Question for the Paypal know-all's

Snooze_Control

I'm wanting to buy a £250 item from a Canadian ebayer who has circa 750 feedback score and 99.6% rating. However, they only offer Western Union or Postal Order as payment through Ebay but will accept Paypal via their own website, but there is no online payment facility on the website, they just give you their Paypal registered email address to send the payment to. :cool:

I've made it clear that I will only pay with Paypal in this circumstance due to it 1) being overseas and 2) the value of the item. I've scrutinized their feedback and done a google search of the company name and other credentials and nothing untoward has come up for me to have any doubts, I'm just not happy about the way they want paying.

What precautions do I need to take to ensure I'm fully protected please? Paypal blurb rambles on far too much about Ebay buyer protection and such like and doesn't seem to be very helpful for transactions outside Ebay.

The item will be sent via Fedex door to door which of course is trackable.

Thanks!

SC

John_T_5

PayPal only give you coverage for eBay transactions, coverage for transactions outwith eBay are non existant.

I was personally stung by this, having paid a courier by PayPal who delivered the item late and the item damaged, the claim was automatically rejected by PayPal, they sent me an email stating that they only offer coverage for eBay transactions.

If you cannot persuade the seller to accept the payment via PayPal within eBay then all I can suggest is you contact the seller and see if the will accept payment by credit card, I am assuming the seller is a company and not a private individual as I doubt credit companies would offer any protection for a private sale.

Other than that I would give buying it a miss if you have concerns about having any comeback for non delivery of goods etc.

Western Union is a big NO as a payment method as it is well known as the fraudsters friend and eBay UK do not allow it as a payment method.

As with any other form of payment Cheque/Postal order these offer no protection either.

I don't know much about eBays escrow service but you might want to consider it if the buyer can be convinced to use it, the buyer will not receive payment until you have stated you are satisfied with the goods.

digerati

PayPal funded by credit card is the first line of defense. Make sure transaction is covered by PayPal Buyer Protection (usually £500) if applicable.

If seller seems okay and provided it isn't a hijacked account you should be safe if you pay by PayPal or Postal Order. Western Union is never advisible and is grounds for having an eBay listing (that mentions it) cancelled.

Hope this helps :-)

hagler

I dont know if the account has been hacked, but here is what to look out for a hacked account.

1) Excellent feedback
2) Feedback usually over 99.5% and with over 100 feedbacks

big message all over the descriptions:

PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT ME THROUGH EBAY I ONLY ACCEPT PAYMENT BY WESTERN UNION CONTACT ME ON MY EMAIL ADDRESS XYZ@XYZ.COM

If the account isnt hacked and it is a high price item coming from abroad then usually the seller also wants to protect themselves from con artists who use paypal chargeback.

As long as the account hasnt been hacked there shouldnt be any problem buying from them.

Also i think your covered from ebay for about £150 if anything goes wrong, but they do take a £15 admin fee last time i read.

windswept

I offer paypal on our website, as far as I know you have to have a merchant account with them to do this so a buyer has full protection.
as others have said you can further protect yourself with a credit card funding payment.
having re-read your op, if their site does not have the facility to pay online it would put me off, on ours you go to checkout and then it takes you to paypal to pay, having you just pay their email address would seem to indicate that they don't have a merchant account, which is a bit worrying as if you have a business account with paypal the basic merchant package is free in any case. something just doesn't feel right about it.

windswept

how else can you pay on their website?
if there is no online payment method at all, I would steer clear, as to me, it would indicate that they are not a proper business and you would not be covered by distance selling regs.
try asking the paypal question on the ebay payment and postage board in ebay community, just register with a posting id for anonymity, if not already done.;) there are some very knowledgeable people on there, unfortunately some real idiots as well.:cool:

soolin

Hmm, 'please do not contact me through ebay', that would set off major alarm bells for me.

Hintza

Pull their details and give them a ring, would be my first thoughts especially with don't contact me through ebay plastered everywhere as soo says.

Think you are right to be wary and if vibes aren't right I think I'd duck it.

Snooze_Control

It was hagler who brought up the comments about not paying through Ebay, not me.

The seller has no such wording on her ad.

After airing my concerns to her I received the following reply:

eBay FVF(final value fee) is $25. Paypal will charge $25.

There are 2 ways:

1. Bid on ebay, pay by Western Union ==> You can leave the feedback on eBay.

2 Pay by paypal directly, ship to your Eligible address ==> You protected by
paypal.


Please understand that we are serious seller, our customers Always receive
their items.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions. Thanks!

Eileen
Tel: xxx-xxx-xxxx
https://www.xxx.com

It does "feel" okay, primarily due to the feedback rating and score (and the fact she's called Eileen ) but I just want to protect myself in the event something does go wrong and it turns nasty.

:cool:

SC

windswept

the only problem would be if everything went pear shaped and you had paid by debit card, usually you can't do a charge back with them.
I see you took my advice about asking on ebay community:p Dark angel is one of the best informed - and no that's not me.;)
It just seems very odd that you can't pay direct through paypal on her website, did you ask her why?
If I can integrate a paypal shopping cart onto a site, a chimpanzee with Add. could!:rotfl:

soolin

Snooze_Control wrote: »

It was hagler who brought up the comments about not paying through Ebay, not me.

The seller has no such wording on her ad.

After airing my concerns to her I received the following reply:



It does "feel" okay, primarily due to the feedback rating and score (and the fact she's called Eileen ) but I just want to protect myself in the event something does go wrong and it turns nasty.

:cool:

SC

The only way to protect yourself is to buy via paypal. If you buy off ebay then check and double check the buyer protection scheme and make 100% sure you are covered. However, if your seller is happy to cheat ebay out of fees doesn't that make them dodgy to start with?

Personally I would not go ahead, but in case you decide to here are the paypal pages to work through:

https://www.paypal.com/helpcenter/main.jsp;jsessionid=GSJG26sKxpS5S8Lc1WG1T03WHL3YRPvglSnHGyNN93hTHD19GJTG!-435714525?locale=en_GB&_dyncharset=UTF-8&cmd=_help-ext&serverInstance=8002&t=solutionTab&ft=searchTab&ps=solutionPanels&solutionId=17487&isSrch=Yes

https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/ua-outside