Seller accepted paypal but now says they can't

soolin

Be thankful you stuck it out and insisted on paying by paypal :money:

Contact your credit card company and see what they say, if they are not helpful at first keep on at them until they will help.

Paypal will make noises at you for breaching your terms and conditions, but ignore them. Occasionally they will close a paypal account, but from reading the unmoderated boards this seems very rare. Frankly though I would risk losing my paypal account rather than risk losing money.

Soo

apcd2

Thanks for the advice. I'll phone my credit card company tonight.

I am relieved I paid by paypal and have at least got something back. I feel very sorry for the other people who have been buying from this seller via bank transfer.

frivolous_fay

Isn't it funny how whenever paypal are asked to refund a large amount, the seller's account always seems to have exactly £105 left in it to recover! And oddly enough, although they 'try' to recover the rest, they never ever do...

apcd2

This did strike me as odd too. I'd always assumed if you paid by paypal you were covered for almost any loss. Clearly not unfortunately.

MarkyMarkD

I've just purchased something on eBay (last night) from someone who advertised accepting PayPal, and they've sent me a numpty e-mail saying "I can't really accept PayPal unless you pre-fund your account and then send me the money".

!!!!!! - What a moron! How hard is it to understand that you shouldn't claim in your listing to accept PayPal unless you REALLY accept PayPal and have a valid seller's account.

The numpty suggesting I funded my account ... that takes up to 9 working days as I have NEVER needed to do so by bank account and don't intend to.

And then he suggests paying by cheque - I wouldn't have bought the item from anyone who suggested they would only accept payment by cheque.

D'oh and double d'oh - if I push it, my 100% rating may get attacked. Damned if I do and if I don't, methinks.

Sugar_Coated_Owl

I hope you've put the seller straight regarding PayPal MarkyMarkD.

MarkyMarkD

I have reminded him that he should have a proper seller's account if he claims to accept PayPal. He has been very apologetic in a couple of e-mails and I believe he's fairly innocent in all this, rather than deliberately trying it on. He has 100% good feedback on more transactions than me, though, so I'm amazed he's never had this problem before.

soolin

Personally I would not send a cheque, I'd ask the seller to either upgrade his account or walk away from the transaction and leave positive feedback for you so that you don't have to complete and don't have to worry about feedback.

Soo

pjala

MarkyMarkD wrote:

I've just purchased something on eBay (last night) from someone who advertised accepting PayPal, and they've sent me a numpty e-mail saying "I can't really accept PayPal unless you pre-fund your account and then send me the money".

!!!!!! - What a moron! How hard is it to understand that you shouldn't claim in your listing to accept PayPal unless you REALLY accept PayPal and have a valid seller's account.

The numpty suggesting I funded my account ... that takes up to 9 working days as I have NEVER needed to do so by bank account and don't intend to.

And then he suggests paying by cheque - I wouldn't have bought the item from anyone who suggested they would only accept payment by cheque.

D'oh and double d'oh - if I push it, my 100% rating may get attacked. Damned if I do and if I don't, methinks.

The reason this happens is Paypal's fault. When you start a paypal account, you are starting a free account, that does not cost you to accept payments or withdraw money. As soon as you sell something on ebay, the adverts appear by default as you accept that you can accept paypal payments.
As you have decided to accept paypal payments, then the buyer can also automatically pay by credit card.

Unfortunately the free account cannot accept payments by credit card, so the payment is either refused or the seller has to upgrade to a premier account - which then costs you 5% of the payed amount each time you accept a payment!

I would suggest the seller did not realise this, as it is not stated anywhere in the paypal T&C when you start selling on ebay, and probably is annoyed with paypal that he/she would loose the 5%.

I got into this, and had a number of phone calls to paypal - and was forced into accepting the premier account. I think it is tantamount to fraud from paypal, as if you don't upgrade you get a negative from the buyer.

soolin

pjala, paypal do make it clear what payments you can accept with which account so users can make a choice when they sign up. Ebay also make it clear that by ticking the 'I accept paypal' box means you accept all payments.

Incidentally, it isn't just credit card payments that trigger the upgrade. All debit cards do plus many bank funded payments where there is a debit card associated with that account. Basically the only method of payment that is definitely OK for a basic account is that funded by an existing paypal balance.

If people really feel that strongly about paypal then no one forces them to use it. If sellers do agree that it is impossible to sell without it (and not everyone would agree with that statement) then you have the reason why paypal can charge fees.

Soo