Ebay Buyer Protection and Collection Agencies

[Donna]

I have a well established account and one shipment of (expensive- $500ish) items that I sold and shipped out went "missing" from a UPS store where I dropped them off at (long story that we'll skip, not the important part of the story) and so I found out first hand Ebay's response under the new Buyer Protection thing.

First, people filed complaints, and then about half of the 20 items had an Ebay-based dispute. Nothing happened to my Paypal. Then after a week or two or three (I was persuing a police report avenue hoping the UPS Store employee would cough up the stuff, so I let the Ebay stuff just ride in the meantime) one or two complaints were in my Paypal account, then the rest of the disputes were filed and showed up in my Ebay account. I had 18 cases in Ebay under "resolutions" and 2 "item not recieved" in my Paypal account.

Under "resolutions" in my Ebay account you could see the open cases, and since I didnt respond to the disputes I owed Ebay (not paypal) the amount on each item that was owed Ebay. Very different than the old way where things showed up in Paypal and holds were placed on the incoming payments. Anyway, my account was never suspended, though of course I did get some bad feedbacks. Pretty quickly (within 15-30 days) I had collection agencies calling me on the number registered with the Ebay account about the amounts that were in the Ebay disputes (not the 2 that were in Paypal).

Eventually I gave up hoping to recover the items, and paid the amounts through the Ebay Resolutions center with a credit card. The Ebay customer service person (one of the ones in the US departments- I never listen to what the outsourced drones say/read) said that I had 30 days to resolve the items in the Resolutions Center before they suspended my account.

I paid those before the 30 days, and except for the feedbacks from the buyers (who were refunded by Ebay BEFORE I paid the Resoution Center cases off) and I was/am fine. This is a few months ago, and at the time the Ebay rep told me the Buyer Protection program was still pretty new. Does it still work the same way?

My question is does Ebay itself still reimburse the buyers out of pocket even before they try to recover funds from the seller and their paypal accounts? At the time (3 months ago-ish) everyone who filed through Ebay got paid immediately when I didnt respond to the dispute.

[Donna]

(By the way, I can see the advantages and why they might have changed it to doing it this way because they can brag about better Buyer coverages, plus they can SELL these debts to the collection agencies rather than take the full hit themselves)

[cardfelon]

Yeah it still works the same. Ebay just pays the claim themselves then they try and collect the debt from the Ebay account holder.

[incniu]

You should use unreal name and phone.

[Donna]

That's just it. My account was old and established, with perfect feedback. I wasnt sure it was wise paying off $4,500 worth of "resolutions" to reinstate my account, with no guarantee that Ebay would even reinstate it once I paid the balance. They are so fickle, and never give good reasons for locking up accounts, to put everything I had into the account to fix it was a huge (and stupid?) risk.

If it was with all ⊗⊗⊗⊗ info, and I just decided it was a lost cause (because of Ebay's lack of concern for individuals) and abandoned it without fixing the items in the Resolutions (around $4,400 worth), do you think anything would have happened? Do you think someone would have investigated it and come after me?

[cardfelon]

I highly doubt that Ebay would launch a huge investigation into only $4400. Now if it was like $25000 maybe they would.

[art888]

How do the buyers get the money back once they win a dispute? do they get ebay credit or the money goes to the paypal account?

[luna]

the money goes back into the paypal account or maybe they did a credit card reverse and then got it back onto their credit card. whatever they paid with.

[holymoly]

Well in the long run...it would have been fine if you had all phony info on there...but since it's real NEVER let those fees add up to a debt agency or you will ruin your credit score!