PayPal has offered buyer protection for many years, but it’s been restricted mainly to eBay transactions. That’s all changed as of the 1st November, PayPal now cover claims for non-receipt of goods for transactions from any website.
In the past if you claimed for non-receipt of goods from a website transaction you would only have got a refund if the seller had sufficient funds to cover it in their PayPal account. If PayPal couldn’t recover the funds then you lost out. PayPal have removed that requirement for transactions taking place after the 1st November 2009 and buyers who win their claim for items not received will get their money back for the full value of the item, in the same way they already do when they use PayPal to pay for eBay purchases.
A huge number of websites now accept PayPal, including many of Britain’s biggest brands. This improvement to our buyer protection will give extra reassurance to over 20 million PayPal customers in Britain when they shop online at these sites. We regularly review and improve the protection we offer customers, as we recognise that it’s an important extra benefit of using PayPal.
– Carl Scheible, Managing Director of PayPal UK
There are still some notable exceptions, intangibles, services, custom made items, airline flight tickets, items prohibited under PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy and digital content, cars are also excluded. To qualify for off-eBay buyer protection the buyer must pay the full amount of the eligible item on one payment and disputes need to be opened within 45 days of making the payment. Claims for items that are “Significantly not as described” are not covered when the items were not purchased on eBay.
This is a great move and can only increase consumer confidence when buying online and paying with PayPal. Consumers can now purchase from your own website with the same guarantee that they’ll receive their goods as they can when buying from eBay.
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