PayPal, E-bay I Filed SIGNIFICANTLY NOT AS DESCRIBED claim and lost against their own rules. Nobody read it San Jose, California

it might jsut help. It helpe a person here in Seattle. read on KIRO Tv helped hin

Bill Brush feels as if he's been banished from one of the world's largest online networks -- eBay -- because of an ongoing dispute with PayPal.

"It's very frustrating," said Brush. I'm just an account number that owes them money. And they've made the decision, and that decision is unbendable. So I'm stuck."

Late last year, Brush, a computer security professional in Tacoma, sold one of his many personal laptops on eBay.

The buyer, from New Zealand, swooped in at the last moment and bought the Thinkpad T-60 for more than $800.

So Brush packed it up, headed to his local post office, and sent it off.

"When I came home, there was an e-mail waiting for me from PayPal saying that the transaction had been frozen and they recommended that I didn't ship the laptop," said Brush.

Brush rushed back to the post office and got his computer. He waited while PayPal investigated the New Zealand buyer.

Ten days later, PayPal told Brush the buyer was cleared and the transaction was good to go, so he mailed the laptop again and assumed all was fine until a month later PayPal e-mailed him to say that the buyer had filed a claim against Brush, claiming the laptop had never arrived.

"PayPal had basically frozen my account, put it into a limited-access mode, and basically told me that I needed to send some proof that I had shipped this laptop and that I had done my part," said Brush.

So Brush sent a copy of the U.S. Postal Service receipt to the investigators at PayPal showing that the computer had been delivered in New Zealand.

"I figured the case was pretty much closed at that point. I thought I had done everything I needed to do," Brush told KIRO 7 Consumer Investigator Amy Clancy.

"Because you had confirmation from the U.S. Postal Service that this laptop had been delivered?" asked Clancy.

"Correct," Brush said.

But it apparently wasn't enough because, a month later, even though the buyer had been investigated before, Brush was notified that PayPal had sided with that buyer in New Zealand.

Brush was ordered to refund the buyer's more than $800, something he refused to do, because he feels the receipt is proof he held up his end of the bargain.

"I sent some e-mails off to PayPal. They were basically not replied to. I sent a couple of follow-ups. They were not replied to. And then eventually, they sent me to collections," said Brush. "There's going to be a certain hit to my credit account and my credit score over a relatively low sum of money."

Brush says his frustration is now compounded because no one at PayPal will even hear his side of the story.

"My phone calls get funneled directly into the collection agency, and it's impossible for me to talk to PayPal right now," said Brush.

But when KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators contacted PayPal, our calls and e-mails were returned immediately.

A spokeswoman says she's "very sorry that Mr. Brush had a frustrating experience," that the mistake was "human error," and that customer calls and e-mails are typically returned within 24 hours.

It was not what Brush experienced.

"There was no means of communication with them at all," said Brush.

And Brush isn't alone.

Between 2000 and 2006, the Washington State Attorney General's office received 126 complaints about PayPal.

The AG's office took action, forcing PayPal to more clearly disclose all terms and obligations.

Entire Web sites, some with names that can't be shown on television, bash PayPal for how it treats its customers, and a California judge has ruled that upset consumers shouldn't fight PayPal in blogs online, but should sue in court.

But since Brush contacted KIRO 7, his PayPal account has been restored and he no longer owes any money to collections.

Still, he's soured on the entire experience.

"I tried to do everything that I could to be an honest seller and to do what I was supposed to do -- and then to be cheated like that? It really turns you off to the entire Internet buying and selling process," said Brush.

Brush says he'll sell online again, but won't use eBay or PayPal, and will most likely only deal with local buyers.

Meanwhile, the PayPal spokeswoman told Clancy that with nearly 150 million customers, some are bound to be unhappy.

Still, when Clancy asked, "With thousands of customer service representatives, why, not one of them could return Brush's e-mail or phone calls?" She did not have an answer.

PayPal stands by its dispute resolution practices and says the best way to ensure you're protected is with signature confirmation upon delivery.