The eBay "best offer" SC.

[Andara Bledin]

11. The problem I've had with this one before was that PayPal charged me a fee for every transaction on my credit-card-ready account, not just the CC payments. That was, admittedly, some four years ago, so I don't know if they've changed that since, or if it was a fluke, or what. (Anyone know?) That's why my hubby has a PayPal account too, that's set up to take CC payments. When someone wants to pay with a CC on something I sell, I refer them to hubby's account instead of mine to make the payment.

12. Unfortunately, lots of sellers don't realize this (I didn't, until now), and will just say "Your loss" should something happen. ::grumble::

Nope, PayPal still charges a fee on every transaction for a Premier or Business account (the two types that take credit cards). If you do your research, they're barely more expensive than having a merchant account, and they're a whole lot easier to deal with.

The right way to do it if you sell on eBay and don't want to pay a fee on every single payment received is to have a basic Personal account attached to your eBay account, and then instructions in your Checkout / Invoice information to notify you should they wish to make a PayPal payment backed with a credit card.

...

It would be nice if eBay made it easier for sellers to actually know the rules and laws about selling. The whole insurance for the seller thing is actually the law, not just some esoteric eBay rule.

Another thing that's a law in several states and against the rules on both eBay and PayPal (and against the rules for pretty much every major credit card, too) is to charge a surcharge on a PayPal payment. The only time you may charge extra for payment type is in the case of a wire transfer (the recipient has to pay a fee) or in cases where currency conversion would cost money (such as payment in a foreign currency - who even does that these days?). California is one of those states where it is illegal to charge a surcharge on credit card payments. But even if it's not illegal in your state, the credit card providers won't allow it, so if someone tries to surcharge you, report them to the credit card company. They'll knock that off right quick once they get threatened with being denied the ability to accept said credit card.

^-.-^

[Andara Bledin]

I really dont' like paypal.

I perfer postal money orders. Less fraud, easily tracked by the USPS, not to mention they have a better means of dealing with a scam artist (you cash the money order and say you never get it... 5 years in prison for mail fraud )

You took a PayPal payment and never sent the item? Still mail fraud, same sentence. The only difference is that with a mailed payment, you have a more concrete address. But if you only make payments to verified sellers, then you have an associated bank account, so it's the same deal.

And if Bargainland can go this long without having their PayPal accounts locked (they have at least 2, which is actually against the rules*), then you must have to be doing something really wrong or be extraordinarily unlucky to get an account locked.

The only time I had a firsthand telling of a PayPal account being locked, the person in question had at least three (very against the rules*), sold an item that the manufacturers didn't want her selling because they dealt only with authorized dealerships, and who admitted to doing scummy things like taking the email addresses of buyers who left her non-Positive Feedback and putting them in to porn spam sites so that they would miss the notice from eBay in all the spam after she told eBay the poor buyer didn't have valid contact info.

*For those that don't know, a person or entity (business) is only allowed two PayPal accounts. One of those must be a Personal account, with all of the related restrictions. The second may be either a Premier or a Business account, which are the types that can accept credit card payments.

More fun facts in the paymenst department: You are not allowed to suggest cash or any money transfer service such as Western Union for payments. If the buyer suggests it, that's fine, but as a seller, it's forbidden.

^-.-^

[Kogarashi]

Nope, PayPal still charges a fee on every transaction for a Premier or Business account (the two types that take credit cards). If you do your research, they're barely more expensive than having a merchant account, and they're a whole lot easier to deal with.

The right way to do it if you sell on eBay and don't want to pay a fee on every single payment received is to have a basic Personal account attached to your eBay account, and then instructions in your Checkout / Invoice information to notify you should they wish to make a PayPal payment backed with a credit card.

Good to know, thanks. That's the problem I had the first time.

And re: the second paragraph, that's how I do it currently. My Personal account is attached to my eBay account, but I always put a note in my listings and in the Checkout/Invoice info to notify me first if they want to pay with a credit card (so I can tell them Hubby's Premier account address instead). Usually it works, though occasionally I'll have people not pay attention to that and pay with a CC to my Personal account before I can tell them otherwise. ::grumble:: Only one so far didn't respond when I had to decline the payment and e-mailed them with the reason why.

[Namrepus221]

You took a PayPal payment and never sent the item? Still mail fraud, same sentence. The only difference is that with a mailed payment, you have a more concrete address. But if you only make payments to verified sellers, then you have an associated bank account, so it's the same deal.

