I've not done anything on ebay for a couple of years, but decided to sell my Nikon 16-85 there yesterday. I had it listed on B&S here, then had a chance to sell it locally so I withdrew it. Local deal fell through, so off to ebay I went.
Well.
I don't do paypal any more often that I have to (especially as a seller), but figured that wouldn't be a problem since I could use a USPS money order or Google Checkout to collect payment.
Wrong.
Money orders are no longer allowed except for only a very few types of transactions and Google Checkout isn't allowed at all. I guess I'm done as a seller on the bay.
Ho1972 wrote:
I've not done anything on ebay for a couple of years, but decided to sell my Nikon 16-85 there yesterday. I had it listed on B&S here, then had a chance to sell it locally so I withdrew it. Local deal fell through, so off to ebay I went.
Well.
I don't do paypal any more often that I have to (especially as a seller), but figured that wouldn't be a problem since I could use a USPS money order or Google Checkout to collect payment.
Wrong.
Money orders are no longer allowed except for only a very few types of transactions and Google Checkout isn't allowed at all. I guess I'm done as a seller on the bay....Show more →
It's been that way for a while. Completely ridiculous, and why I completely quit using it in 2008. I used to require USPS money order or non-credit card paypal (the free kind if you have a personal account).
It's a shame no one has come to the forefront to challenge ebay.
I would never pay with a money order. Just too many scammers out there and you can't trust anyone nowadays. It's interesting that sellers and buyers here on FM are still using Paypal for transasctions.
FWIW, for a senior (in my sole judgment) FM'er, I don't have a problem with a personal check, and If i know the person I'm dealing with, e.g., if they are prominent on the MF thread on Nikon DSLR, I'll work out a payment plan with them, if the need to do that for whatever reason, or/and I'll cross-ship with them, even before getting their check. There are some established members here who have, even when I was a new on the forum, shipped me a lens for me to try out, no money involved at all, and said, if you like it, keep it and send me the money, if not, pay shipping and send it back to me. It's about knowing whom you're dealing with. I'd much rather take a loss on the item I'm selling and sell it to someone whom I know is reputable, and who will honor the contract. YMMV
+1 for Tony. We nearly had a deal last evening during which he made a generous offer regarding trying out a lens. Fortunately for my bank account, someone else stepped in and bought it while I decided to sleep on it.
how very kind of you to comment about me as you did, sir. I so much appreciated how forthright you were in our discussion about my 50/1.2. While for every good reason the transaction between us didn't happen, even so, it left me with the feeling that you area clearly a valued member here IMHO. And to think that we could have done this transaction w/o recourse to PP
marti.g3 wrote:
I would never pay with a money order. Just too many scammers out there and you can't trust anyone nowadays. It's interesting that sellers and buyers here on FM are still using Paypal for transasctions.
I wouldnt take a gas station money order. A USPS one yes. Unlike paypal, the US Postal Service postmasters take mail fraud very seriously. Someone pays you with a USPS MO and you dont ship, they will be at your door holding handcuffs.
I never had a problem with paypal for a long time then WHAM. They stole right from my checking account after a "buyer" claimed the camera I sold him didnt work. I should mention that when I got the package back from the "buyer" it had a block of wood in it thanking me for the "free camera a******". Paypal was "too bad, not our problem.". After that I refused to take paypal for any ebay auction and when they required every seller to use paypal (which ebay owns and I 'wonder' why they did this ) I quit selling.
You can take money orders on ebay, just cant say in your ad that you will. Buyers have to ask first.
RPRacing wrote:
I never had a problem with paypal for a long time then WHAM. They stole right from my checking account after a "buyer" claimed the camera I sold him didnt work. I should mention that when I got the package back from the "buyer" it had a block of wood in it thanking me for the "free camera a******". Paypal was "too bad, not our problem.". .
@RPRacing, I always have been worried about this sort of thing. If your buyer makes any claim against you, true or not, does PayPal automatically give them a refund from your account? Did you have any recourse at all, or a casefile opened, etc? Gahh. Hopefully my good luck continues with PayPal and FM.
