ebay/paypal

[Benchwayze]

A couple of years ago, PayPal held over £3,000 of mine for about eight weeks, before they let it go to my account. The guitar I'd sold was in Spain with its new owner and there was I with egg on my face. Then PayPal wondered why I closed the account! So now I don't use PayPal unless I have no other option.

If I am shopping online and a would-be supplier won't accept credit cards, then I look elsewhere. Credit cards are part of life I suppose, and have been around a lot longer than PayPal. A dealer who won't accept credit or debit cards must be missing out on a huge slice of potential business. This seems to be an anomaly, and I don't understand how PayPal has so many 'faithful' followers. After all, it can't be any quicker or more convenient to pay by either method.

As to eBay's 'rules', I have bought from eBay, quite recently. So far no problem using my credit card. It goes through PayPal, of course, but having no account of my own, that doesn't bother me. I am always asked if I wish to open an account, but I just click the 'No Thanks' button...

 

[RogerP]

......... and I don't understand how PayPal has so many 'faithful' followers. After all, it can't be any quicker or more convenient to pay by either method. ...............

I wouldn't class myself as a "faithful follower" but I certainly use PayPal. It's very convenient and fast, just click or two to buy something, no pesky filling in of all my address and card information plus the seller doesn't get my card details - only PayPal have those.

 

[mseries]

... A dealer who won't accept credit or debit cards must be missing out on a huge slice of potential business. This seems to be an anomaly, and I don't understand how PayPal has so many 'faithful' followers. After all, it can't be any quicker or more convenient to pay by either method. ...

Some dealers may not be set up to accept credit cards directly but using Paypal, a buyer can pay him using a credit card. Also, Paypal makes paying without a credit card and without a cheque and without a debit card possible. They seller knows nothing but an email address and postal address both of which are public. I use Paypal to sell and buy, just small amounts, I usually let the money sit in Paypal and spend it using Paypal - it's very convenient, much more that using anything else. I am not a faithful follower, I just find it convenient, if there was something else as convenient I may choose to use that, like NOCHEX in the past.

 

[Jacob]

Paypal is brilliant for buyers as all you need to do is type in your password and the thing is bought in seconds. This means it's probably good for sellers too as quite a few thing must be bought in haste which might have been forgotten if you have to fiddle about with cards, of even worse, check books

 

[ss03947]

A couple of years ago, PayPal held over £3,000 of mine for about eight weeks, before they let it go to my account. The guitar I'd sold was in Spain with its new owner and there was I with egg on my face.

Imagine then John if they gave the money back to the buyer.. :shock:

Bank transfer all the way when sending goods out the country, for me anyway.

SS.

 

[RogerP]

Paypal is brilliant for buyers as all you need to do is type in your password and the thing is bought in seconds. This means it's probably good for sellers too as quite a few thing must be bought in haste which might have been forgotten if you have to fiddle about with cards, of even worse, check books

Amazon is even more dangerous if you're signed in and have 1-click turned on! Ping, ping, ping

 

[RogerP]

Bank transfer all the way when sending goods out the country, for me anyway.
SS.

... great for the seller but NO protection at all for the buyer.

 

[petermillard]

Some dealers may not be set up to accept credit cards directly but using Paypal, a buyer can pay him using a credit card. Also, Paypal makes paying without a credit card and without a cheque and without a debit card possible. They seller knows nothing but an email address and postal address both of which are public. I use Paypal to sell and buy, just small amounts, I usually let the money sit in Paypal and spend it using Paypal - it's very convenient, much more that using anything else. I am not a faithful follower, I just find it convenient, if there was something else as convenient I may choose to use that, like NOCHEX in the past.

This, exactly. The start-up and recurring costs associated with accepting credit and debit card payments if you're a small business can be extremely high; fortunately we have alternatives in the form of direct bank payments, payments through smartphones etc... but if the buyer wants to specifically use a credit card then PayPal or Google wallet are useful alternatives. In the U.S. start-ups like Square have shown that low(er) card-processing fees and hardware costs are possible, and hopefully we'll see a chip & pin friendly expansion at some point.

NOCHEX - that takes me back, lol!

Cheers, Pete

 

[MMUK]

Bank transfer all the way when sending goods out the country, for me anyway.
SS.

... great for the seller but NO protection at all for the buyer.

The complete reverse of Paypal then. The seller has feck all protection on eBay or with Paypal these days :evil:

 

[RogerP]

Bank transfer all the way when sending goods out the country, for me anyway.
SS.

... great for the seller but NO protection at all for the buyer.

The complete reverse of Paypal then. The seller has pineapple all protection on eBay or with Paypal these days :evil:

Well there is some. Providing you post to the address given to you by PayPal (no other - not even from eBay) and send it by a trackable service then you are covered against "not received" claims - even if the buyer claims it's not their signature - which is the major buyer scam.

 

[Benchwayze]

A couple of years ago, PayPal held over £3,000 of mine for about eight weeks, before they let it go to my account. The guitar I'd sold was in Spain with its new owner and there was I with egg on my face.

Imagine then John if they gave the money back to the buyer.. :shock:

Bank transfer all the way when sending goods out the country, for me anyway.

SS.

SS,

That was threatened. To add to the debacle, DHL fouled up transit, (I had paid top dollar for 'Express Delivery'.) The buyer complained to PayPal. I managed to smooth that over, but then PayPal refused to transfer the funds because the £3,000 was an 'unexpected' large amount, and they suspected I was laundering money!

I wanted a bank transfer as it happens, but the buyer didn't want to deposit money until he had the guitar. It was a case of someone has to place trust at the end of the day!