And if Bargainland can go this long without having their PayPal accounts locked (they have at least 2, which is actually against the rules*), then you must have to be doing something really wrong or be extraordinarily unlucky to get an account locked.

The only time I had a firsthand telling of a PayPal account being locked, the person in question had at least three (very against the rules*), sold an item that the manufacturers didn't want her selling because they dealt only with authorized dealerships, and who admitted to doing scummy things like taking the email addresses of buyers who left her non-Positive Feedback and putting them in to porn spam sites so that they would miss the notice from eBay in all the spam after she told eBay the poor buyer didn't have valid contact info.

*For those that don't know, a person or entity (business) is only allowed two PayPal accounts. One of those must be a Personal account, with all of the related restrictions. The second may be either a Premier or a Business account, which are the types that can accept credit card payments.

More fun facts in the paymenst department: You are not allowed to suggest cash or any money transfer service such as Western Union for payments. If the buyer suggests it, that's fine, but as a seller, it's forbidden.

^-.-^

Believe me, I've heard stories about people who buy something on a paypal account, item is never sent, and Paypal refuses to do anything about it because they do not accept outside evidence in their "investigations"

On teh flip side, I've heard stories about people who've sent things via paypal only to have the charge reversed by the buyer on some bogus claim on misrepresentation of the item or not sending it at all and their account is locked without inquiry.

www.paypalsucks.com

[ReverendBSB]

So if I order an item, and thanks to the poor packaging on the sellers part and the general incompetence of the post office I never receive it I can file a dispute to get my money back? Even with no insurance?

[gregmaddux17]

Believe me, I've heard stories about people who buy something on a paypal account, item is never sent, and Paypal refuses to do anything about it because they do not accept outside evidence in their "investigations"

On teh flip side, I've heard stories about people who've sent things via paypal only to have the charge reversed by the buyer on some bogus claim on misrepresentation of the item or not sending it at all and their account is locked without inquiry.

www.paypalsucks.com

The link for Paypal sucks doesn't work.

[It's me]

The link for Paypal sucks doesn't work.

Google led me to here: http://paypalsucks.org/

[Andara Bledin]

Believe me, I've heard stories about people who buy something on a paypal account, item is never sent, and Paypal refuses to do anything about it because they do not accept outside evidence in their "investigations"

On teh flip side, I've heard stories about people who've sent things via paypal only to have the charge reversed by the buyer on some bogus claim on misrepresentation of the item or not sending it at all and their account is locked without inquiry.

www.paypalsucks.com

If PayPal refused to do anything, then it's probably because the people did something wrong in their reports. PayPal is heavily on the side of the buyer from the get-go.

On the selling side, my company has had a number of charges reversed on us for bogus reasons. Our account has never been locked, even when one of the reversals was due to a reportedly stolen credit card. (and even with the reversals, we make more money in additional bids for taking it than we lose in fraud)

So if I order an item, and thanks to the poor packaging on the sellers part and the general incompetence of the post office I never receive it I can file a dispute to get my money back? Even with no insurance?

If you never, ever get your item, you first contact the seller and see how they will offer to fix it. If they don't or won't, then file a report with eBay and PayPal (if you used it). If PayPal doesn't reverse the transaction for some reason (uncommon), then you have free reign to contact your credit card company about a reversal due to non-receipt. Finally, if even they don't help (rare, but it happens), then you file a mail fraud report with the USPS. Even if the seller reportedly shipped via some other carrier, you can do this. But only if they are also in the US, of course.

The FTC ruled that eBay transactions are governed by the same regulations and laws as mail order. Those include the fact that a seller is not actually required to ship an item quickly; they have up to the 30th day after receipt of payment. They also include the fact that if a seller gives any indication of time to ship (wording like "1-2 days" or "Wednesdays and Fridays" or "usually in 3 days"), then that seller must honor the shortest timeframe as their "30th" day. If a seller cannot ship on time (30 days or the time frame given), then the seller must notify the buyer and offer them the option of extending the wait for shipment, or cancel without penalty because the seller has effectively breached the contract.

Even though you have 30 days, however, doesn't make that good eBay practice. Many buyers get twitchy if they don't have their widget within 3 days of payment. Even if the payment was mailed... morons.

^-.-^