Is using Paypal really always safe?

soolin

Please don't feel the need to be so defensive, MSE is about defending the rights of consumers and to do that we need to understand how some organisations, like paypal work. Without an understanding of a system it is possible to get stung quite badly as can be seen from some threads on here.

StaffsSW

dsab wrote: »

Thanks for all the Input. But seems many other people didn't think it was a scam, as he just sold out all 20 of these products.

In case you were interested what it was. He sold 20 new Iphone 3GS 16GB for £299.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290365919077&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I will continue to monitor his feedback the next few days. If it shows that it is not a scam I will kick myself. But with higher priced items I am always a bit more cautious. What in the end made me decide against it was the fact that it said that Paypal would only cover £150, which would still have cost me another £149 if it was something dodgy.

At an well-educated guess, I'd say that seller was drop-shipping - the images of the various ipod accessories are stock photos supplied by the wholesaler, and it would explain the sudden appearance of the handsets, as the supplier in question has recently started offering them as well.

There are a lot of pitfalls with dropshipping, and it's not a business method for the weak of heart. The seller may have bitten off more than they can chew though, so if it did go wrong, it would be more through inability than intent.

It's a very amateur set-up - little effort in the listings, no contact details or about me page, but I personally don't think it's a scam.

Blackjack_Davy

Despite what eBay would like you to believe, it's not risk free dsab. At the end of the day you have to decide what you're prepared to risk, personally I wouldn't even think of risking that much money especially as PayPal only covers you up to £150 unless they were a very well established seller with very good (minimum 99%) feedback and even then I'd think long and hard about it.

Incidently I've seen someone get scammed out of a lot of money on eBay and it wasn't pretty. Without going into details I smelled a rat and didn't send payment but some people aren't as experianced.

Gooka

I bought some concert tickets off ebay, paid with paypal - the tickets never arrived. Problem was that the auction was about 4 months before the gig - and I didn't raise a paypal dispute in time as the tickets were promised to arrive about 2 weeks before the gig... scammer got my £70 and £70 of my mate's.

Needless to say. I hate paypal.

custardy

Gooka wrote: »

I bought some concert tickets off ebay, paid with paypal - the tickets never arrived. Problem was that the auction was about 4 months before the gig - and I didn't raise a paypal dispute in time as the tickets were promised to arrive about 2 weeks before the gig... scammer got my £70 and £70 of my mate's.

Needless to say. I hate paypal.

unfortunately you know now but PP has a cut off time and ebay have rules on the timescales sellers have to supply goods

soolin

Gooka wrote: »

I bought some concert tickets off ebay, paid with paypal - the tickets never arrived. Problem was that the auction was about 4 months before the gig - and I didn't raise a paypal dispute in time as the tickets were promised to arrive about 2 weeks before the gig... scammer got my £70 and £70 of my mate's.

Needless to say. I hate paypal.

A good scammer will always rely on buyers being naive enough to not understand the rules. Whilst most experienced sellers would have avoided anything where they would need to give up buyer protection enough people will fall for it to make it worthwhile doing.

cyberbob

Gooka wrote: »

I bought some concert tickets off ebay, paid with paypal - the tickets never arrived. Problem was that the auction was about 4 months before the gig - and I didn't raise a paypal dispute in time as the tickets were promised to arrive about 2 weeks before the gig... scammer got my £70 and £70 of my mate's.

Needless to say. I hate paypal.

Sorry to say its not Paypals fault. Its because you never understood how they work. Paypal always reminds me of insurance in the way that the amount of time people just assume they will be covered but when it comes to the crunch there not. They should have checked the policy.

We have all made bad sale/purchases on ebay. I have done silly things and not been covered by paypal and got away with it via luck I have also lost money. The biggest bit of advice I ever give anybody who asks me about ebay is understand the rules both ebay and Paypal. Read paypals buyer and seller protection policies know them inside out and you will have a much better experience and minimize the chances of losing money.

Paypal overall is the safest way to buy on ebay IMO. 99% of problems that people have is either because they don't understand the protection policies or they didn't follow them. The 1% that its something to do with Paypal its normally because they don't understand there own policies:rolleyes: but if you do and you push them and tell them there policies it can be sorted.

If you pay via CC even if its one of the companies who won't argue the toss about Paypal it can still be a nightmare to claim. Some CC companies even argue whether they are liable normal purchase even if though they are in law.

All these people who go on about they hate paypal that paypal ripped me off etc. You have normally either been ripped off by a scammer or through ignorance of the protection policies.

Oh and another thing if your going to use Paypal get your limits lifted especially the £1700 one. You really want to do that as if they freeze your account its a nightmare

TurkishDelight

Funding paypal via a credit card gives you no more protection.
If you put in a claim via your credit card and paypal decide that the claim was false they can take the money back/chase you for it anyway.

We've had it happen as a seller when some scumbag decided they wanted their item free.