Find your diamond
Find your jewelry
shape
carat
color
clarity

Question about PayPal Claim and Chargeback

YadaYadaYada

YadaYadaYada

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Feb 2, 2016
Messages
12,160
Hi all,

I initiated a dispute through PayPal yesterday for something I bought off DB which I escalated to a claim immediately because the seller responded she will not accept a refund since I might have switched the stone. Mind you I emailed her just asking for a partial refund and I would keep the item but she refused. Why would I even suggest that if I switched the stone?

Anyways, PayPal is investigating although I haven't received any emails requesting documentation but I'm wondering if I should contact my bank, the card used was a debit card with a Visa logo and initiate a chargeback immediately or should I wait for PayPal to decide first? I have never been in this situation before and the fact is that what was in the listing and what I received are not the same (branded vs unbranded) and I filed the claim as SNAD along with defective because the stone wasn't straight in the setting.

Any help is greatly appreciated!
 
Hi StephanieLynn,
That blows!
Sorry to hear you're going through this.
My advice is to first give Paypal a chance to step in.
You were being so reasonable.
At this point, what's the best outcome for you?
Do you want to return the stone, or is it just a matter of price?
 
Thanks Rockdiamond!

I actually called the bank the transaction went through and they said I have 60 days from purchase to do a chargeback but to see what PayPal says first. I'm okay wth that but just wasn't sure of the correct process.

So I first emailed her asking for a partial refund and I would keep the ring since I've already put money into it. She never responded. Filed the dispute with PayPal and that's all of a sudden when it became a stone switching accusation. At this point I'm asking for a full refund and I will return the ring. I'm certainly not trying to scam her or get a free ring just looking to get what I paid for and what I paid for was a branded stone with particular optical qualities.

She doesn't know this but if all else fails I will take her to small claims court so that she doesn't try to do this to someone again.
 
What do you mean you already put money into the ring?
 
tkyasx78 said:
What do you mean you already put money into the ring?
Click to expand...

When I got the ring I emailed the seller immediately to let her know I received it. It was a cloudy day and I only have partial vision in my left eye so it took me a few hours of looking at it to wonder if I was seeing things or if the stone wasn't sitting straight in the setting. So I brought it to the jeweler the day after I received it and they confirmed that the stone was not straight in the setting so I had them reset it and since they had to take the stone out of the setting I had them check the girdle for an inscription and there isn't one. I paid $53 for them to reset the stone but this is also how I learned that the stone was not as described in the listing. Now granted she is going to claim the stone may have been switched during this period so she doesn't have to issue a refund but I sure as heck didn't switch it and I am certain the jewelers in business for 90 years wouldn't risk their reputation on a switched stone scam.

Does it not speak volumes that I asked for her to partially refund me and I would keep the ring? This alone shows that there was no stone switching because I would not benefit from the stone being switched and then keeping it. Either she knew it was not what she claimed and believed I would never find out or she is also a victim and I told her if she did legitimtely purchase this stone from said company then they bear some responsibility int his as well and she may be able to recoup some of her losses by pursuing this with them. There was no response to this suggestion.
 
Hi, I’m not in a position to comment on how PayPal might adjudicate on this dispute but if they say “no” to you ie you must keep the ring, the seller keeps the money, if you then do a Chargeback, which will also come to PayPal’s attention (even though it’s your bank who decides yes or no to your chargeback request) as they were the payment platform, you might be “banned” from using PayPal.
I’m pretty sure I read in PayPal’s terms and conditions of use that you agree to be bound by their dispute decisions and not to commence a chargeback claim after a dispute claim failure.
You might want to check on this before doing a chargeback if your dispute claim isn’t successful.
I hope it all works out ok.
 
