This is my second time around with Paypal disputes and I see no other explanation except for some reason they always seem to be for the Buyer and not the Seller. It seems that no matter how perfect your seller feedback is nor your proof, they rule for the Buyer. The latest dispute was from a Buyer who said the item he purchased was damaged. I provided Paypal with pictures of the listing of the actual item and asked them to also consider my 99% positive feedback record. This item was an estate item and it was in mint condition when shipped double boxed with heavy duty bubble wrap. I asked if they would wait to refund the Buyer's payment until the item was received back and we could inspect it. However, it seems Paypal does not allow this. Once the item is shipped back to the Seller, the Buyer gets their funds returned!
When we received the item it was obvious that the item had been dropped. It was broken in five different areas and you could see the front (a Franklin Mint car) had a small dent in the metal when it was dropped. Plus with the broken parts, there would have been no way we could have taken pictures of it to make it look perfect. It had parts actually broken off of it from the fall. However, the moment the Buyer contacted Paypal that the shipping confirmation showed it had been received by us, they refunded the money to them. There was absolutely no recourse for us. The buyer had refused insurance so it was a total loss plus the shipping costs for us. We had already paid our consigner.
This obvious bias to Buyers by Paypal is something that needs to be fixed but I am not sure how. We are currently looking for another electronic payment company to move our business to. In the meantime, all sellers should be aware of the bias and the Paypal dispute system definitely needs to be overhauled to allow a more fair and balanced approach to handling complaints.
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