You talking about the latest, billpoint? You've got no credit card
protection whatsoever using that. The credit card charge is to billpoint,
not the seller. The web page describing their user agreement is here.
http://www.billpoint.com/policies/user-agreement.html
The most significant paragraph from that web page is this though:
We have no control over the quantity, quality,
genuineness, safety or legality of the items listed;
the
completeness, truth or accuracy of the item
listings;
the ability of sellers to sell items; or the ability
of
buyers to buy items. We cannot ensure that a seller
or
buyer will actually complete a transaction. We are
not
a guarantor of any transaction nor are we an escrow
company. Please note that there are also risks of
dealing with underage persons or people acting
under false pretense.
E-bay has no escrow account or service. There is one through Tradenable that
e-bay advertises. Costs a minimum of $2.50 per transaction. Payment of
this, and all other fees, are acceptable from either the seller or buyer, but
the buyer is the one ultimately responsible for the fees. The seller is
under no obligation to participate in an escrow sale.
Paypal is also a third party. You sign up with them, and they take say $100
from your credit card and put it into essentially an escrow account. Your
credit card statement simply shows the $100 charge to Paypal. Then, when you
make purchases, if the seller is willing, you can do it through the money of
yours that Paypal has already pulled from your credit card. It could have
been months ago that they pulled the money. If the product doesn't arrive,
or arrives broken or such, you get to argue through Paypal, not your credit
card. So you the buyer are again left flapping in the breeze. I haven't
seem them advertised on e-bay for a little while though.
Bradley D Richardson wrote:
> Hey, simply use e-bay's ability (or who ever it is) to pay for any
> purchases with your credit card. Then if you don't get the product,
> simply dispute the line item on your statement. Also, doesn't e-bay have
> something where you send them the money directly, they hold it, notify
> the seller, and when you tell e-bay you've got the product, they send the
> money to the seller?
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