Ebay auction then sold through paypal?

Gavin78

I put my laptop up for sale on Ebay buy it now or best offer...I was contacted by a guy asking what I would take but it was below what I wanted as didn't want to lose out on the 10% Ebay takes as well.

He suggested doing it though paypal at 3.4% instead. I then ended the auction early and talked via text message.

I sent the guy and invoice through paypal and he paid the money to me and I posted the laptop off today.

However later today I got this message from Ebay.

Warning - Offers to sell outside of eBay


Hello We've reviewed your account and determined that you haven't followed our offers to buy or sell outside of eBay policy.

Regarding item #29196


Offers to buy or sell outside of eBay, including providing contact information within a member-to-member message, are not allowed. Not following this policy in the future may result in restriction of your buying and selling privileges and suspension of your account.

Sales made outside of eBay could be fraudulent and are not covered by the eBay Money Back Guarantee or other buyer protection programmes.

We understand that you might not have known that making an offer to buy or sell outside of eBay was against our rules. We encourage you to become familiar with the offers to buy or sell outside of eBay policy.

If you made an attempt to sell outside eBay in order to entice a buyer, we suggest that you send the buyer an offer through eBay instead. This lets you offer a fixed price item to a buyer at a discounted price.


I'm a bit worried now that the buyer will get my laptop and paypal will refund the money back to him. they haven't done as yet and I have asked to transfer it to my bank before I got the email.

Anyone had this before?

Heedtheadvice

Maybe outside their rules and maybe a bit more risky but that was just what their warning was. They will be upset not to get their commission, understandably.

Not good practice but eBay probably will not take it any further, so it indicates.

At this stage I would be more worried what info you may have left on the laptop! ..and see what protection PayPal gives you as a seller!

Gavin78

Yeah I didn't know myself that I was actually doing anything wrong I just took it that ebay and paypal are the same only paypal were charging a cheap rate.

There is nothing on the laptop worth taking even if they used some kind of recovery program to restore any data it was used for gaming and I wiped the hd's and put a fresh install of windows on.

Looking at the email it looks like I could have gotten away with not sending the laptop and kept the money. Not that I would have done.

takman

Gavin78 wrote: »

Yeah I didn't know myself that I was actually doing anything wrong I just took it that ebay and paypal are the same only paypal were charging a cheap rate.

There is nothing on the laptop worth taking even if they used some kind of recovery program to restore any data it was used for gaming and I wiped the hd's and put a fresh install of windows on.

Looking at the email it looks like I could have gotten away with not sending the laptop and kept the money. Not that I would have done.

If they have paid via PayPal and said they were buying an item and fees were taken for the payment then they will have buyer protection. This means they can start a dispute if the laptop doesn't arrive or for other problems.

Farway

takman wrote: »

If they have paid via PayPal and said they were buying an item and fees were taken for the payment then they will have buyer protection. This means they can start a dispute if the laptop doesn't arrive or for other problems.

Dispute via Paypal could be next problem, fairly common scam, you lose both money & laptop, they have free laptop

grumpycrab

Farway wrote: »

Dispute via Paypal could be next problem, fairly common scam, you lose both money & laptop, they have free laptop

Should be ok. Check the buyer's address is confirmed in the Paypal transaction. I assumed you've used a tracked postal service.

Gavin78

Yeah I used collect+ and insured the laptop for damages as well