Escalating a Paypal claim, will I come out the loser?

[tire_machine]

I recently got scammed on another local car forum (not zilvia), and I am at the fork in the road where I either wait for the seller to man up, or let paypal handle the claim.

I don't know the exact processes paypal goes thru to retrieve your money/product, but I've heard of past instances where the buyer only gets a portion of their payment back. In some cases, half.

Since I spent close to 700 bucks, I don't really want to walk out with 350. I know it's better than nothing. The seller isn't responding to emails/pms/posts/etc. Should I wait until the last few days where I can still escalate the claim, or should I escalate it now in hopes that paypal can get all my money back quickly?

If I do escalate it, is it a one-way thing? If the seller tells me he will send the money back after I escalate it, can I reverse the escalation? Paypal's website sucks for help, and they take a few days to email me back for each question.

Any help is appreciated.

[Future240]

Go ahead and escalate it, I had to do that with a paypal claim and I got my money back. Sometimes you will sometimes you won't. Never hurts to try.

Edit: Its not exactly half, they try to get you as much as they can. I am sure some people will dispute that statement, but this is what I beleive.

[CrimsonRockett]

If the seller has already emptied out the paypal account, even if you win the claim, you won't get shit back.

If he's stupid enough to have the account linked to his checking account(and actually have money in it), there's a good chance you'll get your money back.

Since he isn't responding, go ahead and file/escalate the claim.

The sooner you do, the better.

[tire_machine]

thanks for the quick responses. I've had problems with using paypal before, but I've always been able to work with the seller before the dispute got ugly. Never had someone take my money and run before. And this guy had 100% rep on the site too, and on other sites. Sold turbos and items >1000 dollars, which is why I trusted him.

[trsilvias13]

I hate paypal, but lots of ppl use it, so that how I buy my stuff. I usually skip the whole filing a claim with paypal and just call my credit card company. Most CC have built in fraud protection. I filed a claim with the cc company and they take the money back from Paypal. Paypal gets mad if you do it this way. I even received a email telling me not to do that and to go through the paypal dispute filing instead. Why I didn't go through paypal? Because I was ripped off before and paypal said I was right but because the guy withdrew $, paypal cant do anything. So I just filed a claim with my CC company, I got my $ in 24hours and I just had to sign a form my cc company faxed me. Hopefully you paid with a CC not bank account. Even if you did, I am pretty sure you can do the same process.