Thoughts on Paypal as a "seller"

[Frank750]

I made an Audiogon sale last week and the buyer wanted to use PayPal. I haven’t used it in years. Everything went smoothly. I uploaded Fed ex tracking info and PayPal said they would release funds within a day of my buyer receiving his goods. It’s now 3 days later and they’re saying the transaction is out of my norm and expected release date of MY MONEY is now July 28th!
The buyer, in Japan by the way received his goods and is happy. Fed Ex tracker shows him signing for the package. I’m not talking about an insignificant amount of money

Does anyone know how to get ahold of a real person at PayPal to move this along? I don’t seem to be having any luck.

 

[Folsom]

You have to give them full access to this bank account so that they can deposit but also withdraw money when something goes wrong with the sale/delivery after you got paid by them.

Huh?

If you have terms & conditions clearly marked for refunds that certainly isn't true.

 

[Drikus]

Huh?

If you have terms & conditions clearly marked for refunds that certainly isn't true.

It certainly is! I read it it a few times to make sure that I read it correctly and that's what it says, didn't provide a bank account just because of these terms and stopped selling there.

You can find posts on the eBay forum on this subject.

 

[Folsom]

It certainly is! I read it it a few times to make sure that I read it correctly and that's what it says, didn't provide a bank account just because of these terms and stopped selling there.

You can find posts on the eBay forum on this subject.

"There" ? I am not talking about on eBay, but just sales in general. That's interesting to know however, that eBay does it that way.

 

[Drikus]

"There" ? I am not talking about on eBay, but just sales in general. That's interesting to know however, that eBay does it that way.

Ah, OK, I thought you were talking about eBay because you quoted me.

 

[rando]

Every day, the same plea from Robert von Bahr.

 

[knghifi]

I made an Audiogon sale last week and the buyer wanted to use PayPal. I haven’t used it in years. Everything went smoothly. I uploaded Fed ex tracking info and PayPal said they would release funds within a day of my buyer receiving his goods. It’s now 3 days later and they’re saying the transaction is out of my norm and expected release date of MY MONEY is now July 28th!
The buyer, in Japan by the way received his goods and is happy. Fed Ex tracker shows him signing for the package. I’m not talking about an insignificant amount of money

Does anyone know how to get ahold of a real person at PayPal to move this along? I don’t seem to be having any luck.

Contact buyer to mark package was delivered in their PayPal account transaction page. GL!

 

[Addicted to hifi]

If you were asked to ship a product that you were selling without getting paid in advance, do you think that is a "safe way to trade" from a seller's perspective? Would you be willing to do that and feel safe? I'm afraid you have missed my point because that's what PayPal wanted me to do before receiving payment. If you think that's OK, so be it. I think it sucks.

I understand your point. The money is there but on hold.I have sold and bought thru PayPal many times without any problems.

 

[Addicted to hifi]

I have sold items on eBay many times thru PayPal and had to wait until the buyer had it delivered to get my money.it didn’t worry me at all.

 

[DaveC]

It is unfortunate that new or infrequent sellers using paypal often get funds put on hold. It's not likely you can do anything about it, it's just how it is because of past issues.

The only other alternative is a face to face transaction or an escrow service, which will probably have equal or higher fees. Bank transfers can't be disputed, the bank is certainly not going to get involved if there's any issues and unless the seller is clearly committing fraud you have no recourse except a civil suit and even if it's fraud, good luck, the law enforcement agencies involved are not likely to help unless it's a huge sum of money.

 

[audioblazer]

Odd to hear of so many issues using PayPal . Having been using it to buy stuff last 15 years & occasionally selling my stuff at Audiogon . Everything smooth , 1-2 cheats & when I sell I get my money through PayPal immedirately … why some claimed money withheld unless u have a dispute ? My main grouse is the poor exchange rate & high fee charge .. with audiogon fee 3%+ PayPal 5% + lousy exchange rate, the cost of transaction is around 12% . Too high . Now I have an option … Wise .. great exchange rate , super fast . Eg I transferred SGD20k to seller in spore recently , appeared in Seller account in 5s .. great exchange rate , fast& safe if u trust seller - it has no protection unlike Paypal

 

[Folsom]

Odd to hear of so many issues using PayPal . Having been using it to buy stuff last 15 years & occasionally selling my stuff at Audiogon . Everything smooth , 1-2 cheats & when I sell I get my money through PayPal immedirately … why some claimed money withheld unless u have a dispute ? My main grouse is the poor exchange rate & high fee charge .. with audiogon fee 3%+ PayPal 5% + lousy exchange rate, the cost of transaction is around 12% . Too high . Now I have an option … Wise .. great exchange rate , super fast . Eg I transferred SGD20k to seller in spore recently , appeared in Seller account in 5s .. great exchange rate , fast& safe if u trust seller - it has no protection unlike Paypal

Any issue with having to let people see bank account #?

 

[audioblazer]

Any issue with having to let people see bank account #?

Using Wise ? Is exact like a bank telegraphic transfer . any issue if recipient can see my bank account Nos which I m not sure they can but I do have to key in recipient bank acc Nos just like any bank transfer transactions

 

[thedudeabides]

Does anyone want PayPal, with their pre programmed bot process, to have so much power over your money?

 

[knghifi]

Paypal offers a choice for them or your CC to calculate the exchange rate and in my situation, CC is much much better. BTW, great time to buy from Canada with an automatic 21% discount before negotiation.

With buyers you trust or just sending money to friends and family, checkout Zelle. No fees, instant, no disclosure of banking or personal info ....

 

[audioblazer]

Paypal offers a choice for them or your CC to calculate the exchange rate and in my situation, CC is much much better. BTW, great time to buy from Canada with an automatic 21% discount before negotiation.

With buyers you trust or just sending money to friends and family, checkout Zelle. No fees, instant, no disclosure of banking or personal info ....

That’s odd . I having been using PayPal for 15 years & was never given such options. Maybe different country diff treatment ?

 

[Solypsa]

Paypal has a bank wire service called Xoom. I have used it to wire payment to vendors in EU and the fees ( in the form of an additional currency discount $ to € ) seem fair. If I am not mistaken this puts the risk on the sender/ buyer. Not sure if this would be useful for small transactions but for high value ones... transactions it might be.

 

[Solypsa]

The seller does need to provide an account number / IBAN # .

 

[Gregadd]

If you were asked to ship a product that you were selling without getting paid in advance, do you think that is a "safe way to trade" from a seller's perspective? Would you be willing to do that and feel safe? I'm afraid you have missed my point because that's what PayPal wanted me to do before receiving payment. If you think that's OK, so be it. I think it sucks.

Did you file a damage report the carrier?

 

[thedudeabides]

I refused to use PayPal. Buyer agreed to cashiers check. No damage claim necessary.

PayPal should make it very clear, regarding sellers with no history, that the seller will not be paid until item is shipped to and received by buyer. If they did this, I suspect new PP customers will not be selling anything on PP. If anyone disagrees with this, I'd love to hear why.