should my credit card company reimburse my ebay purchase?

Question

i bought an item on ebay for 200 pounds, and paid for it immediately through Paypal, but i never received the goods. The seller never replied any emails, and has since de-registered at ebay.
Paypal and ebay advise me that since its been over 60 days since the transaction - there is nothing they can do for me.
As i paid for the item with a credit card, could i make them reimburse me? Is there some law or consumer act that would help?

Answer 1

Hi - I have looked into the PayPal Buyer Protection terms and conditions, and am of the view that PayPal are justified in not acknowleding your dispute. This is because the dispute must be filed within a reasonable time period, in this case 45 days, as is set out in the terms & conditions(1).

The piece of legislation I think you hoped would apply is Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. Unfortunately, PayPal do stipulate on several sections of their site that Section 75 does not apply:

"Please note that when making purchases online using PayPal (with any registered Credit Card details, including the PayPal Credit Card), you are not protected by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, although you may be able to initiate a chargeback through the card issuer, qualify for protection under the PayPal Buyer Protection Policy, or be able to invoke the PayPal Buyer Complaints Policy. "(2)

In 2005, the Financial Ombudsman Service, FSA, and OFT decided that Section 75 did not apply to payments through PayPal and similar 'e-wallet' payment mechanisms.(3)

Unfortunately, I don't think you have a claim. You could try taking your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, however I suspect they have precedents in place and might take the view that 45 days (or 60 days, as you quoted) was a reasonable length of time in which you could have raised the dispute and been protected by the Buyer Protection Policy.

I'm sorry the answer isn't the one you were hoping for, and hope things work out for you.

Answer 2

They (credit card co.) don't literally re-imburse you. You first have to mail them written dispute of that charge with all the details of the transaction. They give you a temporary credit of the transaction. They contact the merchant and then your credit may or may not remain. You need to act quickly with your credit card co. as they also have a time frame for filing a dispute of a charge. You may want to call the 800 number on the back of your card to at least get the ball rolling.

Answer 3

Yes, luckily your credit card company can be held liable as the purchase was for over £100, but contact them immediately.



.

Answer 4

credit card companies and banks are supposed to protect you agianst dodgy things like this. thats why you use a credit card insted of cash!

you should go to the bank/phone the card company with all the details, and they should be able to do somethink about it.

Answer 5

http://www.paypalsucks.com/