And as Jacob must know, I have a tendency to be the 'only one in step', and it doesn't bother me one iota. 8)

Merry Christmas Jacob...

 

[sawdust1]

The only paypal problem i have had so far is when someone purchased a duck house from my web site when they were on holiday in spain as they wanted it their for when they got back. Everything fine, then email from paypal saying payment received ok to send goods, 3 days later paypal said suspect transaction they were holding the payment until i sent them proof of delivery. I got this from the pallet company and sent it off. 2 weeks later paypal tell me they have returned the money to the customer with no explanation as to why. Now the customer has the duck house and their £350 back. It took me a month before they sent me a cheque for it as every time i asked for it they said paypal had not returned their money yet. I now only do cheque or BACS payments.

 

[devonwoody]

Sounds like an Member of Parliament was trying to scam you.

A MP purchased a duck house on his expenses I think, did he also purchase it from you as well? :roll: :roll: :roll:

 

[Jacob]

A couple of years ago, PayPal held over £3,000 of mine for about eight weeks, before they let it go to my account. The guitar I'd sold was in Spain with its new owner and there was I with egg on my face.

Imagine then John if they gave the money back to the buyer.. :shock:

Bank transfer all the way when sending goods out the country, for me anyway.

SS.

SS,

That was threatened. To add to the debacle, DHL fouled up transit, (I had paid top dollar for 'Express Delivery'.) The buyer complained to PayPal. I managed to smooth that over, but then PayPal refused to transfer the funds because the £3,000 was an 'unexpected' large amount, and they suspected I was laundering money!

I wanted a bank transfer as it happens, but the buyer didn't want to deposit money until he had the guitar. It was a case of someone has to place trust at the end of the day!

And as Jacob must know, I have a tendency to be the 'only one in step', and it doesn't bother me on iota. 8)

Merry Christmas Jacob...

And a happy Christmas to you to Benchwayze!

Talking of difficult ebay sales - I managed to sell (for my son) an ancient landrover broken down parked up somewhere in Greece. No problem. Got the buy it now price. Got paid via Paypal.
Come to think - didn't any feedback pos or neg. Hope the buyer survived the experience!

 

[Eric The Viking]

The only paypal problem i have had so far is when someone purchased a duck house from my web site when they were on holiday in spain as they wanted it their for when they got back. Everything fine, then email from paypal saying payment received ok to send goods, 3 days later paypal said suspect transaction they were holding the payment until i sent them proof of delivery. I got this from the pallet company and sent it off. 2 weeks later paypal tell me they have returned the money to the customer with no explanation as to why. Now the customer has the duck house and their £350 back. It took me a month before they sent me a cheque for it as every time i asked for it they said paypal had not returned their money yet. I now only do cheque or BACS payments.

That's a pretty close parallel to what happened to me.

In my case the customer raised a complaint for non-receipt of goods a mere four days after the close of the eBay auction. I had despatched the goods two days earlier (and told the customer that, IIRC), so it was quite unreasonable to expect them to reach Eire from Bristol in that time.

Following the complaint, there was a small amount of correspondence with the customer. I sent another unit.

At that point all communication stopped, although the complaint wasn't withdrawn. The "customer" refused to acknowledge receipt of the second unit, although of course there was a signature.

So I was down two units, value about £60, plus postage (twice), plus eBay fees, plus PayPal "fines" and the price of one unit which PayPal simply removed from my account. It cleaned out the PP account and left me "owing" PayPal, so I simply stopped using the account and ignored letters (they even sent threatening ones by post IIRC). I was longing for them to start court proceedings so I could deal with them, but they didn't.

PayPal's behaviour in this was outrageous. They've since tightened their contract with sellers to make the seller's position even worse. I won't be taken for a fool twice by them.

E.

 

[Ali]

I recently won an auction for a specialist power tool but have not received the item. The seller (some Russian name but who really knows who he/she is) has disappeared and not replying to any messages.

Just about to try start a claim through eBay/paypal for my money back but I don't understand why the seller did this? Don't paypal take the money back? The seller ran about 4 other auctions at the same time selling other high value tools

 

[RogerS]

I recently won an auction for a specialist power tool but have not received the item. The seller (some Russian name but who really knows who he/she is) has disappeared and not replying to any messages.

Just about to try start a claim through eBay/paypal for my money back but I don't understand why the seller did this? Don't paypal take the money back? The seller ran about 4 other auctions at the same time selling other high value tools

His name wasn't Pooh-In, by any chance? Seeing what he's doing in Ukraine I wouldn't put anything past the chiselling lying SOB.

Seriously, sorry to hear of your problem. There are shysters out there (and everywhere else). The good news is that you will get your money back (eventually).

 

[Jimllfixowt]

I've found that using eBay on a mobile devise only allows you use PayPal. You can't even select other payment method on checkout, so if you but it now you have to cancel the sale.

 

[Ali]

Okay so this has happened to me twice now and I'm really annoyed. I've an auction for an item that was probably too good to be true (in my eyes). I was surprised an item like this came up on ebay so had to buy it but the sale was probably not genuine and I haven't received the item and seller has disappeared. I'll probably get my money back (£1k) but I want the item

The seller is obviously pocketing the cash then closing down all his accounts. Why can't ebay do something about this? It sucks.

 

[RogerP]

....... The seller is obviously pocketing the cash then closing down all his accounts. Why can't ebay do something about this? It sucks.

I heard of this sort of scam before but it really puzzles me how it's done.

When I wanted to close one of my eBay accounts I couldn't do so until ALL outstanding transactions/payments/listings etc were closed or finalised. It was far more than just clicking the "close my account button".