It's an honor system over at PayPal, and I'm sorry it worked against RPRacing. I've been on the other side of the spectrum in such an equation. Once, I was the buyer that wanted a refund for merchandise that didn't match the eBay description.
After hitting a dead-end with a defiant seller, I pursued the proper route, opened a claim through PayPal, and after investigation, was informed that I would receive a full refund. I guess PayPal sent him a note stating that they would indeed honor my refund, and subsequently yanked the money from his bank account. However, it was protecting me, because the seller surely wasn't going to refund me. In the interim, I was encouraged by PayPal to mail the item back to the seller. I did, because I'm honest, and wanted my refund, not a defective item. Unfortunately, this approach leaves lots of opportunity for chunks of wood to show-up at a sellers doorstep, in return.
Hey RP,
Since you have the buyer's address on file, couldn't you contact his local authorities and lean on him a bit?
Skark, I did call his local PD. They could care less. Wasnt enough dollar value stolen for them to even bother ($200 is what I sold the camera for).
Saashimi, they did automatically give him a refund. Went round and round with paypal. They didnt care. They got their fees so they closed the dispute.
If paypal is so worried about buyers getting scammed, maybe they should set it up so that sellers send the item to paypal so they can inspect it then ship it to the customer. If the customer claims something, then they send it back to paypal and then paypal inspects it and if deemed legit, send the item back to the seller then refund the buyer. But I dont see that happening soon.
Also paypal should never holdback payments to the seller. If they are going to do that, then maybe they should hold back refunds until the seller gets the item back.
A few weeks ago a buyer refused to believe I sent him a lens because the tracking sticker fell off and said it went to some other place (can't blame him for getting scared at first, I was too, but the next day the post office was able to tell me that by tracking the insurance sticker they found that it had been delivered to his drop box). He told me he was going to check his box and would file a claim and get the FBI and police after me if the item was not there. Later that night I see a claim filed against me. I sent paypals tons of info, but they ruled against me....
even though the frickin lens I sent him was sitting in his box since the day before he filed the claim against me!
Talk about WTF! It took me a few weeks of hassling with him and paypal to finally get my money back. He eventually sent me an ebay msg admitting that he had never bothered to look in his mailbox the entire time! And the package had been sitting there for days upon days! And yet even after telling paypal that and sending insurance proof tracking certified by the USPS payapl found against me in my appeal! WTF?!!
Finally I had someone at paypal go into his account and look at the messages he sent me and when they saw his admission they finally found in my favor but....
then they said it was up to him to pay me again since they had already drained my account and refunded him! WTF?! What are my paypal fees for then? I may have well just asked sent it first and hoped to get paid.
FInally after more than another week I started txt messaging him and he re-sent the money thankfully and it all ended well.
But what a pain and so much wasted time, hours and hours.
And the guy said he was pissed at me for his having to waste almost an hour of his time trying to set it right and asked me to thank him for not taking advantage of the situation since that made him an 'exceptional' person....
I'm done with fleabay... Sold a perfectly good and working item and you know the rest. Also have had buyers threaten me after the sale for cash back or they will leave negative comments! The friggin nerve of these people! Worst part, eBay could care less, never again. I am done with eBay and PayPal, my bank account was raided more than once costing me an arm and a leg. Terrible service all the way around.
Paypal always sides with the buyer, regardless of what the issue is. I remember back in the day, I sold something that was a "hot item" at the time for about $700. After I received payment, I tried to transfer the funds out and couldn't. When I contacted Paypal, they said because it was a popular item, they were freezing my funds until I ship it out and the buyer confirms receipt of the item. Seriously, what kind of business practice is that?? I gave them my shipping verification, via a BUSINESS UPS account with tracking & insurance paid, but they didn't care. I asked them, what is stopping the buyer from getting it and saying he never received it? Obviously, they couldn't answer me. Just the blanket answer that it was their policy regarding this item. Luckily, the person was honest and confirmed, but took almost 3 weeks for me to get my funds out.
This was about 4 years ago and since then, I have not sold anything else on ebay and the only thing I buy are around the $30 range.
