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My recent experience in PayPal dispute

I want to share this story with fellow Agoners.

I sold a used tube power amp here in Audiogon. In transit, a power tube was broken. I told the buyer that I could either send an additional matching tubes or accept a return with full refund. The buyer opted for additional tubes. I sent them and there was no response from him until 5 months after the sale. The buyer asked me for help since the amp had a biasing problem. The amp was almost 20 year old model.
I told him that I cannot provide any help other than trying new set of tubes. The buyer apparently wanted more helpful afterservice, and filed a dispute for return/refund to PayPal. Apparently PayPal allows filing a dispute within 6 months of purchase.
Well, he did not go through Audiogon. Anyway, PayPal closed the case in my favor. For me, it is rather obvious that the buyer cannot ask for a refund after 5 months of purchasing a 20 year old tube amp.
128x128ihcho
Post removed 
czarivey
5,716 posts
 
You need to know how to use paypal.
Using paypal requires you to know how to secure your funds QUICK or quicker than the light travels as soon as they hit the bucket.
$4000 on hold? really? I never allow that to happen. Once they tried to lock $400, but it was too late -- the money had been moved and CASHED QUICK. They set the account to negative, but that's I guess their problem. You can build an enormous number of paypal accounts to manipulate and secure your funds. If one account is negative -- open the other one positive and continue on and on...
8044drussell
93 posts
 

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to update with my $0.02.

In my case, PayPal is giving the seller a free ride and there is still the potential for me to lose both the purchase and extra shipping monies.

I purchased a pre-amp and amp from a seller with no feedback (my mistake). Mistake number 2 was to not request pictures of the actual product. What do they say, "If it's too good to be true, it usually is."?

I corresponded with the seller multiple times before the sale and they seemed genuine (mistake #3).

The two items arrived in the same box, inside another box. Poorly packaged, no doubt, but there was no apparent damage

The preamp came out with minor cosmetic damage (scratches on the top) but more than I would expect on a piece of equipment at it's MSRP.

The matching amp came through with significant cosmetic damage to the faceplate. The damage has cloth fibers in it (it looks like it was caught on something and then damaged) and there is no other evidence of fibers in the packaging. Therefore, I assumed the damage occurred prior to shipping.

I immediately took pictures and contacted the seller, who claimed that the items were sold as-is, with normal wear and tear for 1-year old items. The seller did not explicitly deny the damage until multiple messages later when it became clear that I was not going to drop the issue.

Additionally, all the cables were not included and it appears that the BlueOS capability is not functional.

After more correspondence with the seller, it became apparent they didn't care.

I opened a dispute with PayPal, requesting a partial refund.

The only response from PayPal was an offer of full refund from the seller. No discussion, no mediation, nothing.

So, if I send the products back, in better packaging, at my cost, I still risk the seller (proven to be untruthful) claiming that I caused damage and therefore losing part or all of my purchase price, and the return shipping cost.

The seller, aside from a bad review, gets the goods back to resell and possibly still some of my purchase money.

I have all of the pictures, correspondence, and I have not removed the evidence from the amp.

I just want to know how PayPal can get away with calling it dispute resolution when it appears that it can only be resolved to the satisfaction of one party.

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