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buyer cheated me and paypal sided with them
 

i sold a laptop on ebay and they paid with paypal. they left positive feedback. couple days later get email from paypal that says laptop is not as described. paypal refunded his money which put my account with a negative balance. the buyer returns the pc and when i try to boot it up the bios is password protected. Ok, I reset the bios and then when it tried to boot the hard drive was password protected. I NEVER used passwords so why is it that a perfectly good laptop i shipped comes back in this condition. as you know cracking a password on a hard drive is pretty near impossible. Last resort, I email the crook and say either give me the password or $100 for a new one. the buttwad actually gave me the password. once i booted it went straight to repair your computer screen. i pick system restore and it shows you all the restore points. he had been installing and uninstalling software and f***** it up then passworded the hdd to cover his tracks. anyway i appeal to paypal and send them faxes of screenshots on the computer he claims was broken but some of the restore points have dates that prove otherwise. all this i send to paypal even the emails he sent giving me the password and they still sided with him. so now they are calling everyday trying to get the funds they took out of my account and gave it to this butthead. i have since repaired the pc and sold it to someone honest but I will be damned if i will give paypal jack****. it's the principal, i was upfront about everything and i still get screwed.

Consider yourself Lucky you received your repairable Laptop back.

If you want to sell online expect problems. I sell approximately 100 items a month and I know to expect 1 or 2 issues a month.

Please don't take this as judgment, but you are not entirely in the right here. End result is that you sold the laptop twice and pocketed the money both times.

Not that PayPal is any prizewinner in the morality sweepstakes. They have screwed a lot of people, so I do NOT feel sorry for them.

But, at the end on the day, TGMT is correct. If you are going to sell online, especially at eBay or Amazon, you can expect about 2% of your customers to cause you issues, and that is if you do everything RIGHT. That is just the reality of being an online seller.

You have to be able to distance yourself from these situations emotionally and approach them as a business problem. The first goal is to mitigate your loss. You don't want to deal with the customer in such a way that you lose your account. You also want to lose as little money as possible.

eBay, PayPal and Amazon almost ALWAYS side with the buyer, especially if the item is returned. In your case, the buyer had no idea what he was doing and screwed up the computer's configuration making it unusable. So, of course, he doesn't want to be out the money, so he returns it. Fixing it and re-selling it was the right move.

But if the account was in your real name, I urge you to reconsider leaving PayPal holding the bag. Because it WILL end up on your credit report, and that will cost you. You may not care right now, but the next time you want to buy a house, rent an apartment, buy a car, or whatever, you will suddenly care. Because the inerest rate you pay will be higher, if you can get the loan at all.

Again, please don't take this as me judging you. I'm not. I am far from perfect. In fact, I'd have to take two buses and a train to get back to slightly tarnished. I just wanted to point out what could be a negative consequence.

I Cannot Disagree with Anything that my Esteemed Colleagues have told you in their Posts here, I can only add more of the Same.

You did sell the Laptop twice so give Paypal their money, Especially if the account has your real Info on it,, Also depending on the amount Paypal can give you Police problems,,

Either way Paypal can hurt your credit rating which today is Harder to keep that EVER Before, or Paypal may convince law enforcement to have a look, Either way Who needs the headaches

And as was stated above, if you your are going to sell online especially electronics this will Happen from time to time and Paypal will ALWAYS side with the Buyer, do you think they actually looked at the screenshots you sent them? if you do you are CRAZY,,

It is a simple system they use, in all cases they see to it that the Seller has his item and the Buyer his money----END OF STORY,,,

I have had buyers send me back a Bunch of Newspapers in stead of an LED Monitor and Because Paypal had a Tracking number showing that the Buyer sent me back the "Defective" item I lost

Just the way it is

I would expect that 2% to increse to 50% when these buyers relize how easy it is to cheat sellers out of goods and money. I'm suprized that the buyer sent back the laptop! most buyers would keep the laptop and get a full refund as well cause paypal pretty much refunds the buyers as soon as a disputes open.

Sage advice, and I will add, you want to make things right with paypal be cause it is the RIGHT thing to do, and we should be better than just passing the buck. You want to rise above the lowlifes. Go forward with honor, integrety, and a strong moral compass, and not only will you feel better about yourself, but you will live your life knowing that you are a person of substance, and character.

I probably wouldn't refund a thief just as I wouldn't if they came into my brick and mortar business and tried to scam.
It just feels wrong to assist a thief but I've done it in the past to keep an account open. We really needed the money at that time.
Good luck in whatever you choose to do :pop2: