openinverter forum

A guy has relieved me of the price for an LDU drop in board. I'm very pissed and at least want to relieve some frustration by posting here.

So about 14 days after purchase the guy contacts me with a single line email:
"The board is unresponsive and I need an exchange or a refund. Thank you"

After some diagnostic it seems clear to me that he failed to supply 12V - cold solder joint or something. The connectors are soldered by the customer, so not even in my responsibility.
I still offer that he sends the board back and once I get the tracking info he gets a brand new board.

Instead he opens a paypal case, convinces Paypal that he received a faulty product. Paypal in praised transparency "judges" that he is eligible for refund. No, you can't argue with Paypal.

Some days later I get another 1-liner:
"I figured what cause of the problem was, one of the pins inside the 20 pin connection was broken. May I purchase a set of pins?"

Not 100% what he means by "pins" is it the connector or its counterpart? Connectors are shipped in their original cut strip, unlikely to be damaged. It also means that he didn't follow my fault finding procedure that included feeding 12V AFTER the connector. Anyway, I tell him he is to repay the refunded money. No reply, of course. Even look up his phone number, just reach the mailbox.

I thought I was prepared to just write off 350€ but I'm far too annoyed by this a$$hole. If anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Can you not appeal with PayPal? Especially now he's send you an email confirming it wasn't faulty?

Paypal doesn't seem to care much about sellers. Buyer will decide if they like what they get and paypal refunds even if customers break the items. That's bad. Thats why I lost all interest in selling my modular ITX tray set. (A buyer got the delayed by post item after started claim, but since tracking did not work in his country he never told paypal he got it. Even when I had email stating he got it. Paypal said if he doesnt take claim off, they refund.)

Most arrogant if he got refund and still asks parts to fix.
I would say if it was broken a honest buyer would be happy for replacement or parts to fix yourself.

I just sent you 35€ to make you feel like someone cares.
Next 9 people: Lets make Johannes happy

Basically all online marketplaces are like this regardless of if they use PayPal or not. They always enforce buyer's rights over seller's rights.

I guess they can't afford assholes giving them bad buyer ratings.

Agreed with Janik. I've sold a little over 400 items since starting this gig. Two did a variant of what Johannes just experienced. Sadly it's an aspect of business these days. I've learned to spot some of the telltales but of course a few get through. Best advice : put it in the rearview and concentrate on the good customers.

Sorry to hear of your experience Johannes!

If nothing else, at least warn any other potential victims of his scamming tactics by give a few hints about his location etc...

Paypal is well known to regularly screw over customers, and to keep huge amounts of funds in their version of escrow until they feel like you're not likely to get refunds. There's no warning for this, no pattern, they'll just randomly freeze someone's accounts for 6, 9, howevermany months.

Guys that've done millions of dollars of business over paypal have this happen to them.

Still, I'd open a dispute with Paypal. Say how a seller lied to them, admittedly, and broke the product and they granted a refund. Ask them to refund you the money or rebill.

It's probably a waste of time, but to me, I like at least trying to use whatever is available to me to fight back.

Thanks for your sympathy guys, it really helps And thanks Jani for even donating!

I guess I'll just leave it as is, after all it was the first of maybe 300 customers who did that.

Even though part of me would like to I'll not publish his name, a) it's illegal b) I still want to behave civilized c) I don't want his house burned down

johu wrote: ↑Sat Oct 31, 2020 7:46 pm A guy has relieved me of the price for an LDU drop in board.

That just frosts my britches!

It @$$#$ like that, that cause good folks to reconsider selling their talents and/or wares on the 'net and that ultimately hurts everyone.

This is another big reason for me to move away from direct to customer sales. Now all my sales have invoice VAT and go via bank transfers.

Luckily I only had one customer declare his parcel went missing, so I sent him a replacement no questions asked but never heard anything again.

johu wrote: ↑Sun Nov 01, 2020 11:47 am I don't want his house burned down

I would never wish harm on anyone of course, but maybe if his soldering is that bad, his house might burn down anyway.

Sympathies Johannes.

I have knowledge of a very similar story.

The ironic thing here is that Paypal was taught up by no other than Mr Musk.!!!

Regards
Stephen

Let's see if this criminal dares to show up in the forum to ask for help.

crasbe wrote: ↑Tue Dec 20, 2022 10:00 pm Let's see if this criminal dares to show up in the forum to ask for help.

I was just thinking the same thing. lol

PayPal lost my company (sales invoicing) business a few months ago, not due to a client claiming a fault or a loss or a problem or any other "infringement" of PayPal rules. Our business is very lucky that so far all of our clients seem to like us and are happy with what they get from us and the speed at which we deliver what we say we'll deliver. However PayPal still decides for no apparent reason to one day just withhold tens of thousands of dollars worth of payments from clients invoices. So unfortunately from that moment on (after putting I can't remember how many millions through PayPal? Over the decades) we refunded every clients withheld PayPal invoice payment and invoiced "direct" (bank details) and emailed an explanation to the client of the "unexplainable situation". A couple of "new clients" vanished perhaps never to be seen again but all of our long standing clients just adapted to the change and organised a bank transfer to us. It's a pain but I'll not be held to ransom by a company that thinks they are gods.

Our business is small and holding our sales funds for products we often build to order isn't a possible "business model".

Hopefully one day PayPal will learn that they need sellers and buyers for their business model to survive.

In the meantime bank gets my business.

crasbe wrote: ↑Tue Dec 20, 2022 10:00 pm Let's see if this criminal dares to show up in the forum to ask for help.

It was 2 years ago, so, probably not.

DkubusEV wrote: ↑Tue Dec 20, 2022 10:46 pmPayPal still decides for no apparent reason to one day just withhold tens of thousands of dollars worth of payments from clients invoices. So unfortunately from that moment on (after putting I can't remember how many millions through PayPal? Over the decades)

Paypal is famous for this.

Over and over again, randomly, companies with millions of dollars of history with Paypal suddenly have their accounts locked for 3-9 months. Just, sorry, can't access your money, we're holding it in case someone wants a refund.

Yeah pretty crazy huh. Live and learn, (learn not to give full control to PayPal).

Yeah I noticed it was quite a while ago, let's hope that it'll not happen again in a "community based" environment like the diy world.

JaniK wrote: ↑Sun Nov 01, 2020 12:42 am I just sent you 35€ to make you feel like someone cares.
Next 9 people: Lets make Johannes happy

I did, too
i'm very sure if this guy has problems to solve he'll be very alone with them

Oh wow, thank you very much

The reason this came up again after 2 years, the guy actually contacted me under a new e-mail address but I could smell immediately it was him. He'd replaced the stm32 and wanted to know whether it needs programming No information for you sir.

johu wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 9:32 amHe'd replaced the stm32 and wanted to know whether it needs programming

Ask him to send it to you and you'll program it for free.

... then don't send it back.

Too late now but that would have been pretty funny