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Paypal dispute without warning - any tip?


espumita

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Hi everyone,
today Fiverr sent me an e-mail telling me that a customer opened a dispute in paypal and they had to cancel my order.
I completed that order over a month ago and the buyer didn’t complain, so I tryed to contact him; unfortunately his account was deleted.

I checked my paypal account and there is no dispute open.

I contacted Fiverr and they say that they can’t do anything because the dispute started in paypal and I have to resolve it myself. Now, I understand that this thing maybe out of their hands, but how can I resolve a dispute if paypal doesn’t say I have one?

If paypal contacted Fiverr, maybe it means that Paypal consider Fiverr like the seller and not me (that would explain why they got notified and not me. So maybe is Fiverr that has to resolve the dispute demonstrating that I delivered the work?

I also sent an e-mail to paypal and I’m waiting for their answer.

In the meantime Fiverr tells me that they can’t do nothing and me neither. So in a situation like this what a seller has to do? No communication with buyer, not answers from Fiverr, not notification from paypal.

Has this ever happened to you?

Thanks for your repllies!

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Hi,
he cancelled the order. Well Fiverr had to cancel it because of the dispute, they have to cancel the order when a dispute is open.

I agree with you, I think the buyer is trying a chargeback.

So, in cases like this, the Fiverr users aren’t protected?

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This happens to nearly every seller once in awhile. It’s unfortunate and usually there isn’t anything you can really do. Fiverr really can’t do anything either since PayPal current makes no guarantees on these type of disputes.

Most of the time this happens when someone uses a stolen credit card on a PayPal account, or hacks another person’s PayPal account. Occasionally it is a buyer who knowingly does this to get freebies. Any way you look at it, the buyer is making a fraudulent transaction. The buyer pays Fiverr through PayPal and Fiverr gives you your earnings. If the buyer then disputes the transaction, PayPal takes the entire amount back. Fiverr loses their commission and you lose your earnings.

You can still take screen shots of what you did for the buyer and screenshots of Fiverr’s message to you. and open a complaint with PayPal. You can show them your screenshots and IF the buyer filed an inaccurate dispute there is an extremely low chance PayPal will reverse the dispute. I’ve only heard of that happening once or twice and only on very expensive orders (hundreds to thousands of $.) If the buyer’s transaction was made with a stolen account or credit card, PayPal cannot reverse the dispute. 99% of the time, there is nothing you can do and your time is better spent moving on to the next orders.

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Hi fonthaunt,
thanks for your reply. I know Fiverr can’t do anything and I know I cant either.

You answered my question: every seller get one of this sooner or later. Fortunately it wasn’s a high sum and I won’t lose much money.

It makes me feel “unsafe” though, that things like this can happen and not me, nor Fiverr nor Paypal can do anything.

Basically there is always a chance for someone to scam you and steal your work, time and money without being punished.
Bummer.

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Since it’s a transaction between Fiverr and the buyer you will not see any dispute in your own Paypal account. Paypal has in this regard nothing to do with you and will not exchange any information with you about it.

What you can do is communicate with Fiverr as they on their end retract the money from your account. If they don’t do it via your Fiverr balans they could file a claim via Paypal against you. Then it’s a transaction between you and Fiverr and this is were communication with Paypal makes sense.

Since Fiverr already canceled the order they solved the Paypal dispute between themselves and the buyer by paying him back. They don’t want to risk their Paypal account, therefore it is very likely that they decide in the favor of the buyer whether or not the seller did everything right.

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The ‘problem’ is that Paypal has buyers protection and that scammers file a dispute whether or not they received their goods. After 45 days the party that started the dispute can raise the status to a claim and this is them moment when an actual employee of Paypal looks into the case.

It’s not necessary that the purchase has been done in a fraudulent way.

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Ok, that makes sense. I suspected that the problem was between paypal and fiverr, but fiver support keep saying that they don’t have anything to do with it and they can’t do anything.
It seemed a bit strange cause I can’t do anything and they can’t do anything neither?

