eBay and Paypal have been the same company for some time, and neither really protects the buyer or the seller. Feedback is a joke. As a buyer, I still haven't left feedback for the above transaction in fear that even though I would be in the right to leave negative feedback, and even though I paid right away and did everything a buyer should, the seller would turn around and leave me negative feedback just to be a jerk.
eBay feedback is a joke. I made the mistake in one situation of leaving negative feedback for someone and he IMMEDIATELY left retaliatory negative feedback. When I asked him WTF he offered mutual withdraw but told me the offer lasted one day. He knew exactly what he was doing and I found out this wasn't the first time he pulled this stunt.
I was the buyer and without going into more detail paid twice via PayPal (1st attempt said it failed but it in fact DID go thru). PayPal told me way to resolve was to have the seller refund one of the two transactions. I sent NUMEROUS messages to the guy, told him to look at the total price paid which was double what it should have been for one item, cut and pasted the transaction from PayPal, etc, all without response. Since it was a nominal amount PayPal actually refunded me the extra transaction one month later. So I can't fault PayPal. They actually did me right. My mistake was that I don't like people getting away with things and thought I should warn other eBay customers about a guy who would accept double payment, ignore attempts at communication, give retaliatory negative feedback & then attempt to have his record cleaned by a threatend mutual withdraw. eBay would do NOTHING about the negative feedback on my end even though it was obvious what had happened.
I ended up accepting the mutual withdraw to keep a 100% rating but now wish that I hadn't. I'd rather have a mark on my name and be able to explain to others if they ask why I'm not 100% then give in to bully tactics. I understand eBay wants to stay out of most feedback situation but there has to be times that they intervene and do the right thing.
I know I'm better off than the OP since I ended up not being out any money but I HATE that I was bullied and that I ended up accepting the mutual withdraw.
