Sort of O/T--The Benefits of Using Paypal?

I answered an ad from a H.A.M.B.er who was looking for an old Ford part. I sent him some photos of what I had and we agreed on a price. This piece was kind of bulky but not real heavy. Probably an oversize item if I shipped it by UPS and it would cost quite a bit to ship via LTL. So, since my company has a fleet of trucks that travel to our warehouses throughout the country I told my H.A.M.B. buddy that if he could wait a couple of weeks we could hitch a ride on a truck heading to his city. He would just have to pick the part up at a warehouse nearby. Everything was cool. We were able to save at least $50 in shipping costs. The buyer asked if he could pay by Paypal. He said that he had only recently set up an account and had used it a couple of times on Ebay and it seemed OK. I told him that I usually only do money orders or sometimes checks but my wife set up a Paypal account during the holidays so lets try it. The part was shipped and I received a nice phone call from the buyer that he picked it up and it was as he had expected. So later I get an email from Paypal that the buyer has made a payment to me. As I read further I see that Paypal has deducted a fee! Not that much but I guess I'm old fashioned and I like to know what I'm paying for. So apparently I'm paying Paypal a fee for the privelage of having money automatically deposited in my bank account? No, not quite. As I read the email even further I see that the transaction is being processed and the funds will not really be deposited in my account for three or four days. Hmm, that's about the amount of time it would take for the buyer to get a money order to me. Or maybe I'm paying for the processing of the email telling me that they are deducting a fee? By no means am I bad mouthing my fellow H.A.M.B.er. He was very appreciative of getting the part in good shape and paying no shipping charges. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to save him some dough and get him a part that he can use. So, do both the buyer and seller get nicked on a Paypal transaction? I don't quite understand the advantage of using it.

 

No, only the one recieving the money gets hit, AND if you tell your buyer you will accept Paypal but he has to also pay the charges for using it, if he complains, paypal will lock down your account with any money in it. Read their TOS CAREFULLY and it will scare the crap out of you. http://paypalsucks.com/ read through that site a bit and come back ready to use them, lmao. Paypal and Ebay both rant and rave about online scammers when they are the biggest out there, they must not like the compitition.

 

I've never had a problem with Paypal. In fact, it saved my ass once when an eBay seller collected money but never sent me the item. It takes time like any other claim, but in the end I wasn't out the nearly $200 it would have been.

I personally don't like just firing off a money order generally. I got burned once buying a door for a car, something to the tune of $300 or $350 including shipping and the door never showed up nor was I able to get a hold of the seller thereafter. I don't have a lot of spare money, so that was a Top Ramen month only to get fucked in the ass.

 

I have used paypal for both buying and selling and am fairly happy with it. The seller does have to pay a fee. It has some advantages, from a selling perspective, such as
being able to accept credit card. Also, depending on the cost of the items, it can be less than the cost of a money order and postage for the stamp from the buyer's perspective. On the minus side, it has much more protection for the buyer. It is somewhat easy for the buyer to "retract" payment, similar to a credit card. I would probably say for cheaper items it's probably worthwhile to accept it as a seller and use it as a buyer. For something like a car, I would probably insist on a money order.

 

If you ever do have a buyer issue a dispute, as a seller, you will lose. Just empty your account after every use, harder for them to screw you.

 

I completely DISAGREE......just got screwed over a $1200 deal from a dishonest seller and PayPal won`t do shit.....and to make it even worse.....it was my first payPal deal after working the courage back up to use it again after being screwed 2 years ago!

 

I got a buddy that buys and sells guitars and I think he hit the nail on the head when he said paypal allows lots of people to buy $3000 Les Pauls that could never come up with that kind of hard cash otherwise.
I use it to buy parts and have done ok but it does seen a little riskier if your the seller. If I was the seller I don't think I'd even accept it for smaller ticket items. I can wait for a postal money order and don't have to worry about a part meeting the expectations of some jackass doin a concours restoration.

 

never had a problem with paypal, and I think the fees they charge are worth the convienence.

