Prepaid cards for registering an Ebay/Paypal account

toffeecoated

Alik... Ebayers want top quality goods and service but they don't want to pay for it. Nobody will pay for recorded delivery on a £2 item, they just expect me to send out a replacement freebie if it never arrives. I always get a proof of postage certificate but the post office take six weeks and then send me twelve stamps as compensation. Nobody ever believes Ebay ban people for silly reasons until it happens to them. I charge the 10% surcharge to cover the fees and insure myself against paypal robbing me, i really don't want to accept paypal at all and hope that the surcharge will persuade people to use another method. Another problem is i am a student and often have absolutely no money at all. If people pay directly into my bank account i can draw the money out and use some of it to pay for postage, when they use paypal i have to wait a week for the money to arrive in my bank account, this often causes delays because i literally don't have enough money to cover the postage charge. I had over 200 positive feedbacks (100%) some people even said they were amazed how quickly items arrived, often the next day. But when i get banned i have to start all over again. I am only doing this to cover the cost of books and stuff i need for college. I don't have the time to grovel to Ebay to prove i own a £2 piece of plastic. If i was selling things costing thousands of pounds i could understand them asking for some security protection but most of the things i sell are less than £10. I found out today that someone in the next block has been banned because they found his account is associated with a banned member. He has never sold anything on Ebay before and just listed a used denim jacket with a starting bid of 99p. These people are unbelievable.

soolin

toffeecoated wrote: »

Alik... Ebayers want top quality goods and service but they don't want to pay for it. Nobody will pay for recorded delivery on a £2 item, they just expect me to send out a replacement freebie if it never arrives. I always get a proof of postage certificate but the post office take six weeks and then send me twelve stamps as compensation. Nobody ever believes Ebay ban people for silly reasons until it happens to them. I charge the 10% surcharge to cover the fees and insure myself against paypal robbing me, i really don't want to accept paypal at all and hope that the surcharge will persuade people to use another method. Another problem is i am a student and often have absolutely no money at all. If people pay directly into my bank account i can draw the money out and use some of it to pay for postage, when they use paypal i have to wait a week for the money to arrive in my bank account, this often causes delays because i literally don't have enough money to cover the postage charge. I had over 200 positive feedbacks (100%) some people even said they were amazed how quickly items arrived, often the next day. But when i get banned i have to start all over again. I am only doing this to cover the cost of books and stuff i need for college. I don't have the time to grovel to Ebay to prove i own a £2 piece of plastic. If i was selling things costing thousands of pounds i could understand them asking for some security protection but most of the things i sell are less than £10. I found out today that someone in the next block has been banned because they found his account is associated with a banned member. He has never sold anything on Ebay before and just listed a used denim jacket with a starting bid of 99p. These people are unbelievable.

If you continue to breach rules by charging a surcharge for paypal then you might as well give up now as you won't keep your accounts long. As for recorded, of course no buyer will pay that on a low cost item, it isn't their problem if it gets lost and by suggesting that they use a bank transfer instead suggests to me that if item doens't arrive you won't refund unless forced to do so by paypal. IMHO that is why paypal is a requirement, to protect against sellers that don't think anything is their responsibility.

But when i get banned i have to start all over again

This is also a breach and might explain why you seem to have so many more problems than anyone esle. You cannot trade if suspended on a previous account.

Lastly re postage, why not use paypal postage as that comes direct from your funds.

toffeecoated

My point is i don't want to use paypal but Ebay insist i offer it as a payment option and 99% of people use it. My profit margin is very low so if i have to pay commission to paypal i either charge a surcharge or put my prices up. Either way the customer ends up paying extra. Everyone knows the post office lose things but nobody ever blames them. Some people send a polite e-mail saying their item has not arrived and for those people i am very happy to send a replacement, but a lot of them send abusive messages accusing me of ripping them off, i have always treated people the way they treat me so i am in no hurry to help someone who accuses me of theft. If i wanted to con people i wouldn't be doing it for a few pounds. When the post office lose something the only compensation i get is a book of stamps and i have to wait at least a month for it. One of the computer teachers told me everyone on campus uses the same broadband connection so if one person gets banned Ebay will think that all the other 600+ students are linked to him and ban us all. That is probably why the lad in the next block got banned.

soolin

toffeecoated wrote: »

