Norv Turner: After trading the article, that's some serious bullshiat.

They essentially screwed that guy over of his money and property, too bad no one ever reads the fine print in the user agreements

Companies should not be allowed to have such absurd terms of service but until republicans stop screaming socialism at every attempt to regulate some sanity into the system we are not going to get anywhere

The person who received the violin and disputed the authenticity could have just put the violin back up for sale. The original seller could have bought it back.

I bought the mechanical heart of Dick Cheney off ebay. Then I saw the Dark One still moping around, complaining that there was only one profitable war going on. So I disputed the claim with PayPal. They told me to destroy it. Now, how am I going to get to Mount Doom? There's only two flights daily and neither has a business class. And I always get stuck next to a pregnant hobbit who complains about everything.

That's the most asinine thing I've ever read. I've never used Paypal due to all of the horror stories, but this just takes the cake.

DerAppie: FlameDuck: That is one sad looking violin. Crime really.

Not really, the seller obviously didn't treasure it as it was sold (unless it was a last effort to pay bills or something like that), and beyond that it was just an old violin that got smashed. Buy a new one and be done with it.

Maybe the seller though that the buyer would appreciate the violin more, and thought the guy he/she was selling to was less of an asshole. The problem is that this wasn't a counterfeit, and they had a pro evaluate it after the fact (although I think the seller had it appraised beforehand, but the dude didn't believe him). If the buyer thought it was a counterfeit, why didn't he do his own appraisal separate?

I know a lot of people who sell their antiques not because they don't appreciate them, but because they think others might get more enjoyment out them. For Paypal to have this clause is stupid and insulting, because while there are counterfeits out there, a lot of the legit stuff can end up like this violin. There are other ways PayPal can cover their asses for counterfeits other than destorying merchandise.

Sheesh, Paypal is fail all the way around. We bought a tv series off of Ebay and the dumbass seller sent it to an invalid address, the post office kept is for 7 days (wouldn't release it to us even though it had our name and a close address on it), and then sent it back. We disputed with Paypal and sent them a screenshot of the entire mailing fiasco. They told us they would attempt to contact the sender. Anyway, fast forward seven days and Paypal claims the seller never got his item back (not our fault) so they would not make him refund our money. WTF?! I had to escalate twice until I finally got someone who READ the post office tracking log and then issued our refund. Such a farking failure.

Also the last two items I sold on Ebay the buyer claimed "item not as described" (even though I had screenshots of the auction and detailed pictures of the item). Paypal doesn't care even when one box i got back contained shredded newspaper and the other item didn't need to be sent back according to Paypal because it was "counterfeit" (which it was not, I bought it directly from a Sample sale at the store).

Basically if you like constantly getting screwed over, use Ebay for buying and selling things.

I have noticed a definite move towards Chinese vendors on Ebay in the last ten years or so. Maybe the more savvy vendors have gotten fed up with Paypal and their horrible practices.
I hope to see more of these stories published so they can both get the Christoforo treatment.