As a freelance Web & Graphic Designer I work from home and yet I work with people all around the World via the marvelous beast that is the internet. So naturally, I use PayPal and honestly wouldn’t consider using anything else, clients/customers have come to expect to pay via PayPal and quite frankly even if you don’t like PayPal, some clients we’ll walk away if you don’t except payment via PayPal because they will only pay via PayPal.
If you Google “paypal sucks” you’re going to find a lot of hate and websites dedicated to bashing PayPal. In the past 3-4 years I’ve pretty much used PayPal without a hitch until recently. But to make this clear upfront, a lot of people have experienced the same thing, but have the misconception of blaming PayPal when it’s completely out of their hands.
PayPal is not a bank, PayPal using a bank to store your money, they of course make a killing off the interest, so what… good for them, they provide a great service. So, if you experience a Charge Back this is a persons Credit Card company retracting payment from PayPal’s bank account and therefore your PayPal account, PayPal is just the middleman and not the problem, the Credit Card company is the problem, it’s nothing new, but it’s truly criminal.
Here’s what happened to me;
1. Client consulted with me to design a flyer and brochure
2. Client paid in full upfront and work began
3. A few days of back and forth waiting for feedback and submitting revisions, very common
4. Amount of work began to exceed payment (but I never complained)
5. As the Holidays were coming up I expressed concern and inquired if there was any sort of deadline on the project, the reply was something like; “No worries, take your time.”
6. A few days after Christmas I started back where we left off and sent a “checking in” email, received no response… a few days later I sent another email, no response
7. About a week later I received an email, something like; “You took too long, I just had someone else finish it up. Please refund the full amount.“, I replied something to the effect of; “Unfortunately that isn’t possible, you’ve already paid me for the work and I’ve already done the work. Because you’ve chosen to abandon the project does not constitute a refund, I’m still here ready to work, but you will be breaking our agreement by leaving the project. I’m sorry for any inconvenience and I don’t want any hard feelings so I’d be happy to offer additional work redeemable at any time, no extra charge.“, no response
8. About two months later the client issued a Charge Back (or Chargeback) with their Credit Card company which immediately removed the funds from PayPal’s bank and therefore was removed from my PayPal account, which is just a pseudo representation of the actual money, but my access to that actual money was nevertheless removed
9. PayPal, as a courtesy offers an “Open Dispute Case” which allows the two parties to state their case and PayPal will judge who is in the right, I provided all the PSD design files, screenshots and stated my case;
10. PayPal of course chose in my favor (keep in mind that both I and client are PayPal users so there is no favoritism) and now disputes and presents the case to the Credit Card company… what do you think happened?… they chose in favor of their customer, I truly wonder if they even looked at anything
So, in a summarized conclusion, what happened?
Client paid for services, I rendered services… the money is now legally mine, I’ve earned it and it’s in my possession. Client makes a chargeback, which is no different than coming into my home and stealing my money against my will, Credit Card company assists in this crime and with all their fine print some how make it legal.
How is this possible, why is this allowed to happen?
Simple, because the law has not caught up with technology yet, this is a gray area.
It’s a two-way street.
Mainly, via finding one another through craigslist, both the client and professional can get screwed. I’ve had people steal my work, or never pay or in this case blatantly steal my money, it happens and sadly it’s basically just the way it is, it’ll never be worth it to take legal action, you’ll spend more money and time than what you’ll get back, you just have to accept it and let it go.
Likewise, I have plenty of clients with some truly messed up horror stories; some getting more or less scammed out of $4,500 for next to no work done at all.
Thanks for reading, Bryan
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