UPDATED 5/16: BEWARE PAYPAL CHARGEBACKS! If you sell on eBay, read this...

[bounce]

UPDATE:

Spoke to a supervisor at Paypal, basically the same story.


Federal law provides buyer's the ability to dispute charges with their financial institutions. In a case like this, Paypal is simply a conduit who acts on my behalf as a seller to respond to these cases, however it's the other financial institution who decides whether the chargeback occurs or not. Paypal says they have NO CONTROL over that decision.

Paypal also said that they DO NOT RECEIVE any information from the other financial institution, other than the request. They said that there is a 3rd party involved (likely a judge somewhere) who is provided the information from both sides and ultimately makes the decision. However, Paypal CANNOT SHARE THAT INFORMATION WITH ME.

So again, there's a mystery financial institution, a mystery "arbiter" so to speak, that I don't have direct access to communicate with to prove that I held up my end of this deal.

Additionally, chargeback policies are at the discretion and prerogative of each individual "financial institution", meaning they set the rules and as a seller I'm ultimately at risk of having to abide by those terms despite no notice of what they may be. Paypal acts on my behalf to defend against it, but ultimately has no authority to stop it. Many of those policies allow for chargebacks up to 6 months and sometimes longer, and may not necessarily require valid evidence to support the claim.

So, it really doesn't matter that I was never requested to issue a refund by the buyer or their financial institution, they can simply claim it under those words and there's really nothing I can do about it other than hope that this mystery person somehow rules in my favor.

My expectation of recovery has officially dropped to zero as of this point - I will not get that money and I will not get that card back.

I've considered going back to eBay on this, but I already know what they're going to say to me - payment went through Paypal, not it.

Appreciate the other advice, I will consult an attorney and try and understand what other options I have that would potentially yield any reasonable hope of success or recovery.