Good evening,

I need some advice as I am having trouble with a charge back via PayPal for an item I sold back in early January.

I sold an Samsung Galaxy S8+ in early January 2018 via Gumtree,

I got an offer from a user (who's name on Gumtree did not match the one on his PayPal, this was an alias apparently) and we agreed to an offer so I sent him my PayPal details etc and he sent me his address.

I sent the phone via Yodel 48 which was booked via Parcel2Go and it was delivered the next day with a signature, however, I got some very abusive emails from the buyer claiming I never sent the phone and that I was ripping him off when I simply asked him if the phone had arrived ok.

A couple of days later I got an email from PayPal saying the buyer has submitted a charge back via his credit card company claiming the item never arrived and that my PayPal balance was now -£455.

I sent in all the evidence to the PayPal charge back team, copies of everything including the signature Yodel got on delivery but tonight I got an email back saying the charge back has been decided in the buyers favour which I find baffling.

I reported this to the Police a couple of weeks ago

I sent them the same information, all the emails etc and they decided to investigate it, I was asked to fill out a form on Action Fraud to get a crime number,

a couple of days later (Saturday just gone) I got a call from the investigatory officer saying they had interviewed the buyer and he still claimed that the phone never arrived and denied everything even though there is a signature (I can't see Yodel delivering to someone random).

I was told by the officer that she had spoken to the forces fraud department, however, due to reasonable doubt they would not be able to take this any further, she said to me 'someone could have been sat on the side of the road waiting for the van and then signed for the item' which again I find baffling and I was advised to take it to a small claims court but if I can't get the support from PayPal and the Police, what chance do I have in the County Court?

I have had the phone blocked but I am still down £455 plus a £14 charge back fee.

Does any one have any advice for me, I could really do with some.

Many thanks in advance.

Do you really need the PayPal account ? If not, just forget about it and ignore any letters/emails. PayPal will persist for a while, but they don't do court. Don't forget to de-approve your paypal direct debit with your bank.

If you really need another PayPal account, just use a different card/bank account, a slightly different name and a different address. You can add your current name/address as a delivery address, which after a successful delivery will be 'confirmed'.

I couldn't care less about PayPal (but I appreciate your comments, i'm not having a go at you), it's the scummy buyer I want to go after, he can't be allowed to get away with this!

The Police's logic is pretty stupid, they basically told me that any one can order or buy anything on-line, have it delivered to and signed for but then claim you never signed for the products purchased, do a charge back and get your money back because the police can't prove it beyond reasonable doubt because 'someone may have been waiting on the road for the delivery van and signed for it.'

Bizarre.

As you have your money and haven't suffered a loss, you can't really do anything about people like that. That is why you ALWAYS withdraw your paypal money before sending goods.

Unfortunately, the police are right. The signature is your protection if a buyer decides to sue you, claiming that they didn't receive their goods.

Mobile phones are a prime target for dodgy buyers. I would never post a phone, always have the buyer collect. Just put it down to experience and move on.

One of life's lessons, I will never post a phone etc ever again, collection only. (Thing is, the buyer owns his own company, I have no ides why he's lying about it)

Police are correct.

You have been scammed and 'donated' a Galaxy phone.

yep

dunno who forces fraud department is....

It could be the buyer who is pulling a fast one or someone who saw the courier, picked a key from the pocket and pretended to enter the address.

Check the buyer recent purchases and see how many phones he's bought lately.

He maybe a serial offender.

you NEVER accept paypal for anything that peopel collect in person or want sending to an address that the paypal account is not registered at.

You have fallen for the oldest paypal trick there is. You wont be the last though but people make a living looking through gumtree for such things

when it was easier to go so I used to have an ebay account specifically for wrecking these sorts of peoples activities adn did this in unison with other like minded people. You would be surprised to see how many different people live in a chip shop in Shepherds Bush when buying phones and the like