I side with PayPal on this
1) The buyer claims he received a fake. So it is up to the buyer to do his due diligence to investigate the authenticity of the product. And if he is satisfied it is not authentic then he should feel no remorse by destroying it as long as he gets 100% of his money back.
2) to prevent future scams regarding this violin, destroy the fake. This does two things: i) the individual can not go off trying to sell it (as a fake, or authentic or just another violin). Because not only is he getting his money back, but then he can make money on top of the sale he makes with the violin.
ii) It will prevent someone else being scammed into buying this violin.
yeah i agree that IF its proven to be fake, then it should be destroyed.
but the point is, paypal DO NOT investigate anything.
they always ALWAYS A.L.W.A.Y.S! side with the buyer, and refund them without question.
as suggested above, the buyer may have bought (or already had) a very cheap violin. and destroyed THAT one, claimed back his/her cash, and still have a genuine, valuable violin.
The seller? scammed!
I have been scammed plenty of times myself on ebay, and its common for people to pay with paypal, then collect an item in person, then claim they havent recieved it. without proof of delivery, paypal will refund, regardless of telling them that an item has obvioulsy been collected (eg. a pushbike, piano, arcade machine or whatever. something too large to post)
IF paypal were anywhere near decent, thay would have had the case investigated fully. requested the violin be sent to themselves to be assessed by a proffesional, or commissioned someone to go and examine the violin.
they do nothing to earn their high charges, i begrudge using them, but there is pretty much no alternative (other than dont use ebay in the first place)
In return for the percentage they charge for transactions, they should at least assess each case properly, based on the facts, and the history of the users.
