e-cheque on Paypal - Safe or Unsafe

RoyalReccon

Hi Guys,

I have just sold an item on Ebay for £300 , and just recieved an email from paypal that buyer have paid but e-cheque but its pending and i shouldn't send the item untill paypal get cleared funds and then tranfer into my paypal account.

Now, my question is this, if the cheque buyer have send to paypal get cleared in the begining but then turn out to be wrong ( wrong signature or any other problems ) in couple of weeks time ( as it does happend in reality), would paypal cancel my payment and take the money back or it wouldn't effect me?


Thanks for your kind advice

cheers

frivolous_fay

An e-cheque isn't the same as a bank cheque.

From your point of view, you get your money and with pretty much the same risks as a normal paypal transaction... the only difference is that it takes a hella long time to clear.

Sugar_Coated_Owl

An e-cheque isn't like a cheque issued from a bank. An e-cheque is all done electronically. The person doesn't sign or post an e-cheque.

As long as you don't post the item to the buyer until the e-cheque has cleared into your account you should be OK. This can take a fairly long time, 7-10 days is average but I know some people have reported e-cheques not clearing for up to 3 weeks!

RoyalReccon

Thanks guys,

A BIG Thanks for your kind advice, Now the item i have just sold are some tickets for a criket match, which i am not able to go to and thats why sold the tickets.

What is the best way to make sure that seller dosen't blag his way by saying "he havent recieved the ticket/wrong item/invalid tickets etc" ?

I do understand that i can send them by special delivery but that does not garentee that the item in the package is the "right one" , which give the reciever to claim for "incorrect goods"

i hope that make some sence

soolin

Really you can only use special delivery, there isn't another service that will guarantee the goods are what you say they are.

BTW, keep your buyer informed all the way about waiting for the echeque to clear. I've had some take over 2 weeks recently, and buyers can understandably start to get worried.

Soo

bleugh

DONT accept the E-cheque, simple really,

they often only 'clear' in the 3rd week after receipt (recently one 'bounced' after a couple of months on someone in this forum!)

ask the buyer to pay from paypal funds, it'll be a lot quicker

everyone knows my stance on paypal and large value items

https://www.bleugh.co.uk/paypal

basically, if the transaction is 'ineligible for seller protection' there's a high risk of payments bouncing and you being left out of pocket


you MUST send special delivery, fully insured, but, as you guessed, there's nothing stopping the buyer claiming the tickets are void, etc

there was a case in the past where a buyer went to a concert, then returned the ticket (minus the stubs) and claimed item not as described, I never found the result of that, but i'd hate to leave that in paypal's hands

soolin

bleugh, I'm glad you posted as I wanted to post something and wonder if you can think about this..

I read terms and conditions very carefully and something concerned me about echeques which would mean they can't be returned by the seller safely. An echeque isn't 'clear' until paypal say so and if your preferences are set to accept them, as it is in all accounts by default then you can't refuse them either. If you did try and return an echeque and it later bounces then you lose the money as the original payment would never have been clear, yet the refund would have been paid from cleared funds in the seller account. Does that make sense?

Also, although echeques are a blasted pain I still accept them as again the way I read it they are safer than a standard paypal payment. With a standard payment it has probably been funded by a card, whereas an echeque is likely to be a bank transfer and therefore harder for the buyer to recall due to the 'fraud' scenario.

Soo

Sugar_Coated_Owl

If you choose to accept PayPal how can you refuse to accept an e-cheque? That's the same as a person with a basic PayPal account ticking 'I accept PayPal' and then refusing a credit/debit card payment. I didn't think you could refuse an e-cheque.

soolin

razorbladekisses there is an option in your paypal account somewhere that enables sellers to refuse an echeque. It's well hidden though so you need to trawl through all the user options.

SOo

Sugar_Coated_Owl

I never knew that. You learn something new everyday Paypal don't really make these things clear do they! I shall have a look for that later today.

soolin

I didn't know about it either until I saw it mentioned on the ebay forum on ebay a while ago. I haven't looked for it in my paypal account though, and as you say it certainly isn't obvious!

SOo