I recently sold 2 items totaling $748 via Paypal. Both items were shipped to the buyer's billing address with signature confirmation of delivery. Within 14 days of purchase, buyer contacted me requested return and refund of said products. I authorized the return. Instead of me receiving my merchandise back, the buyer sent a box back USPS Certified Priority Mail that was full of padding materials. Last week, buyer files a "Merchandise Not As Described" chargeback via his credit and wins the dispute. The $748 is deducted from my Paypal account. All the buyer had to do was show his credit card company a tracking # of a package being sent back to my company address (no matter what is inside) and he wins the chargeback. The buyer has effectively stolen from me as he now has my merchandise and his money at the same time.
When explaining this to Paypal, I have found myself to be in a "he said, she said", scenario. How can I prove that I was sent back padding materials instead of my merchandise? I got to thinking and discovered some pretty solid evidence for my rebuttal. The parcel I shipped him shows on UPS.com via the tracking info that it weighed 8 pounds. The USPS label of the return that he shipped back to me (packing materials) only weighed 2 pounds. My reasoning to Paypal being that if he infact returned my merchandise to me, why is there a discrepancy in the two weights. I scanned the image of the USPS return label and gave them my orginal UPS tracking # for them to see for themselves. I am currently awaiting a decision and hope to hear something by next week.
If the chargeback is reversed back into my favor, which it should be, what safeguard does Paypal provide against dishonest buyers should they decide to send a brick back that matches the weight of the original shipment the next time? If Paypal won't assist, what recourse would a seller have besides a Debt Collection Service?

If you really have compelling evidence, call the police. It is against Federal Law to lie on a chargeback form.

The packages with different weights will definitly help back you up. Thats very crappy to hear and sorry for that huge inconvience; I would be pissed. Anyways, goodluck to you!

Its a very sad world we live in that someone would do something like that...
Not really sure what you can do? Start video taping returns as the mail man delivers to you and you open it?
It's unfortunate...
Who is the buyer by chance? an Ebay ID?

TIME TO GO DONAHOE!
PLEASE do an internet sarch of "Paypal Scams". It will give you a better understanding of why so many people have discontinued their use of Paypal. Paypal, now in the hands of ebay CEO, John Donahoe has seen many recent & horrendous changes. Please read their amended User Agreement! Paypal now, at it's "sole discretion" can withhold users funds for 21-180 days and their is NO RECOURSE for the users! Go to ebay's own discussion boards and read the experiences from previous Paypal users at the boards titled, "Paypal" and "Selle Central". Please note that ebay censors their boards, so the Paypal nightmares are even worse than youwill read there. Due to Donahoe's recent harmful policies including FORCING ebayers to use Paypal (banning all money orders, checks etc), there is now a Worls wide ebay/Paypal boycott.
Please search the internet for "Ebay Stockholders and Sellers Calling For Immediate Termination of John Donohoe CEO" to read users comments and to sign the petition. For ebay/Payppal employees experiences, go to glassdoordotcom.
Please pass the petition information on to others!

Call the cops.

That is awful.. And sadly there are too many loopholes in paypal's structure.

That is awful.. And sadly there are too many loopholes in paypal's structure.
PayPal seriously suck sometimes..

it does seem like this guy is trying to scam you .. check out www.ripoffreports.com that might help some or may not .. but as other people said take this to the police or a lawyer cause thats just not right ..

Its a very sad world we live in that someone would do something like that...
Not really sure what you can do? Start video taping returns as the mail man delivers to you and you open it?
It's unfortunate...
Who is the buyer by chance? an Ebay ID?
The buyer was not an ebay user, he was a customer from one of my retail websites. I have been dealing with Paypal/ebay since 1999 and I this stunt that this guy pulled doesn't even surprise me. You are right, it is a very sad world we live in.

it does seem like this guy is trying to scam you .. check out www.ripoffreports.com that might help some or may not .. but as other people said take this to the police or a lawyer cause thats just not right ..
Oh yeah, I forgot about that site. I will be sure to post my experince there as well. Thanks for reminding me.

If you really have compelling evidence, call the police. It is against Federal Law to lie on a chargeback form.
Yes, I will escalate this to the police if the latest evidence I submitted doesn't reverse the chargeback into my favor.

TIME TO GO DONAHOE!
PLEASE do an internet sarch of "Paypal Scams". It will give you a better understanding of why so many people have discontinued their use of Paypal. Paypal, now in the hands of ebay CEO, John Donahoe has seen many recent & horrendous changes. Please read their amended User Agreement! Paypal now, at it's "sole discretion" can withhold users funds for 21-180 days and their is NO RECOURSE for the users! Go to ebay's own discussion boards and read the experiences from previous Paypal users at the boards titled, "Paypal" and "Selle Central". Please note that ebay censors their boards, so the Paypal nightmares are even worse than youwill read there. Due to Donahoe's recent harmful policies including FORCING ebayers to use Paypal (banning all money orders, checks etc), there is now a Worls wide ebay/Paypal boycott.
Please search the internet for "Ebay Stockholders and Sellers Calling For Immediate Termination of John Donohoe CEO" to read users comments and to sign the petition. For ebay/Payppal employees experiences, go to glassdoordotcom.
Please pass the petition information on to others!
Yes, this is all very, very true. There is also paypalsucksdotcom which details negative buyers/seller experiences as well. I heard that paypal sued that site with a request to have it shut down however paypal lost the suit.

