the number one rule with ebay/paypal to protect yourself, as soon as you receive funds via paypal, transfer them immediately to your bank account, they cannot touch that! that way if it gets nasty and they freeeze your account. fine, close it and walk away. If not they got you and theres nothing you can do, as with others on this group been there done that with idiots on ebay making BS claims......... Todd K
transfer it to the bank account NOT LINKED to your paypal account. paypal can take funds from your linked bank account withou you knowing it.
my bank account linked to paypal has 6 bucks in it. 
if you don't pay paypal when you lose a case, say bye to any paypal account that uses your home address. the phone method is the best way to get what you want.
Yeah, somehow Paypal seems to get around obstacles they shouldn't, as I just went thru this.
<< my bank account linked to paypal has 6 bucks in it. >>
I also always kept low funds in my Paypal account. Guess what? Not only did the bank allow Paypal to go in and take what funds were in there, they covered the overdraft amount also, and then tried to charge ME $35 for overdraft charge. They said they have no way to stop someone from going into my bank account if they have the numbers. I said if my friggin BANK can't stop something like that, time to change banks....so I did, and closed the account. So not only pissed at Ebay and Paypal, but my old bank (Washington Mutual/ Chase) as well. So, only way to avoid a debit and overdraft charge (no matter HOW little was in my account) is to close the account since the bank won't put a block on account for certain companies (or too lazy) or check debits, so I closed the account. I'm sure if I had $6 in there and someone withdrew $1k, they'd try to make me liable to re-pay the $1k AND the $35 overdraft charge. Anyway, that still didn't stop Paypal.
So, after I went further into the Paypal mess and got them to temporarily refund my money as they investigate, I not only CLOSED the previous linked bank account, but also unlinked the credit card I had on Ebay and Paypal account, so they had no access to anything. Guess what? Somehow magically Paypal went back into their history files and found my credit card number and re-charged my credit card I had linked when the transaction occured 4 months earlier. I disputed with my CREDIT CARD COMPANY also (Citibank), so THEY had to open a dispute and investigate with Paypal. They came back and said they asked Paypal if the charge was valid. Guess what? Paypal said it was a valid charge. No shit??? It's like asking a thief if they just robbed that bank over there. "Bank? What bank? I don't rob no bank". of COURSE the person doing the unauthorized charge is going to say it's valid!!!! So, I re-submitted an unauthorized charge to my cc company, around and around we went, they said I had 10 days to respond in writing, but then 1 day later also sent a "case closed in favor of Paypal" letter, since paypal asked the scammer buyer to respond in writing, etc, etc.. I could have STILL responded in writing to continue to play the game and re-open the case, but not worth my time anymore at that point anymore.
The point is....don't believe you have any "protection" from Ebay, Paypal, your bank, OR your credit card company.
