The power of the pen and persistence: PayPal ‘s reply to my appeal regarding an eBay Scam

My Dad used to say, “Don’t give up. Fight for what you believe is right.”

Last month, I was devastated about a transaction I had on eBay.

When an eBay buyer used an unauthorized credit card to purchase the camera lens I sold on eBay, I was dumbfounded. I couldn’t fathom the minutia of deceit people go through – and for what?

I made multiple calls to eBay and PayPal…and yes, a lot of anger, frustration and tears.

"I can't believe there are bad and fraudulent people operating within eBay and that they don’t protect their honest users from criminal behavior." I exclaimed.

"There's a lot of bad people everywhere - not just on eBay!" the eBay representative replied.

That exchange of communication left me more devastated than losing the money I lost.

Giving back $600 was a lot of money and I was beating myself up for my ignorance.

My husband has always been the first person I vent to because he’s the logical one. He pointed out that I didn’t do anything wrong. He did his research and pointed out the eBay page that would encourage me to fight for what I believe to be right and therefore, pointing the finger at eBay corporate.

And as always, my husband assured me that,

“ Don't blame yourself. You did nothing wrong.

I love you, and your happiness is worth a lot more than $600.”

So that’s when I turned self-pity into a productive task.

Document my unfortunate eBay story

I talked about my unfortunate eBay story last month on this blog, “We were robbed of $1,400 and the criminals used eBay to facilitate the crime and eBay isn’t standing by their system or their customers.” My eBay story was also published at TheFilAm.net “We were robbed of $1.4K, and eBay appears to be aiding and abetting the scam”

(Thank you, readers, for all your comments and feedback)

Contact eBay Investor Relations

On December 12, 2014 I wrote and mailed a letter to eBay Investor Relations. I included all documents pertaining to the transaction. I expressed in the letter that eBay claims that they “provide safe and fair environment” but what happened to me wasn’t safe or fair.

Contact Government Agencies

I filed a complaint with the Federal Bureau's Internal Crime Complaint Center (IC3), and the USPS Postal Inspector for Mail Fraud.

And then I put the whole incident aside. I moved on…

A month later, on Jan. 31^st, Paypal’s Office of Executive Escalations contacted me.

I want to personally thank you for contacting PayPal. Your concerns were recently forwarded to our office for review in the hope that we might be able to assist you further. I attempted to phone you earlier today but was only able to leave a message. I had hoped to discuss your letter dated December 12, 2014. I apologize for calling at an inconvenient time.

PayPal values you as our customer and wants to make your experience with us a positive one. After further review of your payment reversal, we are happy to offer you a courtesy credit of $340.00 USD in order to share your losses in this matter.

YES! Sometimes after you’re done crying and letting out frustrations, fighting back for what’s right eventually works.

I wrote PayPal back and thanked them for reviewing my appeal and asked them to forward my concerns to eBay corporate:

There are a lot of people who sell on eBay knowing that it’s a safe and fair environment only to find out, unfortunately, that they are not fully covered under Seller’s Protection. The community forum has an ongoing discussion between sellers who have been victimized and penalized by buyers scam. To truly provide a safe and fair environment, I am suggesting the following:

•eBay, the site where the sell-buy transactions are completed, should have warning signs, in big bold letters, alerting sellers to DO NOT TO SHIP TO ADDRESS NOT RECORDED IN THE PAYPAL ACCOUNT. IF YOU DO, YOU ARE NOT COVERED UNDER SELLER's PROTECTION AND/OR BUYER's NON-PAYMENT.

•eBay should reverse the listing charge (in my case, $66.50) for a product where the buyer did not pay or whose payment was declined because of an unauthorized credit card.

I hope eBay will update the warning alerts on their website.

I am still waiting to hear from the Federal Bureau’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.

I am still waiting to hear from the United States Postal Inspection Service.

Also published at the FilAm.net : Sometimes, eBay gets it right

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