PayPal tells buyer to destroy antique violin and then gives them back $2500

[Prometheus]

I'm sure we've all run into PayPal's bizarre policies and nonsense at least once, but here's one that amazed me: A buyer disputed the authenticity of an antique violin, even though it had already been authenticated, and PayPal told the buyer that they would give them their money back if the buyer destroyed the violin and provided pictorial proof to the seller.


Just when you think you've seen it all, something like this pops up... :blink:


EDIT: I can only assume that this is some policy on counterfeit junk that's been horrendously badly-applied, here. If applied to the context of an easily-proven fake handbag or the like, bearing in mind that it's illegal to send counterfeit goods through most countries' postal systems, you can sort of understand the "Destroy the fake goods and we'll process the refund" mentality. But not with this!

 

[Stradian]

Reddit?

 

[-Tj-]

That's insane...! Such an odd policy. Hope something good comes of this.

 

[MarioPandio]

Well there's one less violin in the world to be potentially played awfully, if that counts

 

[Caine]

This kind of strange behaviour from paypal is exactly why I refuse to create an account with them.


What's next? Burn-your-books-day?

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, I know where their policy comes from.


I bought an N900 via eBay and it was fake (a cheap chinese clone).


Selling stuff like this is illegal in Germany - and these illegal items have to be destroyed.


Therefore, PayPal only refunds the money if you destroy these items.


If they would NOT do it like that, a lot more fraud would happen on eBay and PayPal could be used to make money (by selling an illegal item to your friend and he'd claim back the money, then reselling it anew, etc.)


However, they didn't just ask me for a confirmation that I destroyed the item, they also wanted to have proof that it was a fake one.


So I had to go to the Nokia store and get a written confirmation to proof it was a cheap knock-off.


And that's the weird thing here: An expert already approved the violin was authentic and PayPal didn't even ask the buyer to get a confirmation from another expert - so this is the weird thing here.


I'm sure though that the seller can go to court and get the money back from PayPal (if necessary, as this story gained a lot of negative publicitiy for PayPal, so they are most likely giving the money back to the seller).


She got the expert confirmation that the violin was authentic and she clearly sold and properly shipped it (the picture of the destroyed violin is proof that it arrived), so this was a mistake from PayPal and they therefore have to fix that and give the seller the money back.


With these things, going to court is most likely to be successfull...

 

[Jumpman]

This is what happens when your company is ran by 99% robots. Even if what Ed says is true, and they need confirmation on the buyers end that it is fake, no real human will check it at Paypal, so the buyer could have had his mother right up a note and say it was fake and then they will issue a refund.


What a load. For the amount of money Paypal is taking from sellers, the least they could do is set up shop and have expensive items like this sent to them, so they can prove if it is real or not. Then if it is found to be real, they should send it back to the buyer only after they charge him for wasting their time.


Paypal has no "Balls", and as long as the money keeps flowing, and profits are up, they will never fix these kinds of problems. Hopefully consumers will get together and file a class action lawsuit, and hit them where it hurts. As I am sure thousands in this country alone would hop on board.


At the end of the day, it is normally very easy to to see who is right, and who is wrong on paypal, but their robotic ASS system can't make that distinction, so you get stuff like this. Very sad really, considering how much money they make. They should really put more humans in charge of disputes like this.


PAYPAL SUCKS ASS!


Chris

 

[DaMummy]

yet you continue to use it, likely on a daily basis selling on ebay...

 

[craigix]

There are few alternative options out there.


Google claim not to be evil (etc.) but they shut down the iCP google checkout account for no reason (we don't have to give you one).


Although I suspect it was because the page mentions emulators, something which Google seem to be clamping down on now.

 

[diligentcircle]

The problem here is PayPal is seen by consumers as trustworthy, so sellers not offering to be paid with PayPal are very much shit out of luck. The only way PayPal can ever get better for sellers is via government regulation.