Can eBay Sellers Ever Win Paypal Disputes?

I received this email from fellow seller Linda:

“I just got off the phone with Paypal. A customer of mine claimed one item out of a multiple item sale was broken in transit. I asked for a picture and he never provided one. I even had paypal request a pic and never got one.

I’ve been paying someone to package and ship my eBay items. He guarantees his work and would reimburse me but I had to provide a picture to prove the damage. The customer escalated to a claim under “Item Not as Described” and Paypal automatically sent determination for customer to return item for full refund except return shipping. When I asked Paypal how we jumped to return the item for a refund, she told me they just changed the policy and from now on all “Item Not as Described” complaints will be resolved like mine.

They are no longer investigating or getting into it at all, simply Paypal will be authorizing a full refund for anyone filing a claim. The only condition is the seller must pay to return the item and provide proof of delivery to Paypal. No need to pay for insurance once sellers find that out and how about the guy who sends back an empty package or one filled with properly weighted rocks? The new policy should be a field day for certain types of buyers. Did you know that and what do you think?”

No, I wasn’t aware of that. I checked on the Paypal site under “Item Not Described Claim” and see that part of the process still includes “Paypal investigates and resolves claim.” Unless now they are just omitting the investigation part. If this is true, I think this is terribly unfair and I hope you were just talking to an employee that was misinformed? Hopefully we will have some comments to shed more light on this as this policy seems like it will open up a world of problems for sellers.

Thanks for your contribution, Linda!