PayPal extend UK buyer protection to 180 days

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PayPal has announced new terms to their Buyer Protection scheme that will take effect from 17th June this year.

Buyer protection will be extended to cover services, digital goods, travel tickets and other intangible items. Needless to say, tangible goods have been covered for a number of years.

From the same date, PayPal is also extending the time for buyers to open a dispute from 45 to 180 days. This brings it inline with similar protections offered by credit card companies. The extended buyer protection applies to people who use a UK PayPal account to make a purchase from a UK or overseas seller on and off-eBay.

As PayPal’s statement notes: “From 17 June 2014 PayPal will reimburse UK buyers if they do not receive these items or services or if the goods or services provided do not match the seller’s description.”

Cameron McLean, PayPal’s UK managing director, commented, “PayPal is delighted to give people in the UK even greater reassurance when they’re buying goods and services. These changes follow feedback from customers who have asked us to extend buyer protection to cover services and items such as travel tickets and digital goods. They underline PayPal’s reputation as the faster, safer way to pay online, on smartphones and in-store.”

At first glance it’s easy to see why this change makes a lot of sense when it comes to buyer confidence. But it could also represent a great many headaches for sellers.

Could a buyer really hold on for nearly six months before filing a claim? Is PayPal competent to adjudicate on such claims dating back a while? How does this play with eBay’s own buyer protection programmes for items that have been bought on eBay? Lots of answered questions.

You’ll doubtless have other thoughts. And do share them.

10 Responses

  1. So will eBay be increasing the time it keeps listings to 180 days also?

    If not defending against any claim 90-180 days out for my field (stamps & collectibles) will be hard as I do not have static listings.

  2. Sorry moo, it is legal, but agree it creates huge difficulties for sellers. The potential for fraud is enormous. Customer breaks an item after 4 months through their own fault – can they then open a Paypal claim? The unscrupulous will undoubtedly use this to their advantage.

    Double jeopardy for all ebay sellers

    There should at least be conditions – for example that any damage or breakage on receipt must be raised with the seller within 2 weeks.

    The legal position is that the courts normally expect a retailer to handle the claim up to 6 months, but over 6 months the courts normally expect the buyer to have the onus of proving there was a fault with the item e.g engineers report. Statutory rights always override any other warranty or guarantee provided by manufacturer or seller.

    Can Paypal adjudicate. From experience the answer is no. The last claim I had a buyer claimed a model sold was out of scale. I proved conclusively it wasn’t. Paypal refunded the buyer but also gave me the funds so I wasn’t out of pocket. When I questioned this, because the buyer was clearly wrong, the Paypal answer was that it was too time consuming (or maybe they didn’t have the quality of staff to work the mathematics of scale) to make a decision. This is a nonsense for a straightforward mathematical calculation – x divided by y gives you the scale of the item.

    From this you have to assume Paypal do not have the capabilities to decide. However, here is a tip. If it goes against you keep complaining if your proof is watertight. Demand escalation to management. Usually they eventually give way and give your funds back because they simply can’t answer a watertight argument. Again, they don’t have the capabilities.

  3. WOW! This is complete insanity.

    I will get a bunch of PS4 games for my kids, have them play with them for 179 days. Then, file the complaints that the games have trouble loading under the PS4. I can claim that this problem started happening for some weeks but did not have the time to file a complaint due to overwork hours (because my job requires me to travel a lot). Also say that the game discs are as good as new with no scratches on the reading side. Thus, I do not know why they have trouble loading and skip some parts of the in between game movies…and so on to make it a nightmare for the seller. This of course 179 days after my purchase.

    Before my eyes, this is complete ridiculousness.
    Image if the seller of the PS4 games was someone that received them as gift and for some reason decided to sell them on eBay UK. So, the seller is not a constant seller, but maybe a seller that sells a few times per years.

    PayPal is really going crazy, all the billions they have made in the last years got to their heads and gave them concussion!!!

    45 days is more than enough!
    If buyers want 6 months protection, then, they should buy separate insurance.

  4. Well said. It’s totally crazy. As a seller I’m totally fed up with eBay and PayPal. Soon as you jump through hoops and get listings how they want they bring out yet more insane terms conditions and complicated defect rating systems for you to comply with if you want to exist. Sales are in decline and postage is up another 20p per item. Preparing to leave

  5. The solutions pretty simple for pro-sellers, raise prices to cover the extra costs.

    If you think you got it bad, think of babs and other sellers. 0.99p twizzers returned after 190 days. With packet open and everything.

    Or batteries opened, and past sell by date.

  6. “The solutions pretty simple for pro-sellers, raise prices to cover the extra costs.”
    exactly!
    at the end of the day all these measures raise costs ,the buyer pays for it or the trader goes bust

  7. Well amazon seem to be offering returns for defective items up to a year after the sale. and it seems to be harder for sellers to claim reimbursement from amazon. online trading in general is not for the average person.

  8. Got stung by paypal several times last year. Customer ordered item and paid for 1st class post asked to be sent that day as taking on hol. I replied and said ok. Next day customer says he didnt order it his wife did without his permission. I said send it bk to me….. customer says he has it what is retutn address….
    week later tells pp it was bought fraudulantly and pp takes money out of my acc and refunds him… then tells me. I send them proof he got it and ask for proof he returned it.
    pp simply say that his mail isnt good enough i need a signiture and he doesnt have to have proof of return!!!
    All i ever get is ‘not recieved’ etc and pp settle before even talking to me.

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