A cautionary tale

[plantsfish]

To expect any sort of brain power from Ebay and Paypal is asking a lot, I am glad when they even speak English. You can clearly tell they never give a rats-ass about you when you call. I am curious as to why the seller did not tell the buyer to just simply return the item for a refund?

[plantsfish]

He also says there is no such thing as counterfeit violins. I did a Google search and it seems as though counterfeit violins are pretty common place.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6682067_spot...ue-violin.html

[bykimbo]

Next week we will no doubt hear a complaint of PayPal ordering a buyer to return fake goods back to the seller so they can resale them.

As usual they get blamed whatever they do.

Sellers will never admit to items being fake and the fact they forgot to mention in the original post that the item had been authenticated makes me wonder if they also forget to mention this to PayPal

As I said, I'm not anti-paypal, but this is one situation where I think doing things by the rule book is simply stupid. They need to employ people with a bit of sense, and *allow* them to make exceptions. If they're too big and unwieldy for that to be able to happen, then people need to be aware of that limitation and make an informed decision about using the (generally excellent) service in particular cases.

[bykimbo]

To expect any sort of brain power from Ebay and Paypal is asking a lot, I am glad when they even speak English. You can clearly tell they never give a rats-ass about you when you call. I am curious as to why the seller did not tell the buyer to just simply return the item for a refund?

Many buyers assume the worst about sellers and don't bother to contact them, they just go straight to paypal dispute. This is not normally a problem, and it's an excellent idea to protect buyers against dishonest sellers - I just think this is a situation where that stance let *everybody* down.

[plantsfish]

Many buyers assume the worst about sellers and don't bother to contact them, they just go straight to paypal dispute. This is not normally a problem, and it's an excellent idea to protect buyers against dishonest sellers - I just think this is a situation where that stance let *everybody* down.

True. I have had Paypal out of the blue say something was in dispute before. Thanks goodness I had the tracking information so I won the dispute though.

[moonwitch]

I have been using Paypal since 2005 and today was the first time I have seen their rule about destroying items and providing evidence....how can other sellers be expected to know about this? How easy is this information to find?

[bykimbo]

I have been using Paypal since 2005 and today was the first time I have seen their rule about destroying items and providing evidence....how can other sellers be expected to know about this? How easy is this information to find?

Good question. I had no idea either that this was their policy with things they deemed fakes (on limited evidence!)

[TexasAda]

I agree that the policy of asking a buyer to destroy something deemed counterfeit is simply soliciting fraud by buyers. It would be very easy to destroy another item and keep the one received in the transaction. A digital photo, possibly shot by a poor photographer on a poor camera at poor resolution is hardly undeniable proof. If PayPal doesn't rescind this policy soon, it's going to cause a lot of mischief, and shopping for alternate payment methods. Paypal may find itself destroyed.

[JaBek1]

He also says there is no such thing as counterfeit violins. I did a Google search and it seems as though counterfeit violins are pretty common place.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6682067_spot...ue-violin.html

Actually, I have a bit of a problem thinking of any violin as being a "fake violin." While a violin may be misrepresented as being antique, by a particular maker, etc., It's pretty hard to picture an actual violin instrument as being a "counterfeit." Frankly, I have a problem with PayPal instructing a buyer to destroy anything suspected of being counterfeit without a full examination by a qualified expert.

I once, many years ago, had a friend bring a buyer of a particular painting to me complaining that the work was a reproduction. The buyer insisted that they had seen the original years earlier hanging in a BBQ place in the Gaslight Square area of St Louis back in the late sixties and that obviously my friend had sold him a fake. Of course, this buyer was threatening all sorts of things, including legal action, if my friend didn't refund the buyer's money. I assured the buyer that the piece was an authentic original. The buyer then decided to accuse me as being in some kind of cahoots with the seller.

After the buyer ranted & raved for a bit he demanded to know what qualified me as such an expert. It was then that I produced my driver's license, asked the buyer to remove the dust cover from the back of the frame and compare the signature on the license to the one scribbled on the back of the piece. It so happened that it was a piece I did back in late '67. I knew that the owner had consigned it to my friends shop, but had never thought that one of my works would rate having its authenticity questioned.

Oh! By the way, the buyer was correct in having seen it St Louis. Pappa D... let us poor starving art students hang our work in his eatery back then. Often he would even let us pay for a meal with a piece of our work. He had the best BBQ on Gaslight Square. If memory serves, the painting, entitled "To The Spread Of Flower Power," originally sold for $15. I don't know how it ended up in Florida or when the seller acquired it, but it just so happened that my friend recognized it as one of my works. Of course, I've never seen the irate buyer again. Hope he likes the piece.

[darklisruthven]

JaBek, I love your story, absolutly brilliant!