ahkahn
Active Member
Credit cards are no longer client friendly.
I disputed 3 charges over the past 3 years.
One was for $5,000 ... Chase ... after 2 years I had to take vendor to small claims court and WON. Chase were useless.
This year $2,000 in two charges ... another bank sided the merchant both times even though I had written proof of failure to delivery merchandize.
Now if I have a bad feeling I cut a check, then stop it. Done that once for $500. Much simpler. (You do have to act within 72 hours.)
No idea about PayPal.
Well you can't prove a negative, which is why you probably lost the disputes. If you say they never delivered, the burden is on the merchant to provide proof of delivery. If they did that, you lose. If they can't, you win. It's pretty simple. If you got hit by a porch pirate, for example, it was still delivered and the merchant no longer has liability. It's on you to file a police report. The most common form of fraud today is "friendly fraud" where a legitimate customer will claim they never received merchandise after they got it, thus defrauding the merchant. So they watch that very closely. Not saying that you were intentionally defrauding the merchant, but the CC company is probably looking at that aspect, and if the merchant gave a 3rd party proof of delivery (ie. FedEx/UPS tracking number that shows delivered to your address or a signed receipt), you will lose.
I run a lot of merchant services in my business, and believe me, most credit card companies are client leaning, not merchant leaning.
Cutting a check is about the worst thing you can do. You may think you can stop payment on it, but now more than ever checks are digitally processed. So basically if the merchant scans or deposits the check right there after you give it to him (and doesn't sit on it for a few days), chances are it will be paid before you can stop payment on it. Then you are totally out of luck. He could also go to your bank and cash it. If you were to stop payment right after you wrote it, you'd have to have a really good reason for stopping it (ie. the merchant seriously swindled you or you wrote the check out of duress), or else that could also be considered fraud. Especially if you already have the goods in hand.