StephanieLynn said:
When I got the ring I emailed the seller immediately to let her know I received it. It was a cloudy day and I only have partial vision in my left eye so it took me a few hours of looking at it to wonder if I was seeing things or if the stone wasn't sitting straight in the setting. So I brought it to the jeweler the day after I received it and they confirmed that the stone was not straight in the setting so I had them reset it and since they had to take the stone out of the setting I had them check the girdle for an inscription and there isn't one. I paid $53 for them to reset the stone but this is also how I learned that the stone was not as described in the listing. Now granted she is going to claim the stone may have been switched during this period so she doesn't have to issue a refund but I sure as heck didn't switch it and I am certain the jewelers in business for 90 years wouldn't risk their reputation on a switched stone scam.

Does it not speak volumes that I asked for her to partially refund me and I would keep the ring? This alone shows that there was no stone switching because I would not benefit from the stone being switched and then keeping it. Either she knew it was not what she claimed and believed I would never find out or she is also a victim and I told her if she did legitimtely purchase this stone from said company then they bear some responsibility int his as well and she may be able to recoup some of her losses by pursuing this with them. There was no response to this suggestion.
Click to expand...
I am familiar with chargebacks through the PayPal . Just wait if PayPal will ask for any evidence. If so ,it’s more likely an independ appraisal.In 90% they let you return the merchandise for a refund if the item as not described . I would give them a call and if you get lucky and get connected with right customer assistant ,they will move your case pretty quickly. I know how stressful it can be !
 
Thanks @Bron357, that is good to know as I wasn't aware of that possibility. It's actually my husband's Paypal account (although we have joint bank account) so I will have to discuss this with him if in fact Paypal doesn't find in our favor.

@Golden_bird, I wasn't sure if I should call them or just wait until they let me know they need something from me. Maybe I will call them tomorrow. I have everything they could want, a screenshot of the original listing (that has since disappeared), the receipts from he jeweler even the original packaging the ring came in and all the emails we exchanged back and forth. I'm not stressed out about it though, it stinks but I always believe that truth prevails and I have nothing to hide.
 
StephanieLynn said:
Thanks @Bron357, that is good to know as I wasn't aware of that possibility. It's actually my husband's Paypal account (although we have joint bank account) so I will have to discuss this with him if in fact Paypal doesn't find in our favor.

@Golden_bird, I wasn't sure if I should call them or just wait until they let me know they need something from me. Maybe I will call them tomorrow. I have everything they could want, a screenshot of the original listing (that has since disappeared), the receipts from he jeweler even the original packaging the ring came in and all the emails we exchanged back and forth. I'm not stressed out about it though, it stinks but I always believe that truth prevails and I have nothing to hide.
Click to expand...
Give them a call! It usually helps ! I am sure you will win ! In case , when the seller receives the ring and he/she will start saying it’s not the diamonds that were there originally , in some of these cases ,PayPal will take responsibility for a refund to you from their own account and will deal with seller separately .So don’t worry what she says. As soon as you will receive a green light for sending back ,you just need to make sure it’s trackable plus signature confirmation.as soon as it’s delivered,you will get your refund .
 
Thank you to everyone who offered help on this.

Good news, PayPal is issuing a full refund to me once I return the ring! Now of course my concern is this fraudulent seller is going to be so ticked off she will claim there was no ring in the package. So I've spoken to a local shop that handles mail and I can mail it from there and video the entire transaction as proof the ring was in the package when I handed it off. Then send it back insured with a signature required.

This is the best I have been able to come up with but if anyone has a better idea please let me know. I'm just glad this is over and she lost so maybe she won't try to scam someone again
 
StephanieLynn said:
Thank you to everyone who offered help on this.

Good news, PayPal is issuing a full refund to me once I return the ring! Now of course my concern is this fraudulent seller is going to be so ticked off she will claim there was no ring in the package. So I've spoken to a local shop that handles mail and I can mail it from there and video the entire transaction as proof the ring was in the package when I handed it off. Then send it back insured with a signature required.

