Also happened to me but it was just 30€ or so. Do you know something about the scammer?
This is where I fight back when I have no other options. I start looking for something about the customer. I go into my website and find the person's history on my site. I block and ban everything about them from the site. I block their IP, name, home address, email address, and credit card. Then I take their info and run it through Google and/or Public Records to see what other info I can find to get an idea of who the person is. A good portion of the time, you will find them somewhere else on the Internet. One time I found a scammer's house in Florida. Turned out to be some teenager using his mom's credit card. When she found out, she was the one who did the chargeback. I wasn't the only one she did a chargeback against. She wrote about it on her facebook page.
I didn't wanted to fight because I didn't want paypal to see my site and business model.
This is the problem. You have to be very careful not to let your payment processor see who is coming to your website. Sometimes it is better to stay quiet and lose $1,000 so you can go on an continue your business.
Absolutely. This is an old thing. Scammers know how Paypal works and feels about digital products, especially SMM services. So they buy a bunch of things, and then the do chargebacks on all. Paypal usually sides with the buyer, and then the scammer keeps the products/services and the money.
That is true, and because of that, you have to ask yourself these questions before you start doing business with Paypal:
1. Do I really want to fool around with Paypal?
2. How am I going to feel when they swipe my money?
3. Will I be able to wait 180 days for them to release my money?
4. Am I in the mood to be scammed by Paypal?
I'm sorry, but I just can't get with Paypal. I've been with them for 20 years and never had a limitation or even a problem with them, but ALL OF THE HORROR STORIES DUDE! Why would anyone hitch their wagon to Paypal? I don't feel that Paypal should be used for business. It was created for ebay and that's where it should stay. No legitimate business is using Paypal. If you want to use Paypal, then you have to remind yourself before you start the business that
they are going to scam you. It's who they are.
I guess it's a little different if you're doing physical products, so you have shipping info and stuff like that. But for digital products and services, how do you give proof of delivery? Scammers know and use Paypal for these types of scams, and Paypal sides with them 99% of the time, and encourages them.
If you want to continue with this business and Paypal, you can do what someone from the Askpin forums used to do. I bought a digital item from a member over there and a week later I got an envelope in the mail full of paper shreds. A true "WTF?" moment. After a few minutes, I realized who it came from and why. I smiled. The seller was covering his azz.
Absolutely. What I've come to realize is that you don't build a business with Paypal as your main payment processor. You can use Paypal, secondary, on the side, for the customers that just can't pay with any other method. But you don't build a business with Paypal, they kill you in a second, no reason given, no appeal possible, just gone in a second.
Glad you came to this realization. You are better than Paypal. Your business is better than Paypal. Yes you will miss out on sales if you do not use it, but let me tell you something: You don't want those customers. Those are low brow customers. If a customer only has Paypal as their option to pay for things, what does that tell you about that customer? They probably shouldn't be shopping with you. You want the customer who has a real credit card that can be entered into a real payment processor like Stripe.
When it comes to chargebacks, here is a powerful piece of advice that I learned a long time ago from the IM gurus: The money was never yours to begin with. The reason it was never yours to begin with is because the customer most likely went into the transaction with the intention to chargeback regardless if your service was good or bad. I don't get very many chargebacks myself, but realizing that the money was not mine from the start really changed the way I view transactions. If someone scammed me with a chargeback, then let them have their money back. I don't want to do business with them. Their money is no good with me.
It's funny. At one point I asked him point blank, I said, "I'm not gonna wake up a few months from now being hit with a number of chargebacks?"
LOL! See. That was your instincts telling you to drop the customer and back away. Listen to your instincts. Your mind saw the money and that led you astray, but your gut knew.
I am actually glad this happened to you OP. You learned 2 powerful life lessons that will bring you much prosperity in the future:
1. You know what you are worth now.
2. Listen to your instincts.
