Awhile ago I bought something off eBay for about $1,500 and never received the item. After a week, I contacted the seller who did not respond. I filed my first-ever complaint with Paypal and had the foolish notion that I was protected by the "Paypal Buyer Protection Program." After all, this is the protection that is touted all over eBay. After a couple of weeks of 'investigation,' and no response from the seller, Paypal ruled that I was officially ripped off. There was only one caveat. By this time, the seller had no funds in his account. Paypal informed me of the outcome in their own special form-letter:

              -- "We have decided in your favor, however, we were unable to recover any funds from the seller's account. As stated in the PayPal User Agreement, recovery of funds associated with a Buyer Complaint cannot be guaranteed."

              --"Please know that we will make our best effort to recover the funds in question if they become available in the seller's account in the future and will take appropriate action against the seller. Such action may include issuing a warning, a temporary restriction, or terminating the account."

Needless to say, I never saw any money from their 'recovery' efforts. However in my angry pursuit of the "Paypal Buyer Protection Program," I did speak to a very nice Paypal representative who told me non-challantly that I would have been better off by supplementing the useless "Paypal Buyer Protection" with my good old credit card buyer protection.

I still use Paypal whenever possible, but I always click the link *additional funding options and select my credit card as the payment method on the subsequent screen. If you have a balance in your Paypal account, you cannot use a credit card and are 'forced' into using the balance. I have actually transferred funds out of my account and then used my credit card to avoid a risky transaction. It is well worth the peace of mind. This is the only safe way to pay using Paypal! If the seller turns out to be crooked, I can file a complaint with Paypal and if they can't recover the funds, I can still file a claim directly with my credit card issuer. The credit card issuer is obligated to charge back Paypal and refund my money if they find through their investigation that I was ripped off by the seller. This does not adversely affect my standing with Paypal whatsoever and has saved me from a couple of bad situations subsequent to the one described.

*When you select this option, Paypal has the nerve to 'remind' you that it's really safer to use Paypal and the button to cancel the choice is defaulted while the button to use the credit card is conveniently dimmed. Every time I see this, I wonder to myself "How dumb do they think I am?" But I have to admit, once I clicked the default in haste and ended up paying for the item through paypal. Luckily, the item arrived in good order.

Good luck!
r.smith1680@gmail.com