Buyer wants me to pay $2 for his paypal account activation!!

zabbyh

I sold a Motorola V3 phone (this is my first physical product sale) on ebay and the buyer did not pay for the item (for 7 days). So I did a report unpaid item claim and then relisted the item.

Then another buyer did not pay for the item even though I sent an invoice as well as tell the buyer to pay within 24 hours or the item will be offered to the next highest bidder. I know this was a bit hasty, but I didn't want to waste my time again, so I offered the item to next highest bidder who opened a paypal account and it charges you $2 apparently (which I thought you only get charged if you open a premier account). Then the original winning bidder paid for the item so I said to the other buyer that I cannot send him the item, and that we can mutually agree to withdraw from the sale.

Anyway he said that he wanted me to pay $2 for his paypal account, and will file a report for fraud against me. Is that possible as he did not pay yet, and I did not keep any of his money?

Chalky87

First of all, you should allow at least 7 days for payment. Listing an item stating payment within 24 hours is against eBay policy.

I don't know where you stand morally as you offered this item to the other buyer and then decided against selling to the buyer, when the original high bidder paid for the item. The fact is they couldn't persue in terms of fraud, but perhaps out of kindness you could send the $2 to the buyer, as they did think they were getting the phone only to have you cancel the sale.

$2 isn't a large amount so personally I would give it to the buyer and say sorry for the hassle...and you'll probably save yourself getting a negative. It'll be interesting to see what others think...

Moglex

How long after the sale did you make the offer to the second bidder?

You should not have offered the item to someone else for at least 7 days.

Whatever you may say, ebay say that buyers have 7 days to pay.

Once you have made the offer to the second highest bidder you should not accept payment from the first bidder.

I can understand why your second buyer is annoyed - I'd be very annoyed if someone said I could buy something and then changed their mind after I'd made some special arrangement to pay for it.

I think you should send him his $2 as recompense for messing him around.

bleugh

erm........paypal does NOT charge you to open an account
it's a withdrawl from the bank to verify the details

the amount is put into the paypal account for use later

they usually take two amounts and need you to verify the exact amounts

Chalky87

I wondered about that bleugh. But thought maybe PayPal US has a different system...assuming of course the buyer was US based, I'm simply going on the $2 here.

If its the same system as PayPal UK then the buyer won't be charged, in that case then its a tough decision to make. It's a small sum though, and the buyer has gone to the trouble of bidding on, opening a PayPal account and then not getting the item they wanted, for nothing, so maybe a small gesture is appropriate.

It's a toughy!

soolin

If you have done proper second chance offers then you may have a problem whatever you decide to do.

You will have final value fees on the original sale, and that buyer remains able to leave you feedback as he feels fit. You also have final value fees on each and every subsequent second chance offer, plus all those buyers that took up your offer will be able to leave you feedback as well. You could well be facing a whole set of negs and non performing seller complaints, possibly enough to get your account suspended in the worst case scenario.

Going back to the original quetsion though, your buyer cannot ask for you to pay his paypal fees, whatever they are for.

Soo

Sugar_Coated_Owl

I've never heard of PayPal charging a user $2 to open an account. I'm sure this person must have it wrong.

You've got yourself into a difficult situation by offering this item to the 2nd highest bidder, even though the actual highest bidder had 7 days to pay (eBay rules). It's totally irrelevant that you told the buyer that they had 24 hours to pay. I think you should post the item to the original highest bidder but offer some kind of compensation to the 2nd highest bidder as a gesture of goodwill. Just think how you would feel if you were in their situation.

soolin

razorbladekisses I think looking at the OP that there are actually 3 buyers for the phone, the original one and two on second chance offers which makes it even worse.

If I'm wrong maybe the OP could post again and clarify.


Soo

Sugar_Coated_Owl

Oh I must have read it wrong then. That complicates things even further.

Chalky87

From what the OP said I think there are only 2 people involved here. The third person was a buyer who didn't make payment, and so the auction was relisted.

zabbyh

yep you are right whitey. I would usually give the item a second chance offer after 7 days, but I did not receive a reply from the buyer and judging what happened with the previous buyer (same thing), i thought he was not going to pay.

After the first sale and non-payment I tried second chance offer, but everyone did not want the item because they forget about it after a week and don't want it. This was the only reason I offered the item after 1 day.

Just to clarify, there was only 2 people involved the first buyer was different. Just to give you backgrond on what happened and why I did what I did.

But the buyer has now mutually agreed to withdraw form the transaction. I was thinking of paying the $2, if he really wanted it, but it seems it is not needed now. Maybe he realised he wasn't charged?