Surge of unauthorized transaction cases

[zerosumweb]

Starting this year we noticed an unusual surge in unauthorized transaction cases both filed with PayPal and eBay. In the last 2 weeks alone our store saw more than 1 dozen such cases. Some of these are notified from ebay with the email saying "We’re writing to let you know that we had to cancel the following transaction(s) because the item(s) were purchased without the account owner's permission...". This eventually turns into an unauthorized transaction case being opened from Paypal. Some of the cases are directly with PayPal. When this happens paypal puts a hold on the order amount until they resolve the issue which may take 1-2 weeks.  Almost all the cases paypal protects the seller since we always have tracking showing delivery to correct address. But the hold on payment is counter productive and one more thing to worry for the business. eBay is usually off the picture the whole time. I wanted to bring this to the seller community and see if others are also seeing similar trends and if so then if any action was taken by the seller. Most of our store items are in the consumer electronics and smart home category. 

[luigicat4]

Same here.  (This is not my main seller account).  I’ve had two in the last 2weeks, never had any before.

[totoro470]

Yeah, I had one that was really strange a few months ago. I had someone go through their credit card company to dispute a case on paypal. What was scary is that paypal automatically refunded the buyer AFTER I had shipped the item. There was no pending status, it went from paid to "reversed". The most baffling thing was there was no notification from ebay or paypal about this reversal, I only noticed from checking my paypal activity and seeing the -$300 taken out of my account.

I spent the better part of the day calling paypal and ebay and got the run around. I called paypal and they told me to call ebay, I called ebay and they told me it was on paypal's end. I ended up fixing it myself- I went through the post office and did a package intercept. It ended up costing me around $30 plus I lost about $20 on the initial shipping. I suspect paypal was obligated to cover my losses but given how much trouble they gave me the first time around I never want to call them again.

[gemcitygems]

Same here-- this seems to be a new trend on both Ebay and Etsy. There must have been a documentary or news article that came out informing people on how they can get their money back on items purchased online by simply going through their bank and opening a chargeback case. I sell high-end Jewelry and it is a becoming a real nightmare. We have been in business for 15 years selling on Ebay with no issues and in the past 6 months have had two buyers try to return a ring months after they purchased it claiming that the item is "damaged". They have both been able to get a full-refund of their original purchase price and gotten to keep the item.

I sent a letter to the first person who did this telling her I was going to press legal charges against her if she did not send the ring back since she had already received her refund (although I dont know if I really could have or not) and she sent the ring back in exactly the same undamaged condition that I sent it to her in. 

I sent the exact same letter to the second person that they are claiming that they will only give it back to me if I pay them a fee......