Collection in Person - Paypal vs Cash

Oliver14

davemorton wrote: »

Ahhh, I see......but arnt they the one and the same???

No. They may be owned by the same people but they are different companies. The same way that RBS own Natwest but they have different management different policies and are different companies.

hcb42 wrote:

Personally, I would not accept paypal as there are a lot of scammers out there

If you believe that why are you selling on ebay? If I thought there was a scammer around every corner I wouldnt sell on ebay. In reality 99% of ebay buyers are honest. If sellers use a little common sense and manage risks the majority of the time there are no problem. All this scaremongering helps no one.

ally18

Hi,
Can I ask a question. If a buyer immediately pays by paypal on an item that needs to be collected and which you wanted cash for, can you just refund the payment and say please pay by cash on collection or is this detrimental to the seller?

The reason I ask is that a couple of years ago when I sold my first and only (until now) item, I asked for cash on collection because it was a bed. But the buyer immediately paid by paypal (within minutes of the auction closing and then refused to accept a refund. I wasn't sure of this but let the buyer collect and fortunately everything was ok but just in case this should happen again this time, I need to know fully how it works.

Thanks.

Crowqueen

ally18 wrote: »

Hi,
Can I ask a question. If a buyer immediately pays by paypal on an item that needs to be collected and which you wanted cash for, can you just refund the payment and say please pay by cash on collection or is this detrimental to the seller?

The reason I ask is that a couple of years ago when I sold my first and only (until now) item, I asked for cash on collection because it was a bed. But the buyer immediately paid by paypal (within minutes of the auction closing and then refused to accept a refund. I wasn't sure of this but let the buyer collect and fortunately everything was ok but just in case this should happen again this time, I need to know fully how it works.

Thanks.

You can't refuse Paypal. In the worst case scenario - and I've posted on it at length on the first page of this thread - you may get a neg and a non-performing seller report which will affect your ability to sell. I would think twice about ever telling a buyer you don't trust them without any genuine proof you think they're about to rip you off (mere ability to do so is not proof - many people for instance know about various scams but would never dream of working them in their favour).

If there wasn't a problem last time - and it may depend on what the item is - then there might not be a problem this time. Saying this, however, is bound to produce a post saying "I've just been ripped off myself..." so I think it's really up to you what you ask them to do but you've at least got a similar experience to work from.

ally18

Thanks crowqueen, I've read through your earlier posts. I have offered paypal but I've also said on the listings that I want the buyer to come and fully inspect the items concerned and then if they are happy, they can pay on collection.
Both my items are very big and need to be collected and are up for a lot of money that I don't want to lose and reading about what can happen through paypal is really scary.

If I can immediately refund the amount through paypal, I would feel easier having neg feedback than losing the item for nothing.

Crowqueen

ally18 wrote: »

Thanks crowqueen, I've read through your earlier posts. I have offered paypal but I've also said on the listings that I want the buyer to come and fully inspect the items concerned and then if they are happy, they can pay on collection.
Both my items are very big and need to be collected and are up for a lot of money that I don't want to lose and reading about what can happen through paypal is really scary.

If I can immediately refund the amount through paypal, I would feel easier having neg feedback than losing the item for nothing.

To be honest, as I said in my post, if the item was expensive I'd be one of the people trying to pay by Paypal.

The ability to scam someone existing does not make it absolutely certain that the buyer will try it on. I'd be pretty upset if you immediately refunded me calling me a scammer and then expected to come to you happily with my cash. I'd be gone. Now, I'm not the sort of person who buys stuff I have to collect online. I normally take my card to a shop and buy it there. But there are people out there with transport and the money to pay for expensive collection goods and sometimes eBay is just not the right venue at all to sell these items on. It is not the only site out there and if you are overly concerned about scams then you have no compulsion to list items there at all.

Sell the items on Gumtree or in your local paper - because then you can stipulate that without risking offence or account suspension (and it wouldn't just be a neg, it would be a report and possibly low DSRs as well - that might get you three strikes from one transaction), and realistically you are aiming at a local market anyway.

soolin

ally18 wrote: »

Thanks crowqueen, I've read through your earlier posts. I have offered paypal but I've also said on the listings that I want the buyer to come and fully inspect the items concerned and then if they are happy, they can pay on collection.
Both my items are very big and need to be collected and are up for a lot of money that I don't want to lose and reading about what can happen through paypal is really scary.

If I can immediately refund the amount through paypal, I would feel easier having neg feedback than losing the item for nothing.

It's not only a neg though, poor stars, a non performign seller complaint may see a small seller suspended. You also get to pay your FVFs.

Like Crowqueen says you need to weigh up the risks. I do sell smaller items for collection only but on the basis they are cheap enough to not bother me if i ever did meet a scammer. For more expensive items I would always list as postage only.

If i had a large item that could not be couriered and was also outside my comfort zone then i wouldn't sell it on ebay.

ally18

Crowqueen and soolin,

Thanks very much for your advice. It all helps for the future.

mobile48

davemorton wrote: »

Just been reading through this thread and thought...wouldnt it be possible for paypal to give purchasers who want to pick up an item a pin number, that they pass onto the seller to input into payal when the item is picked up, to prove the item was collected. Seems a simple solution to a problem (unless of course I am missing something apart from common sense).

This does solve the problem and is used by others for money transfers. What you are missing is the problem should not exist as cash works fine for face to face transactions and there is little requirement for paypal. Much easier for Ebay to drop the use of paypal for collections to solve the problem than come up with a solution to a problem that should not exist.

porto_bello

Here's the article I described previously. Other sellers can make an informed judgement on the risks and how best to avoid them, ... rather than refuse to believe in the scam until they become a victim of it!

soolin

Porto bello I htink you are misunderstanding what we are saying.

We are all aware of the scam, I even wrote about it in this thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=1623183&highlight=tips+new+sellers

However, that doesn't mean that a seller can't accept the risk sometimes. If you read my posts above you will see that I have a very strict criteria for items available only for collection and there are many other business sellers who also operate in this way.