.00 for the laptop with my Bank of America debit card. I received confirmation that the seller (also known as Christine Young or William Yong) had received my payment through PayPal (credit card services) merchant services.
I wrote the seller back and asked for a shipping tracking number. The seller replied that they had already sent the merchandise and forgot to get a tracking number. I replied and thanked them for getting the merchandise out quickly. I waited 10 days for the laptop to arrive by UPS, and it did not show up, so I contacted the seller. I asked if the package had been sent. They replied that it should already be there and asked me to wait a couple more days since it was the Thanksgiving weekend. I waited until Monday night, and the laptop still had not shown up. I then called UPS to see if they could track the package by name. UPS said they had no package being sent to me by that seller's name.
I emailed the seller to say that I still had not received the laptop and that I had contacted UPS. I told the seller that UPS said there were no packages in the system scheduled for delivery to me under that name. The seller wrote back saying he would contact UPS in the morning to find out what was going on. After this I received no more emails from the seller. The seller stopped responding to my attempts to email.
I contacted PayPal and my bank to resolve this case of fraud. I had my bank do a chargeback on the bad transaction, since I paid with a debit card that carries a buyer protection plan. PayPal wrote back stating that they were going to investigate the incident. PayPal also claims to have buyer protection on its website.
A few more days passed, and my bank did the chargeback and refunded the money on December 3. On December 13, PayPal made a debit transaction to my account and took the money back. I contacted PayPal, and they do not want to give my money back. They claim to have done nothing wrong by allowing a verified fraudulent seller to steal my money.
The money I paid for this laptop was for my college studies. It is government money that I am borrowing so I can get a degree at a local university that I attend. The money was earmarked for a laptop that I need for school. PayPal responded that it could not get the money back from the seller, so I must take the loss. My bank has still done nothing to retrieve the money, and PayPal has refused to answer my bank's inquiries.
I emailed PayPal and told them that PayPal needs to provide disclosures to buyers on the front page of all auction sites that use its services, stating that it will not be responsible for fraudulent transactions or for unsatisfactory merchandise not sent or sent by the seller when PayPal services are used. PayPal has refused. Boycott PayPal and eBay before you get burned.
In my emails to PayPal, I said that PayPal verified this seller and allowed the seller to use its service to defraud people, that I do not even think this person exists, and that PayPal needs to call the police and the FBI. I said I would have every government agency I can investigate the company's deceptive practices on eBay and PayPal, and that I would make sure PayPal is forced to put a disclaimer on every seller website that accepts PayPal if my money is not refunded. I also told them that, since the company accepts credit cards for online purchases, it is required by law to follow the credit card companies' policies on fraud, and that I must be refunded at once.
PayPal's replies said that the PayPal Buyer Complaint Policy does not guarantee recovery of funds and that recovery is done on a best-effort basis, whether or not the seller is verified. They said there were not sufficient funds in the seller's account to pay any of my claim. After its investigation, PayPal stated that it had determined the seller was at fault but was unable to recover any funds from the seller's account for the transaction of $664.49 on Nov. 16. PayPal also said that if the transaction took place on eBay, I might qualify for partial reimbursement under eBay's Standard Purchase Protection Program for amounts greater than $25.00, and that otherwise I should contact the auction site. Please protect yourself from fraud: do not use eBay auctions, PayPal merchant services, or Yahoo Auctions.
0 comments