The purpose of this guide is to tell the true story of a poor disabled mother of five who lost $500 when she bought a stove on Ebay. It is also about how to avoid getting ripped off & screwed over by Ebay's & Paypal's phony, loophole ridden "buyer protection" policies. My friend, who has lived on the edge of a cliff, economically speaking, most of her life & suffers from severe mental disorders & asthma, bought a $500 stove on Ebay that came to her door totally smashed. When the seller refused to do anything, she filed a case with Paypal and Ebay, which both stiffed her. Coincidentally at about the same time, the same thing happened to me with a computer for $500. Not only did she lose her money, but the seller collected double because he filed for and collected the shipping insurance from FedEX & did not give it to her.  Paypal & Ebay with their fake "buyer protection" policies allowed this seller to reap a $1000 profit & steal my friend blind. Paypal put a hold on the $500 in the seller's account & required the poor mother to release the money so that the seller could send her the refund. The seller's wife said she would send the money as soon as my friend released it. So my friend released the money but never got the refund. Paypal never bothered to explain  that once she closed the case (released the hold), she could not reopen it & refused to do anything more. My issue with the computer was that it was supposed to have a year warranty & it quickly stopped working.  When I sent it for repair, it came back "refused, return to sender", unrepaired. So I filed a complaint & was told that Paypal would not refund my money because I did not return the item! So I went to my Bank of America credit card to file a complaint & Bank of America also stiffed me. Recently, the same thing happened to me with a $200 camera that I never got & Paypal's excuse this time was that the seller "showed delivery confirmation". It did not matter to them that the confirmation did not show delivery to me. It's obvious to me that Ebay's and Paypal's "buyer protection policies" thrive on loopholes. I only got my money back when I filed a complaint with Chase, my current credit card company.

So, my advice to avoid seller rip-offs & Ebay and Paypal's phony "buyer protection" scams is to always pay with a Chase credit card & to get a Chase card if you haven't got one & dump your Bank of America credit cards because their "buyer protection" policies are as faked as Ebay's & Paypals's are. FYI this was not the first time Bank of America had let me down. Chase never has let me down.