How do you guys deal with PayPal chargebacks?

[GoldPro]

After people receive your eBook, they will make a dispute on PayPal stating they did not receive it and a chargeback will be performed, therefore you will be scammed.

How do you deal with that?

[Taylor French]

PayPal does not cover digital transactions. You just tell PayPal the item was digital and they cancel the dispute in your favor.

You can still be scammed if they bought with a credit card through PayPal, because they can charge back that way. They could also claim the charge was unauthorized. But just saying they didn't get the product isn't enough if you remind PayPal the transaction was for a digital product.

[myob]

This is less of a problem if you sell less expensive ebooks first to new customers. If buyers are going to stick you, they are most likely to do it on the first purchase. Sell a book for a low price, then offer the higher priced books in subsequent offers. I used to get chargebacks quite often on high priced books as a first purchase, before using this policy of "testing" the buyer. In, general, consider chargebacks as the cost of doing business.

[Quentin]

Actually that is not how it works with Paypal.

If there is a chargeback they will advise you and you have a chance to dispute it. They have to then contact the bank raising the dispute.

For example the other day I had someone purchase my product but they said it was not them and someone had used their CC.

I issued the refund and then they also raised a charge back that Paypal went to bat for me and the charge back was canceled.

I had another one earlier that was just a straight chargeback however I had proof that the client had downloaded the product and Paypal went to bat again and we won.

Now if they just used their Paypal account to pay then it will be treated as a refund and the same process applies.

It is all about following the process.

Quentin

[GoldPro]

Originally Posted by myob

This is less of a problem if you sell less expensive ebooks first to new customers. If buyers are going to stick you, they are most likely to do it on the first purchase. Sell a book for a low price, then offer the higher priced books in subsequent offers. I used to get chargebacks quite often on high priced books as a first purchase, before using this policy of "testing" the buyer. In, general, consider chargebacks as the cost of doing business.

Would $8.99 be a price that many people would chargeback?

[myob]

Originally Posted by GoldPro

Would $8.99 be a price that many people would chargeback?

Yes, you would be surprised. Any amount from a first time buyer could be a chargeback. But I have a system to weed out these cheats. I sell cheap promo ebooks from $7.00 up to $14.95 to first time buyers for this very reason. Successful buyers go into my autoresponder series where they will often buy my other ebooks for $47.95 to $295, and $2,000 courses plus other services and products worth up to many thousands of dollars. I still get a few chargebacks on the cheap promo items, but I don't care because it just weeds out the low lifes. Those are the people I know I will never deal with again. It is just not worth my time to dispute chargebacks for only a few bucks. Never had a chargeback from a return customer, so this system works extremely well. Test your new buyers with cheap products before trying to sell the higher priced items.

Well you have not lived until you have had a $2,000 chargeback after someone got a custom built script installed on their server.

A few facts, paypal really has little control over chargebacks.. The government gave the credit card company the right to have the last say. If that credit card company (the bank) wants their money back then trust me paypal must give it to them. It does not matter what information your provide, bottom line it is left up to the credit card company (the bank).

Paypal does all they can but their hands are even tied....

James

[LB]

Paypal will help you fight the dispute but the end decision is up to the credit card issuing bank.

Sometimes you win, I have typically lost even after supplying large amounts of evidence.

Most people claim unauthorized and then play dumb. I've even provided their IP address, customer service tickets, download logs and in one case phone call records and STILL lost. Ultimately, the credit card companies don't want to piss off their customers and would rather screw the merchant than potentially lose a customer...it's very one-sided.

[dave147]

if you get a refund request within a day or two, and if it is a high ticket item - you could change your download link in the hope that the person didn't download the products yet

[dsmpublishing]

I had a paypal dispute opened for $5 a couple of weeks ago got an email from paypal saying that the dispute was closed as it was intangiable goods clicked on my paypal account and was told that they had found in the buyers favour which i really dont understand.

But for $5 there was no way i was going to waste my time contacting paypal over it as it would take them 3 days just to send me an automated message.

[Neil Morgan]

It's important to distinguish between a chargeback that the customer raises with their card provider (which you will often lose) and a dispute that the customer raises with PayPal (which you will often win).

They're very differently beasts and can have very different outcomes.

Cheers,

Neil

[Joshua.Taylor]

I got to tell you, I'm pretty sick of PayPal right now.

It's true that if someone buys your digital product then goes to PayPal and tells them they didn't get it, PayPal does not insure digital products so they're out of luck trying to scam you that way.

But what has happened to me more times than I care to remember is that they buy my product, download it, then immediately file a dispute with PayPal saying their cc was used without authorization. PayPal always gives them back their money, so now they have my product for free.

PayPal says they're investigating the matter, but from my experience it doesn't seem that they really do anything but give them back their money.

Ughhhh!

[BigCashDetective]

Unfortunately you're out of luck with digital goods on PayPal, you might want to switch over to clickbank even though I don't think they offer much protection either, but it's more geared towards it

[marjonadmin]

We've pretty much done away with Paypal. We sell both digital goods and tangible products, and STILL have the same issues. I got tired of jumping through hoops for them. If you have a good product, and the customer is a good one, then they should have no issue with CC payments. The way we get around fraud, is with a simple telephone call to verify the transaction, which I record.

Sounds like a lot of hoops to jump through for sure, but our chargeback rate is ZERO as is fraud.

[milan1west]

Chargebacks are just a part of doing business, whether you're offline or online. I give them about as much concern as I do refund requests. There's always more money to make, so don't sweat it.

[currencyschool]

the best way to deal with paypal issues is to not use paypal. you can try google checkout or the amazon system and see what kind of results you get.

[Chris Lockwood]

Originally Posted by GoldPro

After people receive your eBook, they will make a dispute on PayPal stating they did not receive it and a chargeback will be performed, therefore you will be scammed.

I think you (and some others) are confusing terms like "dispute" and "chargeback".

A dispute is the buyer saying there was a problem with the purchase. PayPal does nothing with these- they expire after a set number of days.

When there's a dispute, either of you can escalate it to a claim, then someone at PayPal takes a look at it and makes a decision.

A chargeback is when the buyer goes to their credit card company and claims they didn't make the purchase. PayPal tries to fight those, but it's up to the CC company to decide who wins.

It's clear that many people here don't get that about chargebacks- as long as you are accepting credit cards, whether through your own merchant account or a company like PayPal or Clickbank, you CAN get hit with and lose chargebacks.

Anyone who says they have zero chargebacks is lucky, lying, or doesn't do much business. Some chargebacks are legit- for example, someone bought your product with a stolen CC number, and the charge showed up on the card holder's statement. It's pretty hard for the seller to win that one, since the cardholder really didn't make the purchase.

When I get a chargeback I check my download manager to see if the product was downloaded, and if so, make a screenshot of that and send it to PayPal through their resolution system. I don't know how much difference it makes, but it can't hurt.

You really can't do anything but provide whatever proof you have.