Buyer won and paid via paypal, didn't read t&c's

soolin

There are two sorts of paypal accounts for the ordinary seller, a basic and a premier. If you have a basic account you can only accept payment from cleared paypal funds, so if a buyer tries to use a debit or credit card to fund their paypal payment then you will get the payment together with a request from paypal to upgrade your account. If you don't upgrade to a premier you would have to refuse their payment.

However, if you have a premier account you will be charged for every paypal payment you receive however funded.

The problem is that if you tick the box on your auction to say that you accept paypal, then you are obliged to accept payment however funded so you would need to have a premier account.

If you don't want to upgrade your account then you can't tick the I accept paypal box, all you can do is mention in the body of your auction text that you will accept paypal but only from a direct paypal balance transfer. As you can imagine this can cause a lot of problems where buyers just see 'paypal' and don't bother to read your additional terms.

If you are going to sell on ebay you will almost certainly need to upgrade to a premier account, assuming you don't already have one. If you are a new seller I would also suggest that you read throught the terms and conditions and seller protection rules so you understand what you are accepting, for instance are you aware that a buyer can do a chargeback against you if you can't prove delivery of an item?

Soo

Jellicle

soolin wrote:

...The problem is that if you tick the box on your auction to say that you accept paypal, then you are obliged to accept payment however funded so you would need to have a premier account...

- Aye, there's the rub... :mad:

Why don't you two staunch supporters :eek: of the evil Paypal system (Soolin & masonic) get together and lobby ebay to resolve this problem by the very easy method of providing a box for sellers to tick to say whether they have a 'premier' or a 'basic' Paypal account (whilst creating the auction listing).

- if it's a 'premier' account things will proceed as at present, (with the card pictures/logos present)
- if it's a 'basic' account ebay would put up the small paypal logo ONLY with a note to say that this seller is happy to accept Paypal but only if it is NOT funded from a card.

- This will avoid misleading the buyers whilst providing them with an additional method of payment (with the normal safety features of Paypal).
- This will avoid sellers being coerced by Paypal to 'upgrade' their accounts in order to complete the sale via Paypal and will thus avoid the situation described by the OP. :T

Of course I understand completely :rolleyes: that eBay (who own Paypal) does not want to implement this suggestion nor remove the existing confusion because it increases the Paypal profits in this underhand manner and at the inconvenience of all its buyers and sellers...

On a final note, Paypal 'premier' accounts are all very well for the seller who sells regularly but for the occasional seller the extra charges are a pain. :mad:

- Do everybody on ebay a favour and get to work on this one guys! :T :j :beer:

soolin

I don't agree that a two tier system for paypal is the way forward. Whilst I agree that paypal charges can be a bit stiff, we all have the choice of not accepting paypal at all. If we find that accepting paypal increases our sales, then it seems to follow that we need to pay for that service. I think it would be more useful to try and get paypal to reduce the overall charges for use with possibly some concession for very small transactions. If you ask me though whether I believe any such lobby would succeed I would have to say I don't believe it would.

Don;t forget as well that anyone selling on ebay at a profit and correctly making Inland revenue returns will be able to offset the paypal charges anyway.

As a buyer I want things to be easier not more difficult, so paypal = paypal not 'read the small print and make sure you understand what the seller accepts and what they don't'. Half the time the buyers don't follow the simplest instructions, making more of a choice will just confuse them.

Soo

Jellicle

soolin wrote:

I don't agree that a two tier system for paypal is the way forward....

- It's not about creating a two tier system, it's about making it possible for sellers with a 'basic' Paypal account to give buyers the additional option of paying by Paypal by just ticking the box(es) and without eBay/Paypal deliberately misleading buyers and coercing sellers!

... If you ask me though whether I believe any such lobby would succeed I would have to say I don't believe it would.....

- Nor I, it's far too sensible an idea and it would eat into ebay/Paypal profits...

...As a buyer I want things to be easier not more difficult, so paypal = paypal not 'read the small print and make sure you understand what the seller accepts and what they don't'.....

- The way things are at the moment ebay/Paypal are deliberately misleading buyers by forcing sellers to add more 'small print'!

...Half the time the buyers don't follow the simplest instructions, making more of a choice will just confuse them....

- Let's all join the Nanny state!

NB. Despite the above Soolin, thanks for your reasonable reply

masonic

Jellicle,

You know ebay/paypal's position on this from previous discussions. Personally, I don't support the system, but the system is there.

I do not think that there is any point in lobbying ebay to try and get them to backpeddle on their decision to require everyone to accept credit card payments through paypal; nor do I think it would be any use trying to persuade paypal not to charge its premier account holders for funds payments.

Now whether you think that ebay are sneaking this in the back door or not, they have made a decision and you would need to muster a very impressive force to get them to change their minds and lose all that extra revenue. Personally, I only fight the battles I can win.

Jellicle

masonic wrote:

... Personally, I only fight the battles I can win.

- Aww go on, think of the pleasure you'd get from an unexpected win! :beer:

budgetflyer

I really cant see what all the fuss is about paypal. They allow the littleman to accept credit/debit card payments and charge 3 or 4 % for it. By limiting your buyers to only paying with held funds ,surely you will reduce the amount of buyers/bidders for an item.Then you have the hassle of cheques or postal orders,Q'ing at banks or PO to pay them in.Paypal makes it all so simple.

soolin

budgetflyer wrote:

I really cant see what all the fuss is about paypal. They allow the littleman to accept credit/debit card payments and charge 3 or 4 % for it. By limiting your buyers to only paying with held funds ,surely you will reduce the amount of buyers/bidders for an item.Then you have the hassle of cheques or postal orders,Q'ing at banks or PO to pay them in.Paypal makes it all so simple.

I agree with you. my pay pal account is used daily yet I never leave a balance in there at all (I like paypal but that doesn't mean I have to trust them!), so I always fund my purchases via a credit card.

If I see a seller that only accepts paypal from cleared funds I wouldn't buy as it doesn't suit the way I work, so I think sellers do lose buyers like me.

Also what happens if a buyer buys a couple of things on the same day and doesn't have quite enough money on their paypal account, will sellers be happy to wait until bank funding is set up (mine is credit card only) or wait for that buyer to sell something so there are cleared funds for payment? I think the whole point of using paypal is that it is so quick.

Soo

Jellicle

budgetflyer wrote:

... By limiting your buyers to only paying with held funds ,surely you will reduce the amount of buyers/bidders for an item...

... Please! This is not limiting the buyer, it's an additional method of payment to cheques, postal orders, bankers draft etc...
Of course if the seller has the 'premier' account then they will be accepting cards as well! :doh:

masonic

I think a point that has fallen by the wayside here is that verified paypal users can fund payments by instant bank transfer (registering a bank account is now a prerequisite of the verification process). That means that, for these people, the only disadvantage associated with paying with funds is that they are unable to rely on a credit card chargeback if things really go wrong.