This is the best I have been able to come up with but if anyone has a better idea please let me know. I'm just glad this is over and she lost so maybe she won't try to scam someone again
Click to expand...
Please don’t worry about the seller claiming that she didn’t receive the ring !plz send the ring from the adress it was delivered from . From your home adress,not jeweler .the refund will be issued automatically to your account as soon as the tracking will say delivered.if the seller will try to claim that the ring wasn’t in the package, she will deal with PayPal ,not you . I was on the both sides :)) once I sold the bezeled stud earrings 0.90 carat weight ,I put in my description approximate ,cause I wasn’t original owner.Long story short, when the lady recived the earrings ,she loved them and decided to reset ,her jeweler took the stones out of setting and weighted .they turned out to be 0.85 and she started to argue with me to reduce the price ,I was more than happy to reduce like 100$ ,but she wanted around 300-400$ off so I said I don’t mind taking them back if they I’m original condition. She sent me them back ,the money were taken from my account automatically,but when I saw the earrings ...the bezel thing was destroyed :cry2: I have to submit the claim through the PayPal that earrings weren’t in original condition,had to sent comparison pictures ,appraisal from jeweler. Hundredths of calls .It def was very very stressful,but I won the case and PayPal got me significant amount to repair them:razz:
 
@Golden_bird that is just terrible about your earrings! What is the matter with people these days? At least you got money to have them fixed.

I bet now she wishes she took me up on my offer of going half on the refund but she didn't want to play nice in the sandbox :whistle:
 
StephanieLynn said:
@Golden_bird that is just terrible about your earrings! What is the matter with people these days? At least you got money to have them fixed.

I bet now she wishes she took me up on my offer of going half on the refund but she didn't want to play nice in the sandbox :whistle:
Click to expand...
. Yeah I learned my lesson she will be punished for that behavior,final selling fees will not be returned to her ,and the accoUnt will be suspended for a while . But I am glad that you will breath after that !:) and forget as a nightmare .
 
Thanks @Golden_bird, your input has really been helpful and comforting.
 
When you mail a package is the weight of the package on the receipt or the label on the package? It is here. Long story, I was watching daytime TV (in fairness I was ill) about scams. A jewellery store won a case when a ring box was sent back empty by the customer because the weight on the shipping label matched the weight of the package when it was mailed back, which was like 3-4 grams lighter than when it was mailed out. That's basically the reverse of what you're worried about, but having the weight on the package might still work.
 
So I thought I would give you guys an update because you would think that mailing the package would be the end of the story but it certainly was not!

We ended up videotaping the entire transaction of putting the ring in the package sealing it up and then giving it to the post office (you can't videotape in a federal building so we had to go to our natural store that has a postal desk). I made sure to put insurance on it and get a signature confirmation on delivery cost me roughly $12. I was checking on this package religiously and on Wednesday a tracking alert came up that the package couldn't be delivered due to illegible address which I knew wasn't right because on the video you could see the address was clear and legible and it was in Sharpie so it wouldn't smear. We call Paypal and tell them it was undeliverable and they come back with oh you sent it to the wrong address, um no, I sent it to the address you gave me, oh she has two addresses on file they discover and Paypal gave us the wrong address.

I do a little detective work and find out the address on the package she originally sent me is up for rent, the address I mailed the ring back to her at was her mother's house that was sold last year and she is now somewhere in Maryland apparently. The conspiracy theorist in me is thinking that she did this on purpose so that the package could't be delivered and I wouldn't get my money back. Anyways, Paypal tells me they will get back to me, for what I don't know because they had already sided with us in the claim. Today the post office calls, the address wasn't illegible but she isn't there anymore I tell them just send it back to me. We call Paypal and they tell us they will get back to us then just as we are finishing dinner an email comes in from Paypal.

They are refunding the money and apparently I get to keep the ring, so her attempt at scamming us out of our refund totally backfired on her. Mind you up until the whole address debacle I was willing to send the ring to Paypal so she could get her ring back but now it's obvious she was just making everything harder for us because she lost the claim.

The bad guy didn't win this time.
 
Oh, spoke to soon. She is appealing the decision. This is insane.
 
StephanieLynn said:
Oh, spoke to soon. She is appealing the decision. This is insane.
Click to expand...
Oh wow ! What’s a journey !have you recived the money back ? If so , she will deal with PayPal now .
 
I am so sorry you are going through such a mess. What a crappy thing for her to do.

