Seller accepted paypal but now says they can't

apcd2

I've just bought a Sony PSP on buy it now for around £170. The seller indicated they accepted paypal so I paid immediately by this. A couple of minutes later though I received an email from them:

HI MATE SORRY BUT MY PAYPAL IS HAVING A PROBLEM WITH VERIFICATION AT THE MOMENT SO I CANT ACCEPT PAYAPL NOW UNTILL FURTHER NOTICE...PLEASE TAKE BACK YOUR PAYMENT AS I CANT ACCEPT IT VERY SORRY FOR THE CONFUSION......
PAYMENTS CAN BE MADE BYE

CHEQUE
POSTAL ORDER
BANK TRANSFER

I checked my paypal account and sure enough the payment is marked as 'unclaimed'.

The seller has good feedback (98.6% from 69) although only one of these is for selling. This still seems to have scam written all over it though.

I'm really not willing to pay by any of the methods they want since I assume I'll have no protection if they decide to do a runner. Is there any way I can get out of this auction?

Thanks for your help

ViJay_3

Certainly smells fishy to me. He's named three methods of payment that are probably the hardest to reclaim if something goes wrong. You won't have the safety net of a PayPal chargeback either and will have to pay FleaBay £15 to get your dosh back if something goes wrong.

You should back out if possible. I would touch a seller with less than 99% feedback generally anyway (although this is a personal rule of thumb).

Might be worth trying to check with PayPoo whether he's telling the truth. Not sure how easy this is though.

What's the listing number?

apcd2

Thanks for your reply ViJay. In my paypal account the payment is marked as 'unclaimed' and of the seller it says "The recipient of this payment is Unregistered".

Is there any way I can back out of the deal without having to rely on the seller's good will?

The item number was 170005352573

jenniferpa

98.6 is NOT what I consider to be a good feedback rating. Tell him you can't pay him any other way - better yet, file a NPS claim.

Emmy

It's alot of money to take a chance on. Personally I wouldn't.

Hintza

jenniferpa wrote:

98.6 is NOT what I consider to be a good feedback rating. Tell him you can't pay him any other way - better yet, file a NPS claim.

You will be in the 98% range with 1 negative in less than 100 feedbacks! And with the best will in the world it would be very easy to get 1 negative in 100!

apcd2

I'm not really willing to take a chance on it either. Now I'm just really looking for a way to get out of the deal.

I'll contact the seller to tell them I'm unwilling to pay by any other means. Assuming their paypal account doesn't then magically start working again I'll file a NPS dispute. Do I have to wait a certain number of days after the auction to begin this?

Quackers

apcd2 wrote:

Thanks for your reply ViJay. In my paypal account the payment is marked as 'unclaimed' and of the seller it says "The recipient of this payment is Unregistered".

Is there any way I can back out of the deal without having to rely on the seller's good will?

The item number was 170005352573

If the seller has only sold one item & possibly accepted a cheque for that, there could be a chance he doesn't realise he has to 'upgrade' to a seller account on paypal?

I didn't I've been buying stuff for yonks & when I sold my first item the paypal payment didn't go smoothly because I didn't realise I had to upgrade(or whatever its called). Thankfully, I had an understanding buyer who popped it through paypal once I sorted it out. It only takes a couple of mins to do but maybe the new seller isn't aware of the process?

I appreciate people may instantly be suspicious but it could be something simple like this maybe?

bleugh

7 days you have to wait before action is taken

I really do hate this 'pro' paypal stuff, why don't people trust each other a bit more? ebay existed long before paypal........

turn the tables, do you have a fully verified and confirmed paypal account?
is the seller covered by paypal's seller protection policy if he posts to you?

why not consider an escrow service if you're that scared.........

apcd2

bleugh wrote:

7 days you have to wait before action is taken

I really do hate this 'pro' paypal stuff, why don't people trust each other a bit more? ebay existed long before paypal........

turn the tables, do you have a fully verified and confirmed paypal account?
is the seller covered by paypal's seller protection policy if he posts to you?

why not consider an escrow service if you're that scared.........

Actually I do have a fully verified and confirmed paypal account and the seller would be completely covered sending an item to me.

Saying we should trust each other more is all well and good but how many sellers would be willing to send an item out before receiving payment on the good faith that the buyer would pay once they were happy with the item?

If this was a case of fifty quid or so I'd probably take the chance but I'm not prepared to potentially lose close to two hundred.

jenniferpa

No, I understand that 1 negative in 100 sales is easy to pick up, and if they were all high value, it might be reasonable. However, as far as I can see, theis seller has sold only 1 other item, and for a high value item I'd expect a bit more of a track record AND a better rating. Mind you, I might be prepared to take the risk if I was paying with paypal, but that takes us back to the OP's original point.