Paypal - when is the money secure?

ag359

Hi, if I sell an item, and the buyer pays through paypal, when do I know that the money is securely mine?

I have heard stories of paypal reclaiming the money from the seller even after it has appeared to have gone into the seller's account, and I don't want to be victim to this!

spottydog

From what I've read the main thing is to always send the item via a trackable delivery method so the buyer can't claim they haven't received it.

Unfortunately it seems there is a risk with Paypal for quite a while after completion so you always need to cover your back when receiving money via Paypal.

jaffa30

Hi

Most sales go through without a hitch .

As said to safe gaurd against fraud send by a trackable means that reduces the risk of chargeback against you.

If the item is paid for via paypal with a E cheque that can take upto 7 days to clear but normally a less, so dont send the item off till it does.

jaffa

bleugh

paypal is only really secure after the 45 days has expired which the person can file a chargeback in

https://www.paypalwarning.com
https://www.aboutpaypal.org
https://www.paypalsucks.com

ag359

So what exactly is a 'chargeback'? Can the buyer just undo the payment once he receives the goods? That would make me a bit nervous...

jaffa30

Hi

A chargeback is when the buyer files a claim with paypal claiming they havent recieved the goods or the goods arent as described.

I know you hear a lot of bad story about Paypal but most sales gothrough without a hitch.

If you are that worried dont take paypal at all you can except cheques from aboard there is a service which changes them for you at a very small charge , i cant remember it off the top of my head but i am sure some will be along and tell you.

Jaffa

ag359

Ok, i'm a bit confused now... according to the paypal help section, it says a chargeback is when the buyer reclaims the money through their credit card provider, but I thought most payments were just transferred from bank accounts. Sorry I'm new to all this so I don't really know the ins and outs of paypal.

bleugh

basically, a buyer can tell paypal that

a: - you never sent the goods (ALWAYS send by a method that is online trackable - recorded/special/airsure - NOT standard parcels or international signed for
b: - the item was nothing like the description

paypal then has the ability to reverse the transaction, meaning they can give the buyer their money back!

another common thing is 'stolen credit cards', you think you have the money, you post, paypal pulls it back from you, buyer gets free goods!

talksalot81

Basically the money is not securely yours yours for a long time....

I prefer to make sure the money is cleared out of paypal and into my account if there is any doubt about the seller or the amount is large. You of course then must state this in your auction as it will take several days to complete. Of course a buyer can still try and defraud you and paypal can put your account negative, but as long as you have all the documentation stating item posted and arrived, then paypal will be unable to force you to 'balance' the negative account (even with debt collectors). Then you can simply start a new account and repeat the process if necessary.

Hintza

talksalot81 wrote:

I prefer to make sure the money is cleared out of paypal and into my account if there is any doubt about the seller or the amount is large. You of course then must state this in your auction as it will take several days to complete. Of course a buyer can still try and defraud you and paypal can put your account negative, but as long as you have all the documentation stating item posted and arrived, then paypal will be unable to force you to 'balance' the negative account (even with debt collectors). Then you can simply start a new account and repeat the process if necessary.

If I saw anything like this in auction I would not bid. Any suggestion that you would not post an item until you had cleared your PayPal account would result in me reporting you to EBay and probably leaving you a negative.

There must be some basis of trust on here. You can reasonable steps to checkout your buyer. The one I particularly like is using 192.com to check that the paypal account is registered to the same address taht I am posting my item to. In my simple view it is much harder to claim fraudulent use of credit card if item is sent to the address and the surname is on the electoral roll.

If I am selling an expensive item I will probably call the person via 192.com just to check that all is OK and they actually bought the item.

If you are unhappy with PayPal as a method of payment then don't use it. However your sales will suffer.

Most of the items I sell are for between £100-£300 and all has been OK so far. This week I had the "will you send it to my son in Nigeria" e-mail. I immediately blocked them from bidding and notice that they tried to take a competitor and are now NARUD.

soolin

I'm entirely with Hintza on this. When I pay by paypal I expect my item fairly quickly, usually at around the 7 day mark, if I saw that the seller was going to wait for paypal to send the money across to their bank acocunt I wouldn't be happy and would not bid.

Don;t forget as well that if you take paypal you are supposed to ship your items in a timely manner, like me most buyers take this to mean within a week, After 7 days the buyer can start a chargeback anyway for item not received.

Soo