PayPal
serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as
checks and money orders. PayPal performs payment processing for online
vendors, auction sites, and other corporate users, for which it charges
a fee. In October 2002, PayPal became a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay.
Their corporate headquarters is in San Jose, California, at eBay's North
First Street satellite office campus. The company also has significant
operations in Omaha, Nebraska; Dublin, Ireland; and Berlin, Germany.
PayPal account holders must be 18 or over with a debit/credit card or
bank account and an e-mail address.
The PayPal Buyer Protection Policy
claims that customers may file a buyer complaint within 45 days if they
did not receive an item or if the item they purchased was significantly
not as described. If the buyer used a credit card, they might get a
refund via chargeback from their credit card company.
PayPal protects sellers in a limited fashion via the Seller Protection
Policy. In general the Seller Protection Policy is intended to protect
the seller from chargebacks or complaints but it is subject to various
terms. PayPal states the Seller Protection Policy is "designed to
protect sellers against claims by buyers of unauthorized payments and
against claims of non-receipt of any merchandise".
Note that this contrasts with the
consumer protection they claim to offer. This policy should be read
carefully before assuming protection. In particular the Seller
Protection Policy includes a list of "Exclusions" which itself includes
"Intangible goods", "Claims for receipt of goods 'not as described'" and
"Total reversals over the annual limit". There are also other
restrictions in terms of the sale itself, the payment method and the
destination country the item is shipped to (simply having a tracking
mechanism is not sufficient to guarantee the Seller Protection Policy is
in effect).
(Wikipedia) |
