cjd: "...years back I had dealings with PayPal that cost me over a few hundred dollars by the time I had straightened their misunderstanding out. The sad fact was I had to pay the tab for their screw up..."
This nightmare tale is not only true, but such horrors occur everyday to those on the receiving end of funds sent via PayPal.
If a "buyer" uses their VISA/MASTERCHARGE card to pay via Paypal, all they have to do is receive the merchandise, and then contact PayPal to insist that the "seller" defrauded them either by sending the wrong merchandise, or by sending faulty merchandise. Once that happens, PayPal immediately accesses the "seller's" bank account electronically, and removes the funds, returns the funds electronically into the "buyer's" bank account, and then tells the buyer to "keep the merchandise" as consolation for their time and trouble. By entering into an agreement to use PayPal, you given them the legal rights to go right into your bank account and remove money without first asking your permission to do so; nor is PayPal required to even notify the "seller" that they took the money out of their account. If the amount which a fraudulent "buyer" wants returned is not in the account, PayPal will "lock" the account until the defrauded "seller" deposits the amount necessary to reopen their account.
This situation is so terrible, that I have read personal accounts by eBay sellers who claimed that they hadn't even had time to address the parcel and ship it to the buyer, when they found that the buyer had already contacted PayPal to declare they were defrauded and were demanding to keep the merchandise as well as demanding a full electronic refund.
Oh, yes...almost forgot! You have to pay a percentage of the transaction to PayPal in order to allow them the privelage of dumping a bucket of cr*p over your head! And as far as receiving any personal responces to your problems or questions from "eBay" or its satellite corporations, "rotsa 'ruck, sucker!~