Kaki Shopping

Here’s a really useful tip for all you shoppers out there: Pay with PayPal.

This is especially true if you are buying stuff from ebay.  Most, if not all, of the ebay purchases via PayPal are protected by the  Buyer Protection Clause, which protects the buyer with 100% of the original purchase price and shipping.

I had the rare opportunity of experiencing how this works just recently.

I had won bids on ebay for 4 books, but just before I paid for them, I saw that one of the books cost much less in my local Walmart.  So I emailed the seller and asked her to remove the book from my invoice.  I then paid her for the 3 books plus shipping and handling.

After a few days, when I did not receive word from the seller on whether the books had been shipped, I emailed her.  This went on for days without any reply.  And then suddenly I received an email from PayPal instructing me NOT to make payment to the seller because the listings for the items had been removed from ebay.

Well, since I had already made the payment, I proceeded to the PayPal Resolution Center to lodge a complaint and claim.  PayPal immediately launched an investigation into the case, and emailed the seller with a period of one week to respond.

When no word was heard from the seller, the case was settled in my favor and the entire payment I made was refunded into my PayPal account.

So play it safe and pay with PayPal.