tired of people stealing my money
After 1,750 purchases on eBay, I’ve earned the right to speak plainly.
Twice, eBay and PayPal charged the wrong payment method—not the one I selected. Each time, it cost me $38. I requested a refund. Both times, I was denied.
This isn’t about the money. It’s about trust.
I’ve spent years using eBay with precision—selecting payment methods carefully, managing credit strategically, and honoring every transaction. When a platform overrides my choices and refuses to make it right, it’s no longer a tool I can trust.
I will complete my final purchase on August 20th. After that, I will no longer use eBay. PayPal will remain dormant—not canceled—so I can preserve my credit score. But I will not transact through it again.
I’m sharing this publicly so others know: even loyal users can be burned. And when that happens, we have the right to walk away.
pickapaper
·11 months ago@turkeymountainman wrote: "The people in eBay and PayPal are ignorant and therefore are not trustworthy. The best solution is to use amazon from now on."
That's quite a statement.
ryry-jj
·11 months agoI understand the frustration, but to me I'd be more upset my bank doesn't offer me overdraft protection, assuming that is who is charging you. If paypal, not sure why anyone has a payment source that cant be used for a payment, in other words no money to back it up.
I'm sure there are reasons for some, but I don't see any scenario where that makes sense. If a CC, I'm good to go, if my bank is a source of funding I have money in there too....are people using debit cards as the funding source? And they don't keep money in them, but still have them as a valid option whether they chose it or not? Since this happened to the OP once before, why not shut down that payment source after the first time? But I still cant imagine any bank I have money in where they will charge me an over draft fee...which is where my anger would go, to my bank
ed8108
·11 months agoThank you for sharing with us your eBay buyer experience
roccotacodad54
·11 months agoI have read many complaints like yours and took proactive steps.
My PayPal account only has one payment source and I make sure there's enough funds available to cover my purchase before I click "Buy It Now" or bid on an auction etc.
It's really a very simple fix..................................
christworks
·11 months agoThis is a Paypal issue, not an eBay issue. You leaving eBay won't resolve the issue. If you otherwise like eBay, rather than go through Paypal, pay direct with your credit card.
I have experienced this a couple of times. Neither of my purchases were through eBay. The first time I thought perhaps I made an error and clicked the wrong card. This is possible and I'm sure if you have made over 1,700 purchases you've probably done this at least once. Have you considered that a possibility?
About six weeks ago it happened again. This time I called Paypal and was able to confirm with them there was a known issue where the card you've selected changes back to the original card. I did not go into overdraft, so the issue of them refunding fees didn't come up. I was able to set up an alert though my bank so if a Paypal attempts to charge my bank card, I immediately get an alert on my phone that I have to approve. Talk to your bank. You may be able to do something similar.
The other recommendation I have is that if you are frequently low enough on funds in your bank that you could trigger overdraft protection, it may be wise not to have that bank tied to something like PayPal or consider turning off overdraft protection, this way of something fluky happens, the charge is denied.
Unless you are using PayPal Credit, simply having a PayPal account or using it to pay for transactions does not have any impact on your credit score.
campanaelia
·11 months agoI bet it is an ebay issue too. Buyers never complained about this happening until auto-pay started.
soh.maryl
·11 months agoBye. Best of luck.
kensgiftshop
·11 months ago@turkeymountainman
If you chose Pay Pal and they charged your bank account, sounds like your problem is with Pay Pal.
turkeymountainman
OP11 months agoI have given both PayPal and eBay the option to refund me the $38.00 overdraft fee and both refused. I do not need or want the money back now. I had bought 1750 items worth 10 of thousands of dollars using papal. Now I will simply use other platforms to buy from -like amazon. The loss is theirs and I will never trust them again. It happened twice this year. I picked to use PayPal credit, and they billed my bank account. They are not trustworthy and do not get one more dime of my money. I had no balance in paypal and I do not know why this happened and now I do not care the time has come to cut my losses because I have loss all trust with both.
kensgiftshop
·11 months agoWere these auctions or Best Offers?
albertabrightalberta
·11 months ago@turkeymountainman
You make it sound like you're doing ebay and paypal a favor by offering the "option" to issue a refund. But YOU are the one who set up your paypal account and it's YOU who chooses your payment source when you make a purchase from ebay.
Why would you expect ebay or Paypal to cover your overdraft because you didn't have the funds in the account you chose to pay with? I think this is your error.
msha3839
·11 months agoI shop on eBay for 13 years and in the beginning opened dedicated PayPal Mastercard strictly for eBay purchases…the same with Amazon visa…never had checking account linked to anything…never had a problem…ðŸ¹
tinsoldierunderground
·11 months agoSame here - exactly.
msha3839
·11 months agoMany people don’t have common sense and blame everyone around..by purchasing with credit cards on eBay,Amazon and other venues buyers get double protection and points from credit card issuers..well..🤧
tinsoldierunderground
·11 months agoSO true! For me it was a no-brainer.
turkeymountainman
OP11 months agoI have given both PayPal and eBay the option to refund me the $38.00 overdraft fee and both refused. I do not need or want the money back now. I had bought 1750 items worth 10 of thousands of dollars using papal. Now I will simply use other platforms to buy from -like amazon. The loss is theirs and I will never trust them again. It happened twice this year. I picked to use PayPal credit, and they billed my bank account. They are not trustworthy and do not get one more dime of my money. I had no balance in PayPal and I do not know why this happened and now I do not care the time has come to cut my losses because I have loss all trust with both.
toomuchstuffagain35
·11 months agoThere are certain categories where you cannot use Paypal credit. I know bullion is one, but not sure what the others are.
bonjourami
·11 months agoThats odd, which payment method did you select? And why would a payment method cost you $38?
mamacassidy
·11 months ago@bonjourami
I'm just speculating, but the $38 was probably some kind of overdraft fee that was charged by her financial institution. She probably tried to pay with a credit card, but the bank account was debited, which caused her to overdraft.
I actually had a buyer recently ask me to cancel an item they purchased because they said Paypal charged the wrong account. I suggested to my buyer (and would suggest to @turkeymountainman as well) to have her credit card on file with ebay and choose that method instead of going through Paypal and choosing a method there.
I don't know if this is a new or widespread problem, but it's not the first time I'm hearing it.
turkeymountainman
OP11 months agoThe people in eBay and PayPal are ignorant and therefore are not trustworthy. The best solution is to use amazon from now on.
mamacassidy
·11 months agoOk, thanks for letting us know! Have a great week!