Preventing PayPal claims as seller.

Hey guys, I cant seem to find the appropriate board to post this on so thought i would post on the lounge.

I run an ecommerce store in the video game niche, we have pretty good sales and are currently shipping out around 15-20 packages a week.

It's pretty rare but sometimes we get buyers opening PayPal claims wanting a refund due to packages not arriving.

In most cases we are totally happy to refund people, but there are very few cases when you can tell the buyer is lying.

They don't ask for a replacement order, they don't get in contact with us asking where their package is, and they never reply to emails from us trying to help and resolve the issue. (often the claims are opened before the package would even have time to reach them)

PayPal asks for proof of sending the package, however our packages do not have tracking, and PayPal ALWAYS votes in favor of the buyer.

How can i stop this from happening?

Recently i have updated our returns policy stating we do not offer refunds on orders that have already been sent, would PayPal accept that? i doubt it...


Any ideas are welcome and would love to hear anyone's experience with this topic.

Send with a tracking number, prove it arrived and the buyer will not be able to play this trick.

If you have a refund policy and the customer ticks off that he agrees to it when purchasing the item, then it should be enforceable. All you would have to do is escalate the claim and provide PayPal a copy of your Terms.

How do I know? From personal experience.

elfgirl said:

If you have a refund policy and the customer ticks off that he agrees to it when purchasing the item, then it should be enforceable. All you would have to do is escalate the claim and provide PayPal a copy of your Terms.

How do I know? From personal experience.

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Great, thank you for the info!

They don't check it off, so i will update the site so they have to agree to my terms.

Thank you.

Not Ste Hughes said:

Send with a tracking number, prove it arrived and the buyer will not be able to play this trick.

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It adds an extra $20 to shipping with a tracking code for overseas (90% of my orders are overseas)

Shipping costs that high would put people off.

Check section 11.3(b), it explains pretty clearly exactly what you need to win:


www paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/useragreement-full

Note the line:

You must provide Proof of Delivery as described below in Section 11.4.

"Proof of Delivery" for tangible items is online documentation from a shipping company that includes all of the following:


The item's status as delivered.
The date the item is delivered.
The recipient address is the same as in the shipping address section on the Transaction Details Page.
The recipient's address, showing at least the city & state, or city & country, or zip/postal code (or international equivalent).

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Your only solution might be to increase your prices to absorb the occasional fraudulent purchase.