Careful, Paypal users

[Skybird]

German economy magazine "WISO" on 2nd channel this evening had a docu on Paypal. While I am not after the examples they listed where the company misbehaved, demanded irrelevant and most personal data from customers and delayed for several months the access to money already transferred - to work with this money themselves and make a profit by the the resulting interests- , the interesting news is with regard to Ebay.

Ebay advertises with Paypal (which is a daughter) that it is a kind of insurance against transactions going wrong, so that you can get back the money, and reverse any business deals, if the bad event takes place, for example yopu get an item which is not matching the description or is a different item. However, be advised that according to the legal situation in Germany, this advertising is misleading, because it has zero, rien, nada, no legal basis at all. Legal situation is such that in Germany you have no legal basis whatever to demand such an financial transaction being reversed, therefore Paypal can decide by their own will whether they follow such a request, or not. You can beg them to stand by their pormises, and when they say No - what they do - then there is nothign you can do about it. Your imagined safety is - illusory.

In other words, the advertised customer protection of Paypal - is nil and void with the German laws. You have no legal demand for it, and Paypal has no obligation fulfill it's advertised service (they even admit it in the small print somehwere, very well hidden), and you should consider their "customer protection" to be a completely arbitrary courtesy. As the examples in the video show, they are willing to refuse that even if they have not checked the circumstances and facts of the situation and objects of dispute between trader and customer.

You might want to check the legal background in your own countries.

German video:
http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/conte...0?inPopup=true#

I never liked paypal, since it is another location where my banking data and personal data gets collected without me having any legal control over it and without knowing what happens with it and what they do with it and whether they sell it, or not. Ebay pushes Paypal because the trader has to pay a fee up to 4% of the bid - which in other words is another form of income for Ebay. Considering that you have no legal claims for customer protection, no guarantees for safe transaction and no mandatory safety functionwhen using Paypal, but that you get hooked by misleading advertisement and false promises, I do not feel tempted any more now to use it. As far as Ebay is concerned, I have a numerical and relatively low limit beyond which I do no accept deals per Ebay. where there are precious items involved, like two old chess computers, I establish personal contact and make sure that I can pay vis-a-vis and take the item home after having gone there. that is simple and healthy reason, and when you do any different, you should not complain if somebody fools you to your disadvantage.

And that in principal is true with all internet buying.