PayPal and Credit Card protection outside Ebay

Fozzie_Bear

I want to purchase an expensive item (iMac) from an eBay Business seller but a different spec to the ones listed on eBay. He has numerous systems for sale and builds to order but non of the listings match my spec exactly. (The seller has 100% positive eBay feedback and has been trading for 8+ years and last year registered as a Limited Company with Companies House)

He has suggested that he send me a PayPal invoice and I pay via that route. Before I go ahead and purchase the item I want to clarify a few questions I have:-

1) I believe I am covered by PayPal's buyer policy except it states the policy excludes some "Custom Made" items. Although the iMac is obviously an Apple production item they all vary and my specification is slightly different to others listed. Would this item therefore be listed as "Custom"?

2) I have no funds in my PayPal account as I always try and keep this to zero as it causes problems itemising purchases when doing my business tax returns.
I have both a Bank Current Account and associated Debit card linked to the account.
When I purchase an item the money is debited from either one of these which is essentially my Current Account.

I have now linked a credit card to my PayPal account and was planning for the purchase of the iMac to come from the recently added Credit Card rather than the Current Account. My reasons being:-
a) I don't want to empty my bank account completely with a single purchase plus I get loyalty points on my credit card
b) More importantly I hope to benefit from buyer protection from the credit card as well as PayPal.

Am I correct in my assumption that if the funds come from the Credit Card i get the protection of both the Credit Card and PayPal?
Any clarification would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Fozzie

cono1717

This sounds like a Business to Business transaction so your regular consumer rights don't apply. You'd be bound by the terms of the agreement.

As for the buyer protection I'm not sure if paypal extend those to B2B sales.

wealdroam

Fozzie_Bear wrote: »

I want to purchase an expensive item (iMac) from an eBay Business seller but a different spec to the ones listed on eBay. He has numerous systems for sale and builds to order but non of the listings match my spec exactly. (The seller has 100% positive eBay feedback and has been trading for 8+ years and last year registered as a Limited Company with Companies House)

He has suggested that he send me a PayPal invoice and I pay via that route. Before I go ahead and purchase the item I want to clarify a few questions I have:-

1) I believe I am covered by PayPal's buyer policy except it states the policy excludes some "Custom Made" items. Although the iMac is obviously an Apple production item they all vary and my specification is slightly different to others listed. Would this item therefore be listed as "Custom"?

2) I have no funds in my PayPal account as I always try and keep this to zero as it causes problems itemising purchases when doing my business tax returns.
I have both a Bank Current Account and associated Debit card linked to the account.
When I purchase an item the money is debited from either one of these which is essentially my Current Account.

I have now linked a credit card to my PayPal account and was planning for the purchase of the iMac to come from the recently added Credit Card rather than the Current Account. My reasons being:-
a) I don't want to empty my bank account completely with a single purchase plus I get loyalty points on my credit card
b) More importantly I hope to benefit from buyer protection from the credit card as well as PayPal.

Am I correct in my assumption that if the funds come from the Credit Card i get the protection of both the Credit Card and PayPal?
Any clarification would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Fozzie

The assumption in your last paragraph is flawed.

You would not be making the purchase by your credit card.
You are actually funding your Paypal account with your card and the purchase is being made using Paypal funds.

This breaks the consumer, lender, supplier chain required by Section 75 of The Consumer Credit Act.

For more detail read MSE's Section 75 article.

Fozzie_Bear

Thanks cono1717,
This is actually a private purchase rather than a Business to Business transaction.
I do not have a Business Ebay/Paypal account. I just use it to purchase IT spares from Ebay when required.
I think wealdroam has answered my point in that the chain is broken.
Thanks for you input though.
Fozzie

Fozzie_Bear

wealdroam wrote: »

The assumption in your last paragraph is flawed.

You would not be making the purchase by your credit card.
You are actually funding your Paypal account with your card and the purchase is being made using Paypal funds.

This breaks the consumer, lender, supplier chain required by Section 75 of The Consumer Credit Act.

For more detail read MSE's Section 75 article.

Thanks wealdroam,
It looks as though I have two options
1) Top up my PayPal account from my personal bank account and rely on PayPal protection assuming this is not classed as a Custom Item
2) If the vendor can accept credit card payments pay by Credit Card and maintain the link.
Thanks for your response
Fozzie

bris

Buying from a private account has no bearing on whether it is a private sale or not. You are clearly according to your post buying this with business intentions as you clearly mention your tax returns. In this case you don't even have S75 protection if you bought it outside Paypal as S75 is a consumer right and doesn't have business protection.

wealdroam

bris wrote: »

Buying from a private account has no bearing on whether it is a private sale or not. You are clearly according to your post buying this with business intentions as you clearly mention your tax returns. In this case you don't even have S75 protection if you bought it outside Paypal as S75 is a consumer right and doesn't have business protection.

I am sure there are fair few consumers who also have the chore of filling out tax returns.

Are they all acting as a business when making purchases with a credit card?

LilElvis

If it's at a significant discount over buying from Apple or a major seller then there's every chance that it's a grey import and you could have no support from Apple if you have problems further down the line.

Fozzie_Bear

bris wrote: »

Buying from a private account has no bearing on whether it is a private sale or not. You are clearly according to your post buying this with business intentions as you clearly mention your tax returns. In this case you don't even have S75 protection if you bought it outside Paypal as S75 is a consumer right and doesn't have business protection.

No this is a personal purchase not related to my business. I don't have both a business and private Paypal account as I don't trade on eBay and don't purchase enough through my personal account to warrant a business account.
I have perhaps clouded the issue mentioning my tax return but its just that refunds and therefore credits to Paypal get used as part of the next purchase and it make it difficult to properly assign a cost to a purchase if part of the cost is taken from PayPal funds rather than directly from my bank account. Hope that makes sense
Fozzie

Fozzie_Bear

LilElvis wrote: »

If it's at a significant discount over buying from Apple or a major seller then there's every chance that it's a grey import and you could have no support from Apple if you have problems further down the line.

Thanks LilElvis,
There is not a discount over the Apple Store. Its just that you cannot buy all the specifications directly from Apple. e.g. look on the Apple website and find an 27" iMac with a 4.0 Ghz Skylake i7 processor. It refers to them but they are not listed on the website to purchase. They are made to order often via an Apple certified retailer. There is a dealer close to me who does the same thing building iMacs to order and charging similar prices but he doesn't cater for what I need.
The eBay seller is Apple Certified and the item comes with a 3 year Apple warranty.
I am more concerned that PayPal may treat this as a "Custom" item which may be outside their buyer protection policy.
You see lots of peole asking advice after they have made the decision. I am trying to ascertain my rights before I purchase
Fozzie

agrinnall

Is there any reason why you can't simply make the payment direct to the seller using your credit card? That will give you as much protection as you could need. I suspect that involving PayPal will complicate things so much that you could end up with less protection.