Using a courier and e-cheques

archiesdad

Hi all am hoping that one of you lovely people can help me have just sold an item on ebay yest and the buyer has paid by e-cheque have never been paid by this before and didn't have that I accepted them on my listing, are these a safe form of payment. It says it won't clear until 2nd of November which seems an awfully long time.

They have also e-mailed to say can I send it by courier because of the postal strike, however have never used one before can anyone recommend, its a set of curtains so fairly heavy.

Any help would be appreciated.

cyberbob

e-cheques are technically a paypal payment. So you have to accept them. Do not send the item untill it has cleared. Also inform the buyer that they have paid this way (as sometimes they don't realise as paypal can default to it) and due to that you cannot send untill it has cleared.

Cissi

As Cyberbob said, the buyer probably hasn't even realised that his payment hasn't cleared yet. An echeque usually happens if the buyer's normal funding source has failed (ie, the card linked to the account has expired etc). Don't send out the item until the cheque has cleared, which will take around a week (and be careful, because it can bounce too). Do email the customer, informing them that Paypal have informed you that their payment is via echeque, and that you've been advised to not send the item out until the cheque has cleared.

On the plus side, hopefully the strikes will be over by the time you need to send out the order!

bigbullyweedave

I've had 3-4 echeques bounce (out of maybe a dozen or so I've received in total) so I'd be careful and never send an item out until you get a paypal message saying that it has cleared. They are a pain in the backside!

elfen

You need to wait til it's cleared, so let the buyer know, although I know when I used ot use e-Cheques it told me when it did it. Also let them know if they want to use a different form of delivery you'll need to find out the cost and if it's extra for them to pay it

harveybobbles

parcel2go are keen on heavy stuff. Usually come back cheaper than RM, but you have to sit in and wait for the courier to turn up.

anon_ymous

Well if you use their live chat, I remember them saying to me if I used DHL, I could go down to the DHL depot myself and let it go through the system from there on. It doesnt work for other couriers on there. Go figure.

Hintza

Just to add, give the buyer the option of refund and then they can either try again or fund say via a bank transfer. Buyers have a awful habit of getting equally annoyed with e-cheques (normally because they haven't a clue why the payment has gone by that method, when most payments go through fine) and leaving unjustified feedback.

Good comms will help.