My online business deals with occasional credit card chargebacks and disputes as part of our freemium subscription model. And, we use Paypal as our credit card processor. But today I was floored to see the following after filing a standard response to a buyer complaint:

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Hello [ourBusiness],

After careful consideration of this case, we've decided in favor of the buyer.

PayPal has determined the buyer should receive a refund. Due to the unique circumstances of the claim, and your PayPal account history, we will refund the buyer on your behalf. Your account will not be debited.

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So what does the above actually mean? Paypal refunded the buyer and allowed us to keep the funds! To make it clear, the complaint filed by the purchaser was absolute BS. We also make it clear during the subscription purchase process that no refunds are allowed.

Granted, we run a considerable amount of transactions through Paypal (probably about 500K a year) but this is the first time I've ever dealt with a Paypal dispute where Paypal has done this. Chargebacks happen, and from what I've found you are almost powerless unless you have an ton of evidence to respond with.

My reason for this post is to point put that PayPal isn't always evil. My business has been using Paypal as our credit card provider for over 9 years now, and while I've been frustrated at times (trust me, contacting them is a big problem as a vendor), and read the Paypal-horror-stories, in horror, I can honestly say that what happened today has me feeling good about PayPal as a business partner.