Sold a Blackberry on eBay and shipped with tracking. The seller claimed it didn't work with their network and despite me listing it as 'no returns' sent back a different (cheaper/older) Blackberry to me.

I told eBay and they told me to contact the police but not before returning the money to the buyer and putting my account in the red.

I immediately removed all my bank and card details from Paypal and requested my account be closed.

I waited a week and opened a new account using new card and bank details. Thankfully they've never linked the 2.

'No returns' in eBay World means 'the buyer keeps the item and receives a refund' if the item is not as described / non-functional etc. Or even if the buyer bought it in error.

It doesn't mean 'all sales are final', as many sellers appear to think.

If you buy something with a credit card, you can chargeback by claiming a defective product and get your money back from the card companies. Then the card companies go to the seller to get their money back. In this case, the credit card companies only have a relationship with PayPal, not you, so they come to PayPal to get their money back. PayPal fights them but if they lose then they pay up, then they come to you to get the money back from you, and you obviously refused to pay. You can imagine what this kind of thing does to PayPal's business.

Paypal were the ones that ended up getting screwed in that transaction. Just be glad it wasn't you.

What's the alternative? For them to err in favour of the merchant, occasionally screwing consumers? When bad stuff happens in transactions (online or offline) merchants should be prepared to sometimes take the hit. It's so much better than loss of consumer confidence.

Look at the general willingness of large retailers to accept returns. They do it because they want consumers to buy without second thoughts.