I use paypal for clients to pay me for a service...?

Details:
once logged into paypal I use the "request money" feature to send money requests. I always mark my request as a service, as I read once a long time ago that services are nonrefundable on paypal. I cannot seem to find this anymore and I have had one out of every 50 invoices paid disputed-"item not as described" when I am not even selling an item.

My question is how long do my clients have to dispute a charge with paypal from the day they pay?

Also, If anyone has any alternative methods or suggestions to avoid this complete waste of my time (paypal) and providing services for deadbeats who already have it in their plan to request their money back, they would be welcome.


All answers are appreciated.

Although I am appreciate of the first answer, it fails to answer the actual question. Simply put, how long do they have to reverse the charge?

Typically 30 to 45 days. However if they do a chargeback with their credit card company as most people will use this method to pay via PayPal, the credit card company can in turn do the chargeback on PayPal and PayPal will take the money back from you. It sucks but in a case scenario like this, there is practically no way of telling. It can be generally as long as 180 days or no time limit in some cases for the reason described above.

There really is no real way to avoid this as people will continue to do this as long as credit card is a viable payment method. You can try other online payment methods to see if they perform any better, but at the end of the day, merchants are always going to be at a lost. This is true for every business. However the risk is minimal compare to the gains; you said so yourself that it only occurs 1 in 50. It's one of those things where you unfortunately will have to take the loss if PayPal isn't going to work with you on it. It is more of a waste of your time to deal with the dispute, than to move on. Sorry but that's the sad truth.

It depends on the type of service you provide.

Can you give us a hint so that we can better give you an answer.
For example, if you clean houses for these people and they pay you this way, have them sign a contract beforehand. Then if they reverse the charge, you can take them to court based on the contract that you have.
I would email them and see if they would 'explain' why there were pissed. Once they admit that you were there then you have a great chance in court.

I would make it a policy (the cost of doing business) to sue EVERYONE who tried to skip out on my payments
after awhile (with as many clients as you have) word will pass around rather quickly.