My point is i don't want to use paypal but Ebay insist i offer it as a payment option and 99% of people use it. My profit margin is very low so if i have to pay commission to paypal i either charge a surcharge or put my prices up. Either way the customer ends up paying extra. Everyone knows the post office lose things but nobody ever blames them. Some people send a polite e-mail saying their item has not arrived and for those people i am very happy to send a replacement, but a lot of them send abusive messages accusing me of ripping them off, i have always treated people the way they treat me so i am in no hurry to help someone who accuses me of theft. If i wanted to con people i wouldn't be doing it for a few pounds. When the post office lose something the only compensation i get is a book of stamps and i have to wait at least a month for it. One of the computer teachers told me everyone on campus uses the same broadband connection so if one person gets banned Ebay will think that all the other 600+ students are linked to him and ban us all. That is probably why the lad in the next block got banned.

You do not seem to get the point that you cannot surcharge for paypal, regardless of your reasons for attempting to do so. Forget sharing ISPs, you will get banned for continuing to breach rules.

Most of us on here are sellers, we all pay the same paypal fees as you do (and BTW if selling low cost items then remember a micro account is cheaper). Why are you so different to the rest of us ?

toffeecoated

It's not so much the fees i'm against, it's the constant hassle involved. My solicitor is a friend of my dads, he read the terms of use and said any seller would be mad to agree to it. They can do a chargeback any time within 180 days meaning they can help themselves to my money long after i have forgotten the sale. I would rather lose a sale than have to deal with paypal. As a seller it is my choice what payment options i offer, if buyers are not happy with it they can go somewhere else. I offer a choice of cash at any branch of HSBC, BACS transfer, Cheque, Google Checkout (never had any problems with them) cash on collection and postal orders, for very low priced items i will even accept stamps. I don't see why i should be forced to offer paypal. Ebay pretend they are doing it to protect buyers, the real reason is they make money from it.

soolin

toffeecoated wrote: »

It's not so much the fees i'm against, it's the constant hassle involved. My solicitor is a friend of my dads, he read the terms of use and said any seller would be mad to agree to it. They can do a chargeback any time within 180 days meaning they can help themselves to my money long after i have forgotten the sale. I would rather lose a sale than have to deal with paypal. As a seller it is my choice what payment options i offer, if buyers are not happy with it they can go somewhere else. I offer a choice of cash at any branch of HSBC, BACS transfer, Cheque, Google Checkout (never had any problems with them) cash on collection and postal orders, for very low priced items i will even accept stamps. I don't see why i should be forced to offer paypal. Ebay pretend they are doing it to protect buyers, the real reason is they make money from it.

Since you are determined to get yourself banned I can see no point in carrying on with this thread.

One past point though, do try and get your facts right. A claim for fraudulent use of a card can be easily defended with proof of posting.

It is much easier to stay safe when you actually understand what the rules are.

mobile48

soolin wrote: »

I was not aware that ebay controlled the internet and had enough control about who or what set up in competition to the extent that they could cause others not to trade. Also how do they control access to items to prevent others from using a similar idea?

A monopoly would exist if they somehow prohibited ebid from allowing me an account if i held one with ebay, or if they forbade me to list items on ebid if I already listed them on ebay.

They do not have a monopoly as there is free competition on the internet. They may be the only big player nowadays but only because they have consistently suceeded where others have given up.

You do not need full control for a Monopoly just enough market share to ignore others.

toffeecoated

Soolin.... I gave an example earlier of how proof of posting means nothing. I could post a brick and claim it is a £1000 laptop. As long as the recipient signs for it paypal would be satisfied that it had been delivered, but the buyer could do the same trick and paypal would accept that as proof it had been returned. With paypal the buyer always wins and the seller always loses. That is why i don't want to deal with them and i don't see why Ebay should be allowed to force me to. If a shopkeeper only wants to accept cash and cheques that is his right, if the customer prefers to use a credit card he can go elsewhere. Nobody can force the shopkeeper to accept the card. I don't see why this is different. I offer several methods of payment but i don't want to take paypal. If the customer is not happy with that they don't have to buy.

mobile48

There are copies of PayPal Wars for sale on ebay. It is the PayPal story so if you want to know how they work from the inside this is the book. A word of warning before you take on PayPal - according to a review I read it seems not even ebay could beat them and in the end had to give up and buy the company.

toffeecoated

Surely the way to beat them is to not use them. Every seller i know has had problems with them. I heard they are the most complained about company on the internet.