Paypal debt

Hi there,
I was wondering if i could get some advice from anyone who may be able to help me with an ebay/paypal dispute over me selling an iphone5s. Basically i sold an iphone5s brand new and sealed on ebay, then when the guy received it he said his sim didn't work - ( i immediately assumed he was a dumbass as he probably didn't realise it required a different sim from the iphone 4/4s and such). So basically he raised a dispute with paypal saying the sim doesn't work and said it was significantly different from the described listing i placed - so then paypal told him to send the phone back to me and i have now been ordered to pay the 700 pound back - paypal will not listen to me at all, why should i accept a now opened iphone 5s which automatically devalues the product and furthermore how could paypal just take his side when i described the listing exactly how it was, a sealed brand new iphone 5s. So now i'm stuck with a -703 account with paypal and ordered to pay the money, but the buyer raised the dispute under 'significantly different from described' but i described it perfectly so it seems his initial claim is bogus anyway, it seems ive been given the short stick as the seller and paypal are not interested one bit?
What can i do? because i don't want to be out of pocket for this stupid guys fault of not knowing the 5s needed a different simcard

Thank you.

 

the guy clearly is a dumbass to pay 700 pound for an iphone.

Did you tell them what sim it uses? Does it not use the nano sim? If yes, then did you tell them they just need to use a sim cutter to convert a regular sim down to a nano sim? Sim cutters are available on ebay, hell, tell them they can buy one, and demand a full refund after they have finished with it.

There is an article here about someone else having issues with their sim to work in an iphone, read here:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13...ng-and-verizon-wireless-sim-validation-crisis
(scroll down to the bottom is where they cannot get their sim card to work, and explains how they were able to finally get the stupid thing to work)
I found that article by doing 1 google search, there may be better ones, but did you try at all to explain the situation?

If you cannot contact them via the dispute, reach out directly to the buyer. Do your best to explain how they can fix it. Apart from that, your best bet is to simply accept it and sell it to someone else, you havent really lost 700 pound, as you will have the phone back, and you can still resell it (providing that they include everything, which most dont)
Make sure that you demand that the buyer pays for insurance on the return, otherwise you are boned.

 

Well first off, hopefully you did get the iphone back from the buyer. As for the debt, if PayPal favored with the buyer then there really is no choice but to pay the negative balance if you want to continue using PayPal.

Yeah, it definitely sucks when PayPal favors the buyers for the wrong reasons.

 

I have run into this problem with Paypal before, you'll find it very hard to go through them and argue your case.

I had a site afew years back that dealt in virtual currency, it was next to impossible to fight against people claiming they didnt receive the currency, even though i had logs to prove it. I ran into issues on ebay where people would constantly message me saying they wanted a refund, or '£100 off and i wont give you bad rep'. Either the guy is a technophobe or hes playing the game, alot of people know the buyer has the power on ebay.

 

First things first ... you are highly unlikely to win argument with PayPal. If they chose to side with buyer, short of a miracle, you are in debt with them and have to pay them if you want to continue using their service. Which is why I do not use PayPal for direct transactions with buyers, instead I am happy to lose up to some % to intermediary agencies that minimize issues and that usually side with me if there is a conflict.

If you can get your buyer to email you something that you can use as proof to PayPal that he received that phone, they might switch sides. Especially if you simply refund 700 and take phone back. That 700 was serious overcharging in the first place, so maybe look into karma.

Seriously, you should have sold that iPhone through Kijiji or Craigslist for cash. Person can take a look at it in front of you, and fair price is closer to 450-500 (after all, I got mine free with 2 year contract), but whichever way it goes if there are problems you can talk to person directly, maybe do partial refund, and not need to go through all the layers of PayPal.

 

When selling online - whether through PayPal or a merchant account - this kind of customer behavior is simply a risk you run by being in business. The only way to avoid this scenario, as others have pointed out, is either to sell to a trusted third party for a lesser amount (Gazelle or other buyback sites) or sell it for cash only. You won't have much recourse available, unfortunately, as it's your word against the buyer's. Hopefully you received the iPhone back and you can resell it for most of its value.

 

Paypal will almost side with the buyer no matter what. I am not a selling business by no means nor do I sell often But I had a watch I wanted to sell and sold it on ebay while it was an expensive watch the person who bought it said it was fake and I showed papers and reciept to paypal proving it was not and they won the case and sent the watch back and I got a completely different watch with a different serial number and everything. Paypal is protected by the law though(I work in law) and they are allowed to make there best judgement on things(which is almost always with the buyer)

 

PayPal sides with the party raising the claim - no matter if there's any grounds for that or not.