Ebay/paypal item not received

[FALSE]

What is the name of your state? Ohio
Hello folks, I'll try to keep this as brief as possible.

Basically what happened is I purchased an item on ebay for nearly $400. I never received the item. The seller had a tracking number with the USPS that showed delivery to my city, not my home address. I couldn't resolve anything with the buyer or the USPS so I opened a dispute/claim with PayPal.

Paypal originally found the case in the sellers favor. When I contacted PP to find out why, they said I had failed to respond to one of their inquiries. I knew this was not true, so I had them look in their system further for my response. They found my response and basically said "OOPS our bad". They let me appeal the original decision and found in my favor.

PP asked the seller to refund my money and he has refused to do so. Now PP is saying I'm out of luck.

The item I purchased is supposed to be covered up to $2000 dollars by PP's Buyer Protection Policy. Yet PP is refusing to honor that agreement.

Oh, the seller was supposed to ship the item with signature confirmation, where it has to be signed for upon delivery, PP's rules. He failed to do so.

I've have been dealing with this problem for over two months now.

Now I'm at the point that I'm considering sueing.

First off, who do I sue and for what...
The seller (negligence in shipping the item?)
PayPal (not honoring their own policies?)
USPS (for possibly losing the package?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[janedoe23]

Have you checked with USPS to see if they have the package at the facility? I know anything I shipped with tracking was tracked to the postal office and then later when it was delievered to the exact address it then would be updated. So from what it sounds like it could be sitting in the facility or perhaps even being in transition back to the original sender.

 

[racer72]

Oh, the seller was supposed to ship the item with signature confirmation, where it has to be signed for upon delivery, PP's rules. He failed to do so.

Not true. I sell a lot on Ebay and use Paypal to collect payments and buy my postage, I have never been required to purchase signature confirmation, just delivery confirmation. These are two different critters and the costs reflect that, $3 for signature confirmation, 18 cents for delivery confirmation. This is also a reason I require buyers that pay more than $20 buy USPS insurance, that covers my butt.

Paypal buyer protection does not cover items lost in transit, that is why they won't pay. You have no beef with them.

The buyer delivered the item to the USPS for delivery, that ends the buyer's obligation at that point.

The only one left is USPS. The delivery confirmation number is tracked right up to delivery at the recipients address. They should be able to provide that info to you, they have for me in the past without any hassles. If the guy behind the counter won't help, take it to the Postmaster. But in the end you will likely find that you will be the one stuck, you should have purchased USPS insurance for an item costing $400 and you should have insisted that the seller offer it if he didn't.

 

[FALSE]

Just thought I'd offer an update on this. The day after I posted this, paypal refunded the money. No email or anything, it was just suddenly in my PP account. Still waiting for the transfer to clear into my bank account though. Hopefully that goes through without any problems.

@racer72, just some friendly advice, per paypals rules, on transactions more than 250 dollars signature confirmation is required. You may want to review the rules again as PP changes them constantly.

What I've learned from this experience is paypal is a shady company with extremely poor customer service. Check the paypal section of the ebay community board if you want to see some of the horror stories some people, buyers and sellers alike, have had with paypal.

 

[racer72]

@racer72, just some friendly advice, per paypals rules, on transactions more than 250 dollars signature confirmation is required. You may want to review the rules again as PP changes them constantly.

It is only required if the seller wishes to participate in the seller protection plan, there is no requirement that it has to be used.