PayPal
Damaged velvet painting dispute dragging on for about 10 months

PayPal is not a safe service!

My elderly mother sold a painting on eBay. It was appraised at $300, and she sold it for about $140 plus $20 to ship it to Hawaii.

The guy who bought it got curious or something and started to pull the painting apart (to take it out of the frame?). Anyway, he damaged the soft velvet painting, damaged the canvas, and damaged the authenticity sticker! Then he disputed it, saying he received the painting in this condition!

OK, well, I would think she is safe since the auction includes photos of the condition, but it seems that meant nothing to PayPal. My mother tried to deal with it herself and didn't understand fully (she is older and new to these things). She thought it was buyer's remorse and he wanted to return it, so she agreed to take it back short postage (why should she refund postage on buyer's remorse?). It seems PayPal took this courtesy as an admission of guilt and told the buyer that if he sends the painting back and pays for postage, they will refund the purchase amount plus the first postage amount. She had already withdrawn the money. Now they held the file open, giving her a chance to dispute the condition, but no matter how much contact she made, they refused to take her dispute when she said the painting is horribly damaged. She even filed police reports for mail fraud (she obviously had nothing to hide, but they don't care). They won't accept this. They basically sent her to collections to try to get the money back, and now she has a damaged painting worth maybe $20 which was worth $300 before.

Basically this is a beware service. If you use PayPal, beware of the problems with their protection service! It doesn't protect everyone!

In addition, I spoke to PayPal many times on her behalf. They admit that they are completely aware of abusers of the system. They gave me the following example: "Oh yeah, someone can go buy a 3,000 computer, for example, receive it, then strip it for parts and dispute it saying they got an empty tower! In this case they send it back to the seller, maybe at a major loss!" The PayPal rep continued to go on: "And I've seen where someone will buy a sweater, rip it the next day and then claim they received it in this condition. We know it's out there since the odd time we catch someone, but it's HARD!"

PayPal admits there are flaws in their systems and that the wrong people are held responsible for someone else's dishonesty and thievery. Yet they continue to practice their same policies. In my situation it dragged on for about 10 months and is still unresolved to this date.

Company: PayPal
Country: USA
Site: paypal.com

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