 

Paypal is not good for the seller. If the buyer is not honest he can take your product and your money. My wife recently lost $180 because of an unethical buyer. Never again will I use paypal. I wish you well.

 

As an overseas buyer, it means I can make small purchases from sellers who are not setup to process credit cards.

The alternative is a bank-draft, and since that has a $25 processing fee and takes 2 trips to the bank, it just doesn't work out for small things.

 

Here is one I had. Buyer "pays me" $35 for a transmission. I ship it Fed Ex frieght, frieght collect. Buyer says he never got it. I give paypal the FULL tracking number with dashes EXACTLY like on the lading bill. I even go to the Fed Ex site and check to see that it was delivered, it was with his signature. Because you have to do this over email and dispute resolution, it takes time, thats why I checked to see it was delivered. So,, since it was delivered, no sweat, I leave for my 2 week vacation. I get back, paypal has "ruled in the buyers favor", and told me I need to "make my balance right by returning the $35 dollars to Paypal" (like I said, empty that account daily). I go back to check the tracking number, still says delivered. I go back to Paypal making sure I wrote it right, yep. So then I thought, "surely paypal removed the dashes",,,,,,, NOPE. It showed it wasn't valid because Paypal didn't remove the "-" from the tracking number. So, now I contact Paypal, they investigate, rule in my favor, BUT the buyer had removed his $35 from the account after they refunded and paypal "has asked him to return it, but until they do MY account still needs to be brought back up to UNLOCK my account". Worst part is since I told them to fuck off they will never see the $35, they locked down EVERY account I had, including ones with money in them under APRIL'S name.

 

Thanks for the"Pay pal orientation"! It's been a very revealing learning experience! I believe I'll stick with cash. My last sale was cash ($7500.00) and the $100 bills all folded just fine! Maybe I'm archaic and old hat, but I adhere to a very simple old addage: if you've got money in an active account somewhere, you are able to withdraw it in cash! I will gladly accept your cash in my warm hand. I've never been able to trust any other arrangement. those are my terms...learned through experience;...both good and bad.

 

I use paypal frequently because its easy (for the buyer) but if you have a problem and try and call…welcome to India…Oh you don’t speak English well…they outsource there customer service.

Chris

 

I sell a few items from time-to-time here and occasionally on eBay. I had PayPal for a while but I was getting so many related scam emails that I decided to cancel the account. PayPal told me my account was "secure". But when I canceled the scam emails stopped. I sleep better now.

 

Can you avoid the fees by insisting the buyer pay with balance transfer only?

I use it to pay with, but never receive any via PP...

 

Pay the $35 open to the accounts , empty them, set up a phoney buyer, and purchase , scam them back with the old one two they did to you, but in reverse and close the accounts with nothing in them . They will jump up and down , but they will be short as long as you get both amounts out first. Then lets see who screams loudest......

 

Paypal says they will pay anyone with an email account, so a buyer can send you the money even if you don't have an account, then Paypal starts hassling the seller to open a free account, without telling you about the fees, once the account is open they ask you to upgrade to another account for a fee and then tell you it will cost you to accept the money . If you don't accept the money once the account is open they hassle you more and in the end cancel the transaction and sent the money LESS A FEE back to the buyer. Charges for sellers outside the US are even worse .

 

I know several people who work at pay-pal in Omaha, they all tell me the same thing. Read the statement that you agreed to when you set up your accont ,IF you still want to do business with them ,go ahead. Most clients click OK without ever reading it. I saw so many things I didn't like I can't even look at the building when I drive past. VERY scary.

 

I must be some kind of lucky SOB I have never been charged any fees, is this because I don't have it linked to my checking account ? I have always been nervous at using them and have only dealt in amounts under $100, I just keep the money in to buy other stuff I think the highest balance I had was $150. I will probably never link it to my checking account, too scary for me I have enough stuff to worry about.

 

In my experience, the seller only gets charged a fee if the buyer uses a credit card. It's the regular merchant charge for all credit card transactions (4% or so), IIRC. If the buyer does a direct transfer of funds from their checking account, the seller does not get charged. I've used Paypal for at least 7 years, linked to my checking account, with no major problems or scammers.

