intecel

I'm new to selling items on ebay. I put my old camera on there for $420 and within 24 hours had someone email me asking to lower my buy now price to $400 and he'd buy. This is still a good deal for me, so I go ahead and lower it. He sent the money through paypal, and then I noticed that he had 0 feedback.

I also noticed that paypal shows him as Non-U.S. verified. The shipping address is in New York (Confirmed) to a different name than the 'Payment from' name. His email is from inbox.lv (latvia). He left a phone number which resolves to the shipping address...

If they have made a payment thru paypal to me, can they do a chargeback?

Does something about this sound fishy to anyone else? Any advice would be appreciated.

avernus

My gf sold her phone to a paypal verified ebayer, the funds were transfered to her account, she posted the item, then paypal removed the funds, stating some sort of credit card fraud but they were totally unspecific. Ebay were unhelpful as were paypal. As far as I could tell the buyer had initiated chargeback through his credit card company and paypal had folded under the credit card pressure. Paypal, although they deal with your money, are not held by any banking code like other banks. I will not be using them again, especially not to sell anything.

__________________
I like to browse in occult bookshops if for no other reason than to refresh my commitment to science.
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intecel

I decided that there was about a 50/50 chance I'd get my money, so I decided to refund and emailed him stating why, and that I'd accept money order to complete the transaction if he wished.

avernus

I would consider 50/50 very bad odds. I don't know what options are available in the states but in the UK you could obviously wait for a cheque to clear (10 working days) or get him to set up a Banker's Draft, like a cheque but is guarenteed and cannot be cancelled, therefore transaction is faster.

I could well be wrong about Paypal but fact is my gf lost £50 by following the rules as she perceived them, and she is a smart girl.

__________________
I like to browse in occult bookshops if for no other reason than to refresh my commitment to science.
-- Heinz Pagels, "The Dreams of Reason"

MSD

Paypal is a greedy, shady, half-assed attempt at a bank without the protections offered by a real financial institution. Even if you have no issues with them, you are suceptible to chargebacks, false fraud reports against which you have no defense, and no way to recover money lost through scams if by a miracle or divine intervention you are actually able to get in contact with someone or something in customer service other than a form letter mailer. You were right to refund and ask for a money order, Paypal should be avoided at all costs if you're dealing with any amount of money you aren't willing to risk losing.

Daval

Actually a freind of mine bought an item on ebay and paid through paypal, the item arrived damaged and the seller tried to skip out on it, so my freind went to ebay and paypal and they were able to mediate and eventually refund the entire amount to him.

__________________
"It is impossible to obtain a conviction for sodomy from an English jury. Half of them don't believe that it can physically be done, and the other half are doing it."
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intecel

Here's the story after I gave him reasons I didn't want to sell to him. He says that his girlfriend is in the U.S. visiting her aunt, he really wants the camera, but doesn't want to pay customs fees for shipping out of country. I think this is a pretty valid reason, as I called the number and there was a person with the shipping name visiting there.

I've read and heard of too many horror stories to go through paypal for this. I called paypal to ask why they're charging me fees for a premier account if I'm not getting seller protection. They couldn't even tell me why the transaction did not fall in the protection agreement. All they said is that if it doesn't say 'eligible for protection' on the transaction, it doesn't matter why, they just don't give protection on it.

I decided to try out bidpay.com. I've heard great things about them from friends, and from boards. It seems they give the sellers a lot more protection than the buyers (which is good for me on a deal like this), as long as the item is shipped with tracking and signature required.

With all the emails back and forth with him willing to deal with me, I seriously doubt he is trying to scam me at this point. If so, I'm out $400. It's not the end of the world I guess.

Demeter

Let us know how bidpay.com works out for you, I'd be interested in finding a paypal alternative that's safer.

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I am not bound to please thee with my answers.
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intecel

I see a lot of issues with how bidpay currently works. But, I wanted to at least try it out...

Since they do direct payment into your bank account, there is no way to easily refund their money. You actually have to send them a check if they overpay, double pay, whatever.

Now, if someone did make a double payment, and you send them a check for the difference, then somehow they win a chargeback claim, they doubled their money and you got screwed....

MSD

The problem with this is that if you even think the word "fraud" within 15 feet of an internet connection, Paypal will close someone's account and give you their money, whether or not they have it. It's a premium service if you like scamming people, not so much if you don't like being scammed.