Paypal Started The 180 Day Refund Window On Nov. 18

Maybe everyone knows this but me, but I was talking to Paypal the other day and I asked them about the 180 refund process. The rep told me it started for sales closing after Nov 18th. I explained to her some of the problems I could forsee and she assured me it will only get worse when ebay and Paypal become separated in the Spring. She said the reason they went to 180 days was the Credit Cards were already 180 days and Paypal would rather handle the refunds themselves. She said we should keep good records if we want to dispute a refund.

There is always the conspiracy theory to fall back on. lol

We are going to just have to wait to see how these changes are going to effect stamp collecting etc.

But I still believe this new 6 month return policy is geared more for the person selling electrical goods so as to give the buyer a warranty on the product purchased.

eBays credibility when it comes to cheap China made electrical products must not look very pretty at all. Then there is other items that fit etc.

The 6 months paypal dispute process affects all goods not just electrical, also for other paypal transactions not done via ebay. I like to see what happens to one of us stamp sellers when someone raises a paypal dispute 5 months down the track on a postage stamp that was sent via regular airmail in the post. The seller has no POD so has no leg to stand on. Only safe guard send everything registered and keep hard copies of all transactions. Or not sell anything if your postage is set high $$ registered in all your ebay lots.

Proof of delivery, postal insurance ect is all for the seller's protection. ebay already has systems in place to protect the buyer. Each seller has to determine for himself if he needs protection on lots shipped.

The determination is based on $ value of the shipment, prior experience with the buyer and a number of other factors only each of us can decide.

On shipments not worth the extra expense, we need to use the ebay feedback system to help track that an item has been delivered. If the buyer doesn't give feedback in an adequate time frame, a follow up message should be sent to confirm that everything is OK. At least it will create a paper trail should a problem arise.

If that's too much bother for the seller, then the value of the lot isn't worth the effort and don't worry about it.

The vast majority of buyers and sellers are honest. It won't take long to identify those that aren't and to avoid them.

Unfortunately, because a buyer leaves feedback does not, by itself, prevent them from claiming that they did not receive an item later on... Doesn't make sense, I know, but the only acceptable proof according to ebay and Paypal is delivery confirmation or signature confirmation that can be viewed online, depending on the value of an item. For minimal value items, since you don't do delivery confirmation, there simply is no way to confirm receipt of the item... I suppose you could initiate email traffic within the ebay system with a buyer asking them to confirm receipt, and then use said traffic to confirm buyer's receipt (it can be checked independently by ebay or PayPal), but I suspect that this would also fail do to their strict rules about having electronic delivery confirmation or signature. Go figure... John

If someone wants to give me a hard time and rip me off because they are scam based buyer it will just about always happen sooner than later. I do not believe things will change much for most collectible sellers when it come to scammers.

But I do believe that people selling electrical goods etc will be dramatically effected by the changes. All that poorly made China junk is going to be claimed on when it breaks down within the 6 month time frame given now by ebay. And so these seller should have too give a warranty on their products. A 6 month warranty on these type of goods is great stuff.

We have purchased 5 types of electrical goods on ebay over the years from $40 to $2,500 but we will never buy these type of items again on ebay. Three of them broke down after 2 month and two others did not work on delivery. So for two items we got our money back after heaps of hassling and the other three item we had no way to make a claim which is just not good enough.

I once saw a buyer trying to claim he did not receive his stampless letter but had it listed for sale on his site. He got his money back from the seller. So I can imagine some scammers trying similar, buying a stamp, selling it then raising a dispute 5 months down the track. POD for expensive items is ok but seller needs to decide if its needed or not. I have a lot of regular buyers for them I don't need POD, if a new buyer comes along for something high value then I would consider POD. The only other thing to do is to block the ebay id of such scammers and alert as many ebay sellers as you can to block that id.

KGV you're probably right and it won't make any difference. From what the Paypal rep said people can do it now by claiming refunds on their Credit Cards and I've never had it happen. However, I am starting to archive my images and tracking data just in case. Of course Paypal will probably adopt ebay's "the buyer is always right" strategy anyway