So sorry to hear of your issue with PayPal and the chargeback system set up via credit card company's. First, if you have sold these items within the United States you can go to the fbi.gov web address and file a report or contact them if the purchaser lives within the United States. This falls under Online Fraud where the buyer is most certainly making a living purchasing & returning the wrong items.
Secondly, save an advanced search on e-bay for those items they purchased. You will receive mailings of the items listed on a daily basis or as they happen. This way, if your items show up online for re-sale you will be able to let e-bay know and cancel their account too, while e-bay also seeks charges against them. There have been several good strong cases where the evidence showed up for sale again on e-bay.
Credit card company's have rules that reach out even to the internet. For example, if you can not provide your service within a certain amount of time, then they can do chargebacks not only for that service, but for every customer you ever had which holds that specific card. For example if you created a childs Fairy Castle web site offering a subscription service you have to make certain your subscription service fit within the legal speak for all credit cards.
It it easy to go to any joe-blow website and post your issues but that does not help your case. You want to take responsible action that will result in this online fraudster being placed behind bars, your money and property being returned to you. Next step up is to educate others in the process.
If a person has done this to you, then this person has habitually done this to many other people.
There is a place online where ebay sellers can go to report the e-bay id's of people who scam the sellers. That way, other sellers are able to download the names and block those sellers from making purchase. That is a good one to research.
As far as researching PayPal, I have gone to Google clicked on News, scroll down and look to the left for News Alerts and click on that. Then choose COMPREHENSIVE, and type in PayPal or e-bay or wigix or revolutionexchange or whatever online businesses you work with. This will help to keep you appraised of the issues surrounding those who hold your money and products with you.
Best of luck,
lu

Also, I would like to address Jammer's post.
E-bay and PayPal may be owned by the same entities, but legally are considered two separate company's. I belong to a group that has become e-bay powersellers and we deal with E-bay and PayPal both.
When e-bay first put out the notice that on your e-bay pages you should not have the option of money orders or checks I immediately contacted them. Our store has people who are on the PowWow highway that can access the internet but do not hold a bank account as such and can only do business with money order. E-bay told me that we can accept money order if the client requests it with us, which they have continued to do and we have continued to accept. This has not altered our customer base.
Secondly, PayPal has held money of some of our clients. But even if we have done repeated business with that client and trust them implicitly, PayPal will not allow us to use their shipping service to send the item until the funds have cleared. So we are protected in that manner. In these tough economic times, without these measures by PayPal a person over the weekend when traditional banking services are more or less shut down until Monday, would be able to purchase a lot of your items and have you ship them out Monday morning. Then overnight when the banking computer's updated themselves would find that person's account to be empty. That chargeback would come back to the Seller who would be out of both money and items. By holding the funds, a Seller is protected and as soon as the funds clear both buyer and seller are notified that they can go ahead and finalize transactions. PayPal's statement to hold up to 21 days is that if a person made a purchase and the money was not in their account, that person would then have time to have money's transferred, deposited, etc into the appropriate account. Still, if the money is not there within 21 days, PayPal supports the Seller in having e-bay refund the final value fees.
Nope. I do not work for either. However, we have had these issues and have had them resolved by using all systems before us.
Best of luck,
Lu

I recently sold 2 items totaling $748 via Paypal. Both items were shipped to the buyer's billing address with signature confirmation of delivery. Within 14 days of purchase, buyer contacted me requested return and refund of said products. I authorized the return. Instead of me receiving my merchandise back, the buyer sent a box back USPS Certified Priority Mail that was full of padding materials. Last week, buyer files a "Merchandise Not As Described" chargeback via his credit and wins the dispute. The $748 is deducted from my Paypal account. All the buyer had to do was show his credit card company a tracking # of a package being sent back to my company address (no matter what is inside) and he wins the chargeback. The buyer has effectively stolen from me as he now has my merchandise and his money at the same time.
When explaining this to Paypal, I have found myself to be in a "he said, she said", scenario. How can I prove that I was sent back padding materials instead of my merchandise? I got to thinking and discovered some pretty solid evidence for my rebuttal. The parcel I shipped him shows on UPS.com via the tracking info that it weighed 8 pounds. The USPS label of the return that he shipped back to me (packing materials) only weighed 2 pounds. My reasoning to Paypal being that if he infact returned my merchandise to me, why is there a discrepancy in the two weights. I scanned the image of the USPS return label and gave them my orginal UPS tracking # for them to see for themselves. I am currently awaiting a decision and hope to hear something by next week.
If the chargeback is reversed back into my favor, which it should be, what safeguard does Paypal provide against dishonest buyers should they decide to send a brick back that matches the weight of the original shipment the next time? If Paypal won't assist, what recourse would a seller have besides a Debt Collection Service?
Well I need to saidly tell you that you can't do much except try to take snap shots and show it to Paypal, I don't know if you can represent that chargeback if paypal has sch an option so you can fight over with that but it seems you become a victim of fraud.

We live in tough times, it could have been worst, you could had a box of bricks in that box, anyways I had to deal with many paypal disputes, the best thing you can do is KEEP PRESSING them, they will reward the person it seems that bitches the most!

They will not rule in your favour. Paypal never does when it comes to chargebacks. I often have a backup paypal just in case for large transactions. I have people pay me to a back up account. And as soon as I get that money I send it to my bank (to a bank that does not allow money withdrawals to paypal), or I send it to my other paypal account. That way if a chargeback is filed
1. my bank wont put the money back into my account so the guy can get it back when he tries to rip me off.
2. its in another account. if needed i can send it back to the other account to issue a legit refund

2 things to do .. call the police as previously mentioned .. but no one mentioned the fact that it's a federal offence to use the Postal Service fradulently .. contact the postmaster general and file a complaint.