I hope when you are ready you are willing to share the name of this dishonest DB seller so others can avoid her scamming.
 
Oh my gosh Stephanie, what a rigamarole! Ugh, so sorry and I hope this mess is straightened out soon.
 
Golden_bird said:
Oh wow ! What’s a journey !have you recived the money back ? If so , she will deal with PayPal now .
Click to expand...

No, they had just made the decision today and it does show the money in our Paypal account but I can't transfer it, they said it would take 3-5 days to become available. I just see this as her delaying the inevitable as long as possible even though she is a low life scam artist. My only recourse is a chargeback with my bank if she wins the appeal but I would have to do that by March 9th and I have no idea how long this appeal process is going to take.

And yes I will gladly share her name when the case is closed and the money is in our account.
 
I’m so confused. If PayPal is choosing to refund you and letting you keep the ring, they are responsible for paying her for her ring. I would clarify with PayPal how they are dealing with that.
 
Well we were on hold for almost half an hour but what we were told is that she appealing but it isn't our problem just like @nala said. I just tried transferring the money and it went through, we confirmed with them that they can't take the money back out of our account since they had decided in our favor. So now it's between her and Paypal. I'll check and see if the money is there tomorrow (my birthday!) and if so I'll be back to let you know who she is. Outing her will be a great birthday present :)
 
StephanieLynn said:
Well we were on hold for almost half an hour but what we were told is that she appealing but it isn't our problem just like @nala said. I just tried transferring the money and it went through, we confirmed with them that they can't take the money back out of our account since they had decided in our favor. So now it's between her and Paypal. I'll check and see if the money is there tomorrow (my birthday!) and if so I'll be back to let you know who she is. Outing her will be a great birthday present :)
Click to expand...
That’s great news ! If they will still let you keep the ring ,I think you deserve it !sell it and buy something for your birthday , bcs I think you will have a not that pleasant associations with that piece of jewelry :angryfire:
 
Golden_bird said:
That’s great news ! If they will still let you keep the ring ,I think you deserve it !sell it and buy something for your birthday , bcs I think you will have a not that pleasant associations with that piece of jewelry :angryfire:
Click to expand...

See, I look at this as my victory ring but I will probably swap the stone out since I like the setting but not the stone so much. DH says hang onto it for a while as is just in case. Thanks for all your help and encouragement @Golden_bird and everyone else who posted to this thread or took the time to read it all, you all rock! Pun totally intended :)
 
The seller is a silly woman and as a silly woman she is digging her own grave.
Silly woman is also taking on PayPal! Good luck with that!
You did what PayPal said, returned the ring to the registered address. She thinks by refusing to take delivery, by not being there anymore, means she gets to keep the money.
No, it means that you have fulfilled your part of the agreement and as a bonus you are likely to be able to keep the ring as well.
And the crowning glory, is that PayPal will de register this woman and she will never be able to use their facility again. You cant sell or buy on EBay without PayPal, hell, most on line transactions these days require a PayPal account.
Silly woman.
 
That’s great news!
 
@Bron357 yes, she totally thought she was so smart with this whole address bit. She could have just accepted my suggestion of a partial refund in the beginning, it would have been so much easier and honestly who wants to go through all this? No, she didn't want me to get any refund so we had to go through the whole process for me to end up getting a refund AND a ring. LOL!
 
Wow this whole ordeal has been exhausting for you. What a roller coaster! At least there is some resolution and you get to have a happy (calm) birthday!!
 
StephanieLynn said:
See, I look at this as my victory ring but I will probably swap the stone out since I like the setting but not the stone so much. DH says hang onto it for a while as is just in case. Thanks for all your help and encouragement @Golden_bird and everyone else who posted to this thread or took the time to read it all, you all rock! Pun totally intended :)
Click to expand...
Omg !we talked about the ring but you never showed us !how it looks like ?if you love the setting ,def keep it :))is that a band type of ring or cocktail type ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP
Jewelry Blog
PriceScope-Concierge-Ad
Find prime cuts.
Top