PayPal - Interim Debt Collection

[RH2008]

Hello,

 

To cut a very long story short:

 

I sell business, buyer pays £2000 deposit. Buyer fails to make installment payments and several months later does a chargeback for the £2000 deposit. Buyer continues to operate business and owes around £12,000. I dispute chargeback with PayPal by providing signed contracts and plenty more proof and information. Buyer claimed business "was not as described". Buyer and his lawyer have failed in producing any evidence of this and have had several months to do so.

 

Today I receive a phone call from Interim attempting to recover the £2000 debt for PayPal. I refuse to provide personal invormation which they request for "verification purposes" on the basis that I haven't received any written notification from them or PayPal.

 

Basically I'm wondering where do I stand here? I read the following but not sure about the accuracy of it.

 

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Short answer, NO THEY CANNOT. Nothing under Paypal can result in genuine debt collection. Real debt collectors can come into your home and seize goods for resale to cover costs, they can do this legally. No organistion with Paypal (NCO, Robinson Way, Justicia) can ever get funds off you. Ever.

 

If they harass you report them to the organisations listed in the NCO thread.

 

If you owe them £1 or £50,000 there is nothing they can do about it except hassle you with letters and phone calls.

 

Look at Paypal, then laugh at them, then go do something interesting!

 

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Your help/advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm not getting anywhere fast with the Financial Ombudsman or my solicitor and now these guys are putting the pressure on...

 

At the same time I don't want my credit rating affected or other issues they may cause me.

 

Thanks.

[rameses_qc]

I don't really understand what the author of the quote is trying to say, but "real debt collectors" Whatever they are, CANNOT under ANY circumstances enter your home or take any goods.Any debt has to be proved "on the balance of probabilities" by the person/company who asserts that they are owed. They can try for a CCJ, but that is the proof they will need.It's true that debt collectors have no powers whatever and you do not have to pay them

[ashmk]

Real debt collectors can come into your home and seize goods for resale to cover costs, they can do this legally.

This is incorrect. Only a court appointed bailiff can come into your home and you really gotta get someone mad for that to happen. I believe only some forms of tax evasion can achieve this and only by the order of a judge.

 

 

Also I think i read somewhere that paypal are not covered by the Financial Ombudsman because afterall, they are just a bussiness.

 

I do believe they will try there damdest to get this money so prepare for a long battle.

 

Sadly the whole paypal hype and they way they market it makes you believe its the safest way to sell goods. Unfortunately its not and this type of thing happens all the time. Its a [problematic] paradise.... Paypal and ebay are totally biased to the buyer which is why I stopped using both a long time ago.

Edited July 31, 2008 by ashmk

[mtw1980]

Hi There,

 

Sorry to hear of your predicament. I think that the best thing for you to do would be to take the buyer to court yourself to get the matter dealt with.

 

By informing the debt collection agency that the debt is in dispute, they should hold off debt recovery action until the dispute is resolved. (Copying the DCA in on the court paperwork will satisfy this requirement).

 

PayPal don't submit data to the credit reference agencies, so te only time that this would effect your credit rating would be if you were taken to court and had a CCJ applied against you - I can't see this happening in this instance as the buyer hasn't got any right to claim against you.

 

Under contract law, their must be "offer and acceptance" in order for a contract to be binding. i.e. You must give something (e.g. product or service) and receive something (e.g. money) for the contract to be binding. In this instance you've handed over the business, but have received nothing, therefore there is no binding contract & the buyer has no right to the business you were selling.

 

I really would ramp up your action to recover the outstanding monies. If your solicitor isn't doing the job well enough, get another one!

 

Would you be able to help me out at all??? I'm trying to get hold of a contact email address or phone number for the people in the debt recovery area at PayPal? As I've not got a contact name for any individual I'm unable to get through to anyone at the moment. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

[RH2008]

Hello,

 

Thanks for the info. Because the buyer is in the US and we are in the UK a court case would be very expensive and involve someone travelling over to the US. The cost involved would probably be more than the case itself.

 

With regards to contacting PayPal, if you Google you can find a few phone numbers. Whether they still work or not is another story. Also not sure if there is a specific one for debt collection. I haven't heard anything from Interim since telling them that the financial ombudsman was working on it.