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Paypal Orders Buyer of Violin To Destroy It For a Refund

Posted by samzenpus on from the we-had-to-destroy-the-village-in-order-to-save-it dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Erica was once the owner of an old violin that had survived through WWII, and decided to sell it on Ebay for $2500. The person who bought it decided it was a counterfeit and wanted his money back. Paypal decided to honor the request for a refund on the condition that the buyer destroy the violin and provided photographic evidence of the destruction. Couldn't he have just returned it?" Sounds like a hoax to me, but I guess it's possible.

4 of 362 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sounds Like a Hoax Right Up Until You Read the by Toe,+The · · Score: 5, Interesting

    1. But $100 violin, then claim it's a fake
    2. Buy $5 violin, smash it up, send photo to PayPal
    3. Profit!

  2. Re:Sounds Like a Hoax Right Up Until You Read the by ByOhTek · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The problem in any case is, if the buyer swaps the violin, how do you prove the buy swapped it, or didn't?

    --
    Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
  3. Re:Sounds Like a Hoax Right Up Until You Read the by John+Napkintosh · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And to play devil's advocate, the seller could have just as easily authenticated the $2500 violin and then shipped the buyer a $100 fake.

    --

    Long signatures suck.
  4. Re:Sounds Like a Hoax Right Up Until You Read the by jamesh · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It would be nice if you could also see the feedback weighted by the sell price. A reseller could sell hundreds of $2 items legitimately but run a scam for high value items selling less frequently and still maintain a fairly good feedback balance.