But what eventually transpired was a frightening revelation that a guarantee by the auction site ebay is not worth the digital space it's pixilated in.
Five months ago I paid for a brand spanking new video iPod from a man claiming to be in Walsall using the idiotic name Booboy079.
I paid through ebay's “safe and secure” sister site, PayPal, and suddenly found the seller refunded the money stating I had paid the wrong account.
Like a pillock I paid the “correct” account and lo and behold the git never sent me my swanky mp3 player.
PayPal's dispute process at first appears pretty slick. It gives the seller ten days to respond to your claim of non-delivery. It duly decided in my favour and arranged a refund. I had paid £231.50 but only got £105 back.
PayPal states quite clearly that it “guarantees fund recovery up to £500”. The company left my case there stating that it would “work with the seller to recover the rest of the money”.
Of course no more money appeared, and when I complained PayPal referred me to its disclaimer stating it will in fact only pay £120 minus a £15 admin fee.
How is it that a disclaimer can completely absolve liability for the actual guarantee. That's like stating “this hair restorer is guaranteed to give you a full head of hair” followed by a list of side effects including alopecia.
So I went to my credit card issuer, HSBC, who upon receipt of all my correspondance credited me back the rest of the money.
Case closed, or so I thought. Until one daylast week whenthey took it back again. I received a letter a day later explaining that PayPal is just a third party and they have no duty of care to me because the contract was with the seller not me.
Immensely dissatisfied I called customer service.
A polite young Scottish man called Chris Gaul told me this: “If you had just given the seller your credit card details, and he had a means to process them, we could have taken the money back because there would have been a direct link with the seller.
“Because you used a third party we are working with one hand tied behind our backs.
“When you paid through PayPal you waived our right to a chargeback.”
But how? How can little oldme waive the rights of a massive multinational company like HSBC?
Chris explained: “We can't tell our customers how to spend their money. We would advise them not to use PayPal if we could but ultimately it's up to the customer and the only message is ‘buyer beware'.”
My next step is a choice - small claims court or give up. What do you think?
