PayPal (ebay)

[johnny37]

When selling on ebay. if the money is in your Paypal account is it definitely yours? ie can Paypal take the funds back for whatever reason? Anyone had bad experiences with Paypal? I have read some of the previous Paypal postingd and frankly with the millions of transactions that get done the system would not worik if you cannot trust Paypal. If the buyer's bank details are spurious would Paypal know about that, the same as any credit card deal in a shop?

[ererbus]

Hi johnny37
beware anything to do with eBay dealings with them are fraught with danger to the unwary.
We have just been ripped off by eBay (not PayPal)
because we were not aware that our grandson (who has Aspergers Syndrome) had been into the computer and listed an item for 99pence with a reserve of 5thousand GBP
They are unmoved by any plea that this was a mistake any are demanding fees of 100GBP.

[froggequene]

Once PayPal deducts their fees whatever is left is yours & you can remove it or spend it with companies on the interweb which accept PayPal. If a dispute is lodged with PayPal they will lock down the sum of money involved & it will only be released once the dispute is resolved - I don't know what happens if there's no money in the account, I am assuming they can do nothing but you can ring them to ask.

I have had both good & bad dealings with PayPal.

We were sold an item that was not as described & attempted to lodge a complaint, as the buyer simply stopped using eBay for a while & had withdrawn his money they were unable to get our money back.

I have two occasions where I've had a successful result following complaints made because they locked down the amount of cash involved & it made the sellers resolve the problem because their cash couldn't be released until the problem had been resolved. I should point out that these were active traders and would have had money in their accounts from sales.

I've used PayPal as a both a buyer & seller and I've never had a problem with them. I also use it to pay for items on sites other then eBay. I have to say I would be more careful of dealing with eBay - I would like to emphasis that this is a personal opinion but despite all the court actions & various changes in their code of practice over the years, my overwhelming impression in my dealings with them is that they regard themselves as a host but they're not responsible for content & if you have a problem that can't be resolved through the PayPal dispute forum you're scr*wed basically because eBay really isn't interested unless it can't collect its fees of course.

[johnny37]

Thanks for the replies.

Ererbus - I'm surprised ebay are not being more sympathetic! I'm sure they will back off if you talk to the right person (ask for the name of the MD, or at least manager of the complaints department). The lowlings who deal with these queries often dont know how to deal with them.

Froggequene - I was mainly referring to the fact that Paypal are like any other financial institution. Are they covered by the APACS rules? Once the money is in your account they surely cannot remove it without good reason, especially after you have transferred it elsewhere and there are no funds in your Paypal account.. I would have thought even if the buyers bank or credit card want the funds repaid and were at fault in allowing the payment in the first place. Am I correct.?

[mrs_overall]

I've stopped using Paypal after a bad experience.
I sold a quite expensive item on Ebay & the buyer paid using Paypal. She wasn't willing to pay for recorded/registered delivery so I posted it but obtained a certificate of posting as proof.
I got no feedback so I mailed her twice to ask if she had received the item and I got no reply.
Six MONTHS later the money was taken back out of my Paypal account. The buyer claimed she had never bought the item and someone must have misused her credit card. Note, she didn't say it was stolen, just misused....and she had taken 6 months to notice.
By this time I had had a clear out & binned the proof of posting. I still had the 2 copy emails I'd sent her asking if she'd received the item but she told them she'd never had the emails or the goods.
Paypal chose to believe her. I ended up substantially out of pocket and minus my item.
Never again.

[johnny37]

Mrs Overall - l I am selling a rather expensive item, I will use every means to ensure that the item is covered, registered mail, insurance cover, etc. even at my own expense if necessary As far as i know if someone abuses some else's credt card that is not your problem. Paypal have no right to debit you. It is up to them to sort it out with the credit card provider. If not everyone would be at the mercy of these scammers. Anyone else got a view on this?

ps - ebay have just' pulled my item off due to a spurous Nigerian buyer.

[pusspuss]

if you are selling an expensive item like a mobile phone only give a price for special delivery and state in your add that this is the only way that you will post the item.if you allow people from other countries to bid on the item you open yourself up to loads of different scams. my friend sold a phone for �350 ish he got paid then posted the item then had the money taken back from him while the item was in the post. he phone the post office and they said they could not return the parcel and carried on to deliver it to the con man.take care