Paypal - I've decided to stop accepting it

RoyaleMale

I'm sure it does not cost Paypal 20p + 3.4% to process each paypal payment.

Is there some sort of law that states charges have to be realistic to how much they cost to process.

A paypal item sells for £300 or an item sells for £3.00 the charges are £10.40 and 30p. I'm sure it costs paypal the same to process each transcation so why are the fees so different. Can any law expert use the same argument as the credit card charges to dispute the paypal fees.

yeslek

frivolous_fay wrote: »

I believe it's compulsory to offer paypal on high value goods like games consoles, some electronics etc.

thats why i sold my wii on amazon - less hassle

greenstreetprince wrote: »

just to clear up the confusion lads, ebay insist you offer paypal as a method in many categories, but they cannot and do not insist on paypal being the only offered method.

if they did that, then thats where the monopolies and merger's comission would come into play.

yes they do
i sold a wii a few months back and was only allowed if i offered paypal

steviebabes

I believe there is a small payment scheme run by paypal with lower charges. You will notice a lot of shops won't accept card payments for small amounts, this is because they charge 60p per transaction + 3 - 6% (card dependant) so this makes paypal sound quite reasonable. Most people selling low value items add 20 - 30p to the postage to cover paypal. I sell a lot of items for £3 and the paypal fee is always 30p. This is less than half the amount my bank charge to pay a £3 cheque in.

vikingaero

steviebabes wrote: »

You get a one sided story reading forums. If something goes wrong people rant but if all runs smoothly nothing is mentioned. I have been accepting paypal for years turning over many thousands of pounds with absolutely no problems whatsoever. The problems I do have are are of the cheque in the post type or missing postal orders. Yes the charges are high but so are bank charges and card terminals. Unless we all go back to cash and keep it under the mattress we must accept this. As a buyer I would only pay by paypal or cash on collection.

I disagree with you stevie. :rolleyes:

There are millions of us that are customers of various banks, utilities, Footsie 100 companies etc. But none seem to generate such vitriol as PayPal and their best friend Fleabay.

Yes we all occassionally have complaints about say Vodafone or NatWest, but both companies have established complaints procedures and they actually attempt to resolve it in most cases. Yet PayPal as a matter of routine do not attempt to resolve matters or respond to telephone calls and emails.

PayPal seem to freeze accounts at will. Hey that's an interest free loan to them. And their requests to fax through documents to Eire and the US are absurd.

Go onto the Paypal UK or US website and see how easy it is to find PayPal's address. Why is it hidden? To prevent service of documents? We all slate merchant websites that give out a non-geographic telephone number and no address details.

I work for a commercial bank and if you mention PayPal being a bank in banking circles then people roll their eyes in distain. Why? Because no UK bank with a physical presence would be allowed to operate in this manner.

By all means use PayPal at your own risk. If 10% of everyone that had a legitimate complaint made a complaint to the FOS then maybe PayPal would change their methods and beef up security and be more customer focused. At the moment they are a monopoly that doesn't care.

I have no vested interest in PayPal. My PayPal account was suspended for non use and I am happy to pay by other methods.

steviebabes

vikingaero wrote: »

I disagree with you stevie. :rolleyes:

There are millions of us that are customers of various banks, utilities, Footsie 100 companies etc. But none seem to generate such vitriol as PayPal and their best friend Fleabay.

Yes we all occassionally have complaints about say Vodafone or NatWest, but both companies have established complaints procedures and they actually attempt to resolve it in most cases. Yet PayPal as a matter of routine do not attempt to resolve matters or respond to telephone calls and emails.

PayPal seem to freeze accounts at will. Hey that's an interest free loan to them. And their requests to fax through documents to Eire and the US are absurd.

---

All I am saying is that I have not had any problems with paypal and I read with interest the problems posters on this forum have. I think that paypal is accountable to the FSA so perhaps people should direct their grievances to them. I also use streamline for phone orders and today I have had a chargeback letter for an item I sold 3 month ago. I phoned the customer up and he said he had forgotten the purchase and when checking old statements phoned up his bank and reported a suspicious payment on his card. They refunded him 2 weeks ago yet only let me know today by second class letter! Luckily I jogged his memory and he is now going to send me a cheque. Why should they be allowed to do this after 3 months on the strength of a phone call!

mrtg0525

@golddustmedia - I hope you'll do OK seeling without using Paypal as a payment method. I tried this for a little while earlier this year after they sat on GBP1500 that I sent to my wife (OK, we used the same computer but it wasn't the first time I'd sent her money) and despite numerous phone calls, it took several weeks to release the money. Now in my case it could well have been a fraudulent transaction so I wasn't mad at them for stopping the transaction, but the resolution process was simply impossible and took far too long.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand - I unfortunately noticed that I suddenly sold very little, even though I was offering an alternative online payment system (NoChex) and prices were lower than expected. Re-adding Paypal, as much as it went against the grain, restored the expected price levels again.

catz1ct

vikingaero wrote: »

Make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service:

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

PayPal is based in Lux but they are a voluntary member. If PayPal are a subscription member then their levy will probably be increased to cover complaints. If they are a case member then each complaint whether upheld or not will cost them in the region of £400.

You will have to make a formal complaint to paypal (to try and resolve the situation) before FOS will even look at your case.

chugalug

catz1ct wrote: »

You will have to make a formal complaint to paypal (to try and resolve the situation) before FOS will even look at your case.

So what do you do if they ignore your complaint against them??

RoyaleMale

When it comes to financial insitutions paypal is definately operating in a poor way.

Yes, 9/10 transactions do go smoothly but when they go wrong, they go spectacularly wrong.

What organisation can you think off that has the power to freeze your money or in some cases keep your money.

What organisation has the power to refund your money to a buyer without your permission and then claim you owe them money or they will get debt collectors onto you.

I'd like to know who regulates paypal and why they are allowed to do pretty much what they want.

soolin

I think you'll find it is more than 90% of transactions that go well..otherwise with several thousand paypal payments taken I would be bound to have had at least one problem.