A few weeks ago, I read a post by someone here that said “There are only two kinds of people who use PayPal—those who have been screwed by them and those waiting to be screwed by them”. Needless to say, I fell into the latter category but I managed to turn it around through sheer persistence, which honestly should not have been necessary on my part.
A couple weeks ago I purchased an item off someone on reddit for about $500 and paid using PayPal invoice. After the seller had shipped out the item, I kept an eye out on tracking expecting the package to arrive in 2-3 days. After a week, it was still in transit so I reached out to the seller who contacted USPS and notified me the package was deemed to be lost. It was at this point I had requested a refund, but that’s when the seller decided to ghost me so I opened a dispute with PayPal.
1st encounter: I read that I should immediately call instead of relying on PayPal’s system, so I spoke to a rep who told me they will reach out to the seller and determine what was going on. At this point they said to give it time for the seller to respond and since this was my first time dealing with a dispute, I trusted their word and waited. Two days later, I noticed a pending refund from the seller which ended up getting declined by their bank, either due to not enough funds or forced cancellation.
2nd encounter: Not wanting to wait on this, I called PayPal again a day after the refund was denied and spoke to someone regarding how the policy works. It was at this point she told me that PayPal tries to request the refund from the seller 3 times before automatically refunding me and taking it from the seller. I explained the situation where the bank had declined the refund and she told me they will try again and to just wait and if there are any issues, to call back. I huffed, but she sounded genuine and it felt like things were going to go in my favor so I obliged.
3rd encounter: This is where shit hits the fan. The rep I spoke to had a faint idea of what was going on with the case “okay, you claimed item wasn’t delivered but do you have proof?” It was at this point I told him the tracking number says the item’s still in transit and no movement has been recorded and also where I mentioned the seller filed a claim with USPS who said the package was lost—then he cut me off immediately “It’s USPS problem if the package was lost and chances are you’re going to lose this case but you should wait 4 more days”. I tried to reason with him explaining that the package never arrived, I can’t get in touch with the seller anymore, and USPS has been of no help to which he just recited PayPal policy and increasingly became more frustrating to talk with. I politely told him I no longer wished to speak to him at which point he notified me that he’s been keeping track of everything I said in the notes in case I tried calling back. At this point, I straight up hung up.
4th encounter: This is where I considered waiting 4 days, but I had a deadline to get this resolved by Aug. 18th after which PayPal would close the case. I also didn't want to take any chances in case PayPal deemed in favor of the seller and closed the case in which case I'd have to try my luck with my CC company. I decided to call back an hour later and was immediately connected to a customer service rep who had to transfer me to dispute. The lady I spoke to couldn’t have been more helpful. I explained that I did not receive the item and it’s been nearly a month at which point she requested to put me on hold for about 5 minutes and then said she would go ahead and start processing the refund. I honestly did not want to say anything else at the expense of screwing myself over. I took a look at my PayPal account and everything looks to be in order.
It baffles me that I spoke to 4 different people and they all had a different idea on how the policy works at PayPal. I honestly don’t know who’s right or wrong in this situation, but it’s the last time I attempt to make a purchase using invoices. It sucks because I’ve been buying/selling things on PayPal for almost 5 years now and this is the first time I’ve ran into an issue like this. I’m glad it worked out, but I feel as though this should have been something that could have been resolved within the second, if not first, point of contact.
Submitted August 07, 2019 at 03:58PM by agentGS https://ift.tt/2MFFK6S