So the thing is that the dispute is with Fiverr but Fiverr can’t do anyghing about it (??) and now I’ve lost an order and fiverr lost a commission all due to a scammer that got a free work.

I’m concerned because this seems to be “a thing” and it’s likely that other sellers might be in this same situation in the future. Maybe with a work more expensive than mine.

I completely understand the position of Fiverr but I don’t think it’s fair for the sellers, that’s all.
My money is now gone -ok, i’ll live- but maybe there is something we could do to prevent this kind of scam?

(Also, I’m still hoping for paypal to contact me after I explained them the situation).

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At the moment where Fiverr tells you that they canceled the order, you can assume that they settled with the buyer on Paypal and the dispute between them has been solved that way. The buyer has his money back, Fiverr lost their commission and you lost your income and hours of your time.

As you weren’t part of the dispute for Paypal they will not give you any information. Otherwise anybody could try to intervene in the dispute of other parties and try to get information about it.

The most likely reason for a settlement is b.t.w. usually that parties like Fiverr won’t risk their Paypal account for something like that. I once filed a dispute about a purchase on eBay when I didn’t receive my items from China and the seller settled very fast because he couldn’t afford to get a claim. Once they get too many claims their Paypal account is history.
After a couple of weeks he e-mailed me b.t.w. saying that the goods had come back to his address because the douane had caused problems. So my dispute wasn’t unreasonable.

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I contacted paypal and they told me that in order for them to answer my question I have to give them the details of the transaction the the transaction id. Bu i CAN’T do it because I DON’T have this detail.

When someone pays a gig the money goes to fiverr and THEN i can withdraw it to my paypal account, so the dispute was open against FIverr and they have the power to settle it.
But they won’t. And I don’t know why.

@EDIT: paypal response:
Gentile xxx

"Come tu ci informi la transazione e reclamo e’ gestita da Fiverr. Non avendo utilizzato PayPal non possiamo aiutarti.

Siamo a tua disposizione per qualunque altra domanda sul tuo conto PayPal.

Cordiali saluti"

"Dear xxx
the dispute and the transaction are managed by fiverr. If you didn’t use paypal we can’t help you.
We are available to answer any other question

kind regards"

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Yes, they canceled the order.
Paypal told me that the dispute is with Fiverr, not with me, so they won’t give me any information.

And Fiverr keeps telling me that they can’t do nothing, they just say that only the person who filed the dispute can close it.
I don’t understand why fiverr doesn’t tell to paypal that the buyer got his order as agreed. They can prove it. The buyer is wrong, so why they won’t do anything?

I keep asking to fiverr support but they won’t answer me this specific question.

I’m really upset for all this.

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Paypal won’t tell you anything because it is between fiverr and Paypal, not you and Paypal.

This is the cost of doing business anywhere. You get this not just on fiverr but any place where you are using Paypal or credit cards. It has to be this way. Otherwise people would not feel safe using Paypal or credit cards. It is the price all sellers pay.

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The reason that Fiverr doesn’t do anything is because it’s the safest and easiest (cheapest) route for them to go.

A dispute that changes into a claim can become very time intensive. If for whatever reason Paypal decides in the favor of the buyer, it’s the Paypal account of Fiverr that is at stake. Seen the fact that Fiverr has to rely on your information (no matter how convincing) there is a risk for them that it will not convincing enough for Paypal. If a company gets to many claims and loses them, their Paypal account will be toast at a certain point. This is a risk no company is eager to take. Therefore they settle in that early stage.

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Imagine a regular client would do a chargeback on all orders placed within 180 days. That’s a real risk we all are taking and i bet most aren’t prepared for that.

This just makes me wonder if this happened and your balance goes to minus thousands, you decide to quit. What would fiverr do, take the loss or try to win a dispute of their own against you without having fought the initial dispute?

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