 

OK, I thought about everything mentioned above and put off getting a PayPal account for YEARS!!!!!!!! Finally got one after doing some simple math.....I'll admit I'm a bit slow at times. A bank overdraft fee is $27.00, so if you're waiting for a check or money order to arrive to keep you with a positive balance good luck. PayPal costs roughly $3.00 per $100.00 on sales. So an INSTANT $97.00 to me is well worth the loss of $3.00 to save me $27.00 per check. I sell far more stuff now that I accept PayPal, they do the currency exchange on sales outside the USA. I like it a lot!

 

Paypal has made advances over the years. I'm back to using them after 7 years of being away after a buyer screwed me out of $800 and a digital camcorder. Now there is a lot more protection but buyers and sellers should be smart about their usage, just like any other dealings. I set up a separate account just for online/paypal usage and it seems to be working well. I've read their rules and I keep them in mind. I can see how people might be upset if they don't know the business practices of the company but if you know, it's much easier to avoid problems.

 

When use Paypal but I use an American Express credit card not my bank accounts.
If the product isn't what it was shown to be, if it's damaged or if I don't get the goods at all I report it to AmEx not Paypal and I'll tell you they get it settled in a hurry.

 

No problems with PAYPAL here.
I have far more problems with the "PROMISES", you know 'em,"Checks (money order,whatever) is in the mail",wait forever,nuthin' happens because it was an impulsive beautiful dream and someone gets buyers remorse and are too embarassed or lazy to let you know they've changed their mind or.... maybe they never intended to buy in the first place and it's just a game.
Meanwhile you're tellin' people it's sold while you're patiently waitin' for the truth of the matter to reveal itself good or bad.
PAYPAL eliminates that part of the sellers equation very effectively.

 

I have had it for 6 years with no problems. I have a separate bank account that I keep empty the it's hooked up to. If I buy something I deposit the money then use it via paypal or just use my credit card via paypal.
The main reason I got it initially was the ability to send a regular Joe selling something money from my credit card. So If I didn't have the cash right then I could just charge it.

 

I've always used Money Orders and when a bigger amount, I use Postal Money Orders because you have the additional use of their fraud protection. That being said, I've never had a problem (knock on particle board). I have used Paypal twice as a buyer and got hosed both times, I shut down my account. I've had a couple times I've not paid attention and found that the seller only takes Paypal and have used a friend's account.

 

How's that different than having your own?
It just gets your freind in the jam if something goes wrong.
Is it possible that not paying "attention" is what got ya "Hosed" those other 2 times?LOL

 

As an international 'buyer', Paypal has opened doors for me to buy simple small stuff that normally would cost bigtime because of the banks always wanting to cash-in on international payments.
I've usually keep my Paypal-account filled to around a $100,-. That's my calculated 'risc'.. If something might happen, that's the most I will loose. I sure would be damn pissed about it, but I would chalk it off as a learning experience and draw my conclusions after that.
A WesternUnion money-order overhere adds 12% (!) to the original price of the part I'm buying. Besides that rip-off, if that part is over $50-60 bucks, I even get to pay almost 20% importtax over the Insured value AND shippingcosts when it gets here.
In the mean time, Paypal is my only way to buy parts 'cheaply', fast and damn easy... I don't even have to get off my ass to do that. Those are my main benefits.

 

Just from a personal experience, I tried PayPal one time, they boast about the safety of your information, yadda yadda yadda. Well, in this one instance, I had my credit card number phished and then it was used to purchase $500 worth of whatever, from a supposed PayPal merchant. Well, when I contacted my credit card company and PayPal, no one knew who this company was or what the transaction was for.

Long story short, PayPal gladly accepted my money for a false transaction and then didnt even do it from a legitament PayPal merchant. End result, still fighting this and will NEVER deal using PayPal again.

 

Thus far, I've got no complaints. Paypal has gotten me a refund twice when the items I paid for never arrived.