Seller accepted paypal but now says they can't

pjala

I was in a quandary about paypal when I started selling items on ebay, and preferred in the end, not to take a chance. I remember selling something using escrow a while ago, but ebay push paypal as they are the same company.

Do you think it is possible to get the same interest and price if you don't offer paypal? Which system would you use that rivals paypal, and still seems to offer the same guarantees? This may only really in the end be an academic argument, as now I am aware of the fee structure I try to compensate for that in the price.

Also, is there a way of accepting paypal, without ebay advertising that you "prefer" paypal?

Contains_Mild_Peril

soolin wrote:

Ebay also make it clear that by ticking the 'I accept paypal' box means you accept all payments.

Not really. That information is fairly well hidden among their myriad regulations. I didn't know about it until you told me, shortly after I joined this forum. If they really wanted to make it clear, they would not have "I accept Paypal" as the default setting when someone with only a basic account starts to sell, and if the seller ticked the Paypal box, a message would be displayed informing of the requirement to "upgrade" to accept any card-funded payment, and that it is not permitted to tick the box then refuse certain types of paypal payments. I agree with pjala - it does appear that eBay and Paypal intend to trick sellers into having to change to unwanted fee-paying accounts.

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.

Another reason that many of us find the information provided misleading.
I don't tick the Paypal box, but I mention in my listings that I can take Paypal payments from a Paypal balance, or in most cases, from a bank account. I still get customers trying to make card-funded Paypal payments ocasionally, even though I state in the description section as well as in the payment section of the listing that I don't accept them. I have no intention of getting stuck with a fee-paying account though, since Paypal fees include a flat fee of 20p per payment received as well as a percentage of the whole payment, including the p&p element, so they could easily end up taking about a third of the price of low-value items (e.g. if I were to sell, say, a pair of used trainers for 99p, and p&p was £3.50, Paypal would take about 37p!)

even_steven

pjala wrote:

Also, is there a way of accepting paypal, without ebay advertising that you "prefer" paypal?

I only accept Paypal from bidders outside the UK, so I just put that in my terms in the item description. I'm still selling at the same volume and for the same kind of price that I was when I accepted Paypal from all bidders. Basically if you offer something somebody wants, for a reasonable price, and you have a good feedback record, they will generally be prepared to buy it from you, whether you accept Paypal or not.

I stopped accepting Paypal for 2 reasons. Firstly I got a chargeback from a buyer who (from his feedback) had a habit of claiming items didn't turn up and then demanding his money back. Despite his negative feedbacks, and the certificate of posting I provided, Paypal took the cash out of my account and charged me for doing so. Secondly, it costs me money to accept Paypal, and I'm not prepared to give the company a share of my cash except where it's providing me a genuinely useful service in return for it's money.

I do occasionally get the odd person complaining that I don't accept Paypal, and I can see why you might prefer to use that method if you're worried about a fraudulent seller. But spare a thought for those sellers who are worried about getting a fraudulent bidder taking the item and then taking back their cash. It happens. :mad:

frivolous_fay

even_steven wrote:

I got a chargeback from a buyer who (from his feedback) had a habit of claiming items didn't turn up and then demanding his money back. Despite his negative feedbacks, and the certificate of posting I provided, Paypal took the cash out of my account and charged me for doing so.

And the moral of the story is... send by a trackable means. Proof of posting isn't proof of delivery

even_steven

But it is perfectly good enough for claiming for missing parcels from the Post Office, which is all I require.

soolin

even_steven wrote:

But it is perfectly good enough for claiming for missing parcels from the Post Office, which is all I require.

Same here. All my items under £32 are sent just with a COP and I reclaim from the RM if they don't arrive.

Soo

frivolous_fay

even_steven wrote:

But it is perfectly good enough for claiming for missing parcels from the Post Office, which is all I require.

Except that paypal charged you a fee for refunding the buyer... so aren't you worse off?

frivolous_fay

Oh... and these days RM are writing to buyers asking them to confirm (within 7 days) that the item has indeed gone missing.

If your buyer fails to do that, your COP is good for nothing.

soolin

frivolous_fay wrote:

Except that paypal charged you a fee for refunding the buyer... so aren't you worse off?

Not at all, if you do a straight refund there is no fee and you even get the fees back you paid in the first place so all are happy. Just log onto the paypal payment page and at the bottom of the transaction there is a refund button, click that and follow the instructions and Bob's your uncle, the original payment is returned with no fees at all on either side.

Soo

soolin

frivolous_fay wrote:

Oh... and these days RM are writing to buyers asking them to confirm (within 7 days) that the item has indeed gone missing.

If your buyer fails to do that, your COP is good for nothing.

Really, I had seen someone ask that on one of the unmoderated boards but no one had any direct reports that buyers were being contacted and we assumed it was one f those scare stories that do the rounds. I've certainly never had a problem with refunds, except one blasted Recorded delivery one where the address wasn't in the RM database so they refused to pay out.

Soo