Paypal Purchases My advice.

[Johnny Canuck]

Purchasing online has been greatly enhnced by a service like Paypal.

But there are a couple of things one should be aware of.

The dreaded 45 days period. If there is a problem this is critical. Now if I know the business or person I'll cut some slack but if I don't, when it nears 30 days I contact the seller requesting the status of the order include all the BS, trans code, date etc. If I don't get a reply in 48 hrs I file a Paypal dispute immediately. If they contact me they buy themselves anther 10 days, then a dispute is filed, doesn't matter what reasons or excuses are put forward you must file in the 45 day period so do it!

Paypal has some weird intepretations of their own rules. One is well adviced to read the applicable sections. They pulled this business on me with a bad seller over the date of the transaction. They were using the initial date when I purchased an item. They pulled this Eckeck crap where the money was out of my account on the first and they didn;t get it to the seller for anotherv 10 days. They sent me a email on the 11th telling me in their words "transaction is completed". When a claim was filed they said I was to late. I emailled them till they gave in and said that there was a misunderstanding. Idiots their own rules only talk about completed transactions not a word about "initial". So persistance pays off and after the email would take a minute or two to send they gave me a one time credit of the whole amount.

I expect they will be making some changes or clarifications to their rules shortly.

Anyways I still don't see how it's a problem at 45 days but not their problem after 46.

[gary1930]

Read some of this and you just might cancel your account. I have one, but there is no way I would ever give them a credit card number.


http://www.paypalsucks.com/

[okimbored]

"when it nears 30 days I contact the seller"

Your alot more forgiving then me lol, I try to buy everything paypal, and trust me i'll be contacting the seller WAY before 30 days if the item hasn't shown up. I pay immediately, you ship immediatley

[SdKfz-251]

Originally Posted by okimbored";p=&quot

"when it nears 30 days I contact the seller"

Your alot more forgiving then me lol, I try to buy everything paypal, and trust me i'll be contacting the seller WAY before 30 days if the item hasn't shown up. I pay immediately, you ship immediatley

Totally agree. A lot of folks on eBay have taken to stating that if they don't receive payment within X days, they'll relist and file a complaint. Well that's all well and good, but if I'm held to that kind of standard, then you'd better be shipping me my item in a very timely manner...

[Pangaea95]

Paypal is for those that don't want to use a credit card online, and/or don't have a credit card. One should open a separate bank account for such a purpose IMO Personally I've never had a problem with paypal, and it has helped me a couple of times with slow shippers. As posted, once it gets close to 30 days I'll contact paypal to motivate the seller to ship, never knew there was a 45 period.

[101¹]

45?.. thought is was 30 myself - Ive had my mix of good and bad experiences.. And to think that PayPal and eBay used to be alot worse.. @ least there is live help now. - Ive been very soft in the past and paid dearly.. while we are here ill mention that seller feedback isnt worth ****.

Edit:
What about selling- OMG the fees! .. like everything else its gone up.

[Reef12]

I post the same day as they sell the item.
So as I use instant withdrawal I should get the item fast.
AS said I do pay the same day as asked and expect the same from the seller, well there are two that will not ship for awhile that post on here, so better to ask how far back they are on orders first.
No hard feelings then.
I have bought $1300.00 real guns thru pay Pal, so I do use the service.

[sawemoff2009]

So here is my two cents as someone who has had some success selling limited amounts of items on eBay, as well as buying. Basically what I write is what I found out by selling items that I did not realize when I was just buying.

As a seller, people should keep in mind that a seller looses about 20% of the value of the item he sells to eBay & PayPal fees (potentially more for small $ items, less for larger; less as well for certain combinations of PayPal accounts & eBay accounts - but this means you are selling volume and likely only doing online sales). Additionally, you are charged a few percent for your shipping fees from PayPal, so if you don't want to be under you charge accordingly.

On postal time, my eBay account has that I will ship an item in five business days, and eBay also estimates the delivery time after five days. So in other words, it gives you a range of dates which an item is expected to be delivered in. For first class mail, this usually seems to be two weeks. I do my very best as a seller to meet this time frame, and if I do not refund shipping or send along extra items. I have only had one person complain, even though the item arrived under the time frame eBay listed, so I refunded them everything to keep the purchaser happy.

Personally, because of my commitments to work and getting an education factored into the horrid hours and lines at the post office, this means that posting every day after a sale ends is impossible. Meeting the demands of shipping based on eBay’s timeframe is reasonable, and this is normal unless something unexpected occurred. I have had trouble in these weeks of December balancing everything with the post office's schedule, so in the future I would recommend people in my position not sell during Christmas time.

That said, I would suggest that it takes two weeks or less to get to you, you should be okay with this. A couple days after should probably warrant a question to the seller. If you want it in less time, you should expect that the person you are purchasing from only sell things on eBay (i.e.: not have another job or other commitments during the post office's hours, with exceptions of course). But the downfall to this is you reduce the supply of items available, increasing the costs of what is available from manufacturers and driving away people who make unique items.

[sawemoff2009]

Starting April 19th, eBay has some new selling policies. They are offering free listing for up to 50 items at any start price, with buy it now, but at the same time they are collecting final value fees on shipping.

So what this means is that shipping will have to go up 9% or so to recover the costs of this for an eBay seller if they are paying attention. Maybe less once you factor in what you save overall by paying only on items that sell (up to 50 a month). It does catch those types who put a one cent list price and thirty dollar shipping.

Just thought I'd share this update as it alters what I had said previously a tiny bit, and would explain higher shipping costs on those that had realistic shipping to begin with.


Coming April 19: List Auction-style FREE, any start price, all the time. Add Buy It Now FREE.

Dear sawemoff:

Your upfront cost of selling on eBay is about to be dramatically reduced once again!

Starting April 19, Standard Auction-style fees will be changing. You'll be able to list FREE at any start price--up to 50 items a month. Plus you can add the Buy It Now option FREE to grab those buyers who don't want to wait for your listing to end. In short, you can now list even your higher priced items free--pay only if it sells.

Also, we know online buyers pay attention to shipping costs when deciding what and where to buy. That's why, to encourage low-cost shipping, Final Value Fees for all sellers will be applied to the total amount of the sale, including shipping. Just keep your shipping costs low to get the lowest overall fees.

[okimbored]

Just wanted to add that as a buyer you should NEVER send a Paypal payment as a "gift" to save money, you cannot dispute a gift!