This may break down an item that has a fair number of questions for recipients of payments.
Charge backs are a common fear by sellers and general recipients of payments. While they are quite rare compared to the sheer number of transactions that go through our system, I would like to answer some general questions on them and then provide information on how to protect be protected from charge backs.
What is a charge back?
a)Charge backs are rights granted to cardholders by the credit card companies. Customers may charge back for a fair number of items, but generally speaking, charge backs happen because the customer does not recognize the charge (fraud) or they did not receive their merchandise (this is not totally inclusive, but it does include the general reasons).
Can I be held liable for charge backs?
a)Yes. Please review the terms of use relative to charge backs. This is a fact of life when accepting credit card payments, but we do offer protections to the user if they follow very specific rules (The Seller Protection Program). This is a relatively unique item for any payment service or even a merchant account.
How can I be protected from them?
a) Ship to the confirmed address only (part of the Seller Protection Program). This will help quickly identify and risk.
b)Users can set their receiving preferences to accept only certain kinds of payments. Some users, for example, may only want to accept payments from verified users. This option can be changed under your account PROFILE.
c)The Seller Protection Program is fairly specific in protecting recipients of payments in our system. It will be explained in more detail below:
aa) Ship to the confirmed address of the card. This is the confirmed address that the credit card passed when going through an address verification check (this will match the billing address provided through the credit card company). This is released to sellers when a credit card transaction is processed. While not all transactions requesting shipping to another address are fraudulent in nature (such as wanting an item delivered to the office because the recipient will not be home), you should feel comfortable asking the user additional questions and you can use utilize other tools to help determine the risk (such as feedback systems provided by many auction sites).
bb) Ship tangible goods-In other words, this protection does not apply to services provided because they are not a physical product. An example of this would be digital content.
cc) Provide adequate proof of delivery. This should be viewed as interchangeable with proof of shipment. All that is required is a method that can be tracked on-line .A common tracking method that is used is Delivery Confirmation and it is provided by the USPS, but other services, such as Fedex and UPS offer similar services. All that is being looked at is if you shipped the item and that we can track it on-line.
dd) International transactions are not covered under this program. You are free to ship to any address you wish, but certain countries do have high amounts of credit card fraud (Russia, Indonesia, and Malaysia are examples of countries with high credit card fraud rates). Please use discretion when being asked to ship overseas. The program DOES NOT apply to international transactions.
ee) Be a Verified Premier/Business user. Since you have further identified who you are to us, we feel comfortable in extending this protection to you.
Will I be notified of a charge back?
a) Yes. You will receive an email from us and the item will also appear in your transaction log as a "pending reversal".
Please follow the directions in the email received, as it will ask for specific information to refute the charge back and so that you can eliminate your liability for it.
Please feel free to ask me any questions on this.
Just to make sure that users are reading the posts---I have 5 t-shirts (s,m,l) that I can give away. Simply email me your size and address (You also have to post here so that I can track you. Anyone that has received a t-shirt in the past is disqualified out of fairness to those that have not received one in the past).
posted on April 6, 2001 03:32:13 AM new
Dear Paypaldemon ,
Business/Premier accounts that are not US based accounts ;
The seller had one of these accounts
and the buyer paid from a bank account
based paypal account ...
... Can the buyer claim money back
via paypal for non delivery of goods ??
The Buyer and Seller Protection Programs do not apply to international transactions. The possibility is being looked into, but the Verification standards are something we can only address with US customers at this time.
I would just like to make sure everyone that reads this also knows PayPal's terrible reputation of actually providing this protection in a reasonable time. In my case, it was over 4 months of emailing and calling them before they finally returned the money to me (they deduct the money from your account until (after a few months...) you prove that you followed the policy Damon described).
Damon will say this is not indicative of most cases, but please read the numerous people posting in this message board about how long it took to get a response (if any) from paypal. He might also say it depends on how fast the user provides the info paypal requests. I emailed all of the info the same day paypal requested it, then again 3 more times when they asked me to again. Many other people post similar experiences with not being able to get a response from paypal.
PayPal also has an unsatisfactory rating on the Better Business Bureau for this very reason (they reported over 40 complaints per month in a wall street journal article http://www.ygoodman.com/ppwsj.html), see http://209.128.79.238/search/search.asp for the BBB report.
Let me explain charge backs for you and the other users to explain the delay:
1. Credit charged.
2. Buyer does not receive merchandise or does not realize the charge on their card. They typically have 60 days to report this (in some cases, longer).
3. Credit card company decides to issue charge back.
4. Paperwork sent back for the charge back.
Could be in line for processing.
5. Notification sent to the customer. Response time depends on the quality of the information presented to us and the completeness.
This process can take several months, which is why users are encouraged to use the Seller Protection Program. This can actually prevent charge backs from happening.
posted on April 6, 2001 07:40:32 PM new
It seems that once again you are not focusing your answer on what I posted about, instead making it look like paypal is good.
I just meant that when you email paypal the info, they should send you an update on each step of this process you just mentioned. I know I was furious after being told over and over to send paypal an email and they would get back to me. I received absolutely no emails, until 4 months later, when paypal finally admitted that I had followed the Seller Protection Policy, even though I emailed the same information they requested from 4 months earlier...
posted on April 6, 2001 11:58:09 PM new
Dear Paypaldamon ,
Back to my original question ;
What if the buyer has sellers permission
to make a charge back on their credit card
or bank account for this paypal payment
for goods which were never received ...
... Can buyer do this and then
you would eventually debit the sellers
account ... ??
I have done few international transactions
and the charge back has been successful ..
... but what is the real truth ?
Can people make some kind of Charge back
on their bank accounts ?? Credit cards ??
