PayPal accused of 'making' dissatisfied buyer smash antique violin | World news | The Guardian
The internet service PayPal has come under fire for allegedly forcing a user of the service to destroy an antique French violin in order to get a refund, due to a dispute over its authenticity.
The blog Regretsy, which mainly features strange handmade artefacts culled from around the web, posted an email from a user identified only as Erica. In the email, which has gone viral, Erica claims to have sold a pre-second-world-war violin on eBay to a buyer in Canada for $2,500 (£1,600). Though the violin was authenticated by "a top luthier" prior to its sale, on receiving it the buyer disputed its provenance.
"Rather than have the violin returned to me, PayPal made the buyer DESTROY the violin in order to get his money back. They somehow deemed the violin as 'counterfeit' even though there is no such thing in the violin world.
"The buyer was proud of himself, so he sent me a picture of the destroyed violin … it is beyond me why PayPal simply didn't have the violin returned to me."
The blog Regretsy, which mainly features strange handmade artefacts culled from around the web, posted an email from a user identified only as Erica. In the email, which has gone viral, Erica claims to have sold a pre-second-world-war violin on eBay to a buyer in Canada for $2,500 (£1,600). Though the violin was authenticated by "a top luthier" prior to its sale, on receiving it the buyer disputed its provenance.
"Rather than have the violin returned to me, PayPal made the buyer DESTROY the violin in order to get his money back. They somehow deemed the violin as 'counterfeit' even though there is no such thing in the violin world.
"The buyer was proud of himself, so he sent me a picture of the destroyed violin … it is beyond me why PayPal simply didn't have the violin returned to me."
