• PayPal should amend its 45-day window to request a refund when it comes to pre-ordered items.

• The 45-day window on pre-ordered items should not open at the time of the PayPal transaction but when the item has been shipped.

• PayPal should require sellers of pre-ordered items to state an anticipated delivery date and from that the 45-day window should begin, thus ensuring that the buyer has adequate time to cancel the order and request a refund.

• Companies like “Designed by m” Designed by Many who are taking pre-orders but not delivering promised items or issuing refunds, should be barred from using PayPal services. To let the company continue using PayPal is aiding and abetting in a kind of fraud.

PayPal offers an invaluable service to buyers who purchase items online. It protects both buyer and seller by acting as an intermediary to ensure that the buyer compensates the seller and the seller provides a product as described. PayPal also offers a generous 45-day refund window in which a seller may open a claim to request a refund if the product does not perform as advertised or meet the seller’s expectation.

One obvious flaw to PayPal’s 45-day refund window revolves around the relatively new incarnation: The “pre-order”. Many companies now offer buyers the opportunity to purchase items that are not yet available months before the release date that is usually projected to be more than 45-days in the future. So this is where the problem occurs. When a buyer uses PayPal to pre-order an item that has more than a 45-day window before release, the buyer is in effect relinquishing their right to use PayPal's refund system because PayPal 45-day window opens at the time of the PayPal transaction and NOT when the item ships or the seller receives the item.

Which brings me to what motivated me to create this petition. As a tech nerd I eagerly support young companies that have quirky inventive new gadgets but need financing. I have supported numerous ventures on KickStarter, some successful, others not so. But that is the risk that I was well aware of with KickStarter. I understand that every time I back a Kickstarter project that it is a version of a “pre-order” but with significant possibility of non-performance or the product never being realized. However, when I go to a website of a business that represents itself as a professional forward thinking design company that sells compelling tech gear, my expectation is that they will produce a product in the stated time frame. There are some companies that are projecting a professional image and accepting pre-orders via PayPal but are not delivering products as promised. One such company that I have had that experience is called “Designed by m” (Designed by Many).

“Designed by m” has a terrific, hi-tech glossy website: http://www.thinkbym.com/collections/designed-by-m-store

I pre-ordered 2 products for my IPhone 6 in September 2014 from the Designed by m website with a promised release date of December 2014. Using PayPal, I paid $99.00. It is now mid-January and I was informed that the product wouldn’t be available until the end of 2015. Of course, I was angry, but understood and requested refund, but have not received any response from this company. Their phone number (888-820-4940) is just an answering service and my calls have not been returned. I tried to open a case on PayPal, but was unable to because the 45-day window had closed.

On their Facebook Page (which hasn’t been updated in months) other purchasers of pre-orders are also complaining of non-delivery of pre-ordered items and the company’s unresponsiveness. “Designed by m” claims to be product design firm located in Miami FL., but do not act as a “firm” but as if it were a one-person outfit operating out of a kitchen.

Their motto is “We design AWESOME products.” Perhaps, but if you never deliver them one will never know. And ironically, their email for customer support is wecare@thinkbym.com but it is clear that they couldn’t care less.

Send this petition link to other people who want PayPal’s 45-day refund window to be amended for pre-ordered items.