Question
I recently started accepting PayPal payments ONLY from verified accounts with a confirmed shipping address, or a USPS money order. Yes I know I'm paranoid. WhooHoo!
No matter how big a font or how many times I mention this in the description, and it's a lot and big, at least 50% of my buyers pay from a non-confirmed/verified account.
I realize that most of these payments are perfectly legit, and that you can't force buyers to read the entire description, but I'm retired and a small time seller and just can't take the loss of even a few fraudulent payments. (I had three before switching to confirmed only.) The payments range from $150 to $200 each + $20 shipping and auctions fees.
It upsets most buyers when I refund their payments. No, really! ;o)
The fact that PayPal doesn't actually post the money back into their accounts for from 3 days to 3 weeks doesn't help either.
I also lose a lot of time due to the increase in communication needed for these transactions.
The reason I'm asking about PayPal's Seller Protection Policy is I know both eBay and PayPal lean heavily towards the buyers in disputes, and if policies not worth the cyberspace it's written on, or if there are too many hurdles to jump to make it work, I will stop accepting PayPal all together and switch to only accepting USPS money orders as payment.
I'm wondering what success sellers have had with PayPal's "Seller Protection Policy". I hate to go through all this hassle and find out it's for naught!
Clear skies!
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FWIW, I've got my PayPal account set so that payments from folks with unconfirmed addresses will not go through, period. The payment never happens, so there is nothing to refund. So far, it's been working well for me.
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I have only had one experience with the Seller's Protection Policy, and there wasn't really any fraud involved. I had a payment get reversed, so I dropped a note to the buyer to ask. He said that he had accidently paid from a closed bank account. I sent PayPal the info they asked for, and they wrote back saying that I qualified for the Seller Protection Guarantee and refunded my money. If it had been real fraud - I still wonder.
3 chargebacks? (That's crazy! I feel for you!) And yet they proudly proclaim the PayPal is the only way to be safe. Humph.
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I'm dealing with someone in Mexico now who filed a claim after 3 weeks stating they did not get their merchandise. No tracking number and I'll likely lose the money to the buyer. My bad that time. But, I'm changing my preferences now. Shame is this is the second seller complaint in two years, yet the Internationals will have to take the heat for now. Till I cool down.
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WhooHoo Moonrise! Can you tell me how you set up your PayPal account to refuse unconfirmed payments? I didn't know this was available. This is just what I need! I'll go look for that option in the meantime. Thanks!
Indyattic... No they weren't chargebacks I don't think. One was some kids unauthorized use of a friend's parent's card. They had set up both an ebay and PayPal account, and then did all their stuff from a grandma's computer. The other two were probably stolen cards. PayPal won't tell you (me?) exactly what the circumstances are. They say they aren't allowed to because of confidentiality. They just say "Possible fraudlent activity." Maybe these are considered chargebacks. I'm not sure I even know exactly what a charge back consists of. I've never done one. I personally don't believe a chargeback should be allowed just because someone changed their mind or didn't like the color etc. Those decisions should be made before the purchase.
Empires I gave up on international several months ago. Too big of a hassle. If I was a bigger seller and could absorb a percentage of losses I'm sure I'd figure a way around the problems but it's not worth it now.
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Situation normal.... I just had an auction end with buy-it-now
and here's the reply to my invoice.....
"Hey bro, got a question for ya, my dad really is who this is for, is there
anyway you can take his paypal instead of mine! i know his is kinda crazy
but when i was checkin this thing out i hit buy now and he is buying it if
you can let me know if not let me know!!"
Sigh
Answer
Originally Posted by liveinhope
Situation normal.... I just had an auction end with buy-it-now
and here's the reply to my invoice.....
"Hey bro, got a question for ya, my dad really is who this is for, is there
anyway you can take his paypal instead of mine! i know his is kinda crazy
but when i was checkin this thing out i hit buy now and he is buying it if
you can let me know if not let me know!!"
Sigh
Hmmmm... That sounds kinda fishy. If you do accept "the Dad's" PayPal payment, I would make sure to let this guy know you're going to ship to "the Dad's" confirmed address on THAT PayPal account. If he tries to give you another address, definite fishiness.
Do you mind if I ask what kinds of things you sell? Just wondering what invites this kind of craziness...
Debra
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Hi Debra! I agree very fishy. Fool me once shame on me. (OK... three times. I'm not proud of it!)
I don't mind telling at all. I designed and developed a low cost but high quality heat transfer t-shirt press that I've been selling on eBay for the last year. It's about all I can do to keep up with sales so I've not been listing the other items I used to sell. It's called the Hobby STARS Heat Transfer T-Shirt Press. Can I say that here? Sadly, there is even a copy-cat version being sold now. (He even admits in his auction description he used my ideas.) I don't have a patent so my bad here. Actually my broke here, patents are EXPENSIVE! I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have qualified for one anyway.
I think buyers see it as a great and inexpensive way to get started in the t-shirt business and I agree, but they just get so excited they fail to read my payment policies.
Clear skies,
Dick
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Actually there may be protection for you from some standpoint that would protect your design-I don't remember lol and there might not be. That CRS thing again.
You might still be able to patent it if you can prove when you designed it I think, not positive. You could possibly? still patent it if noone else has.
Crappy seller-if I see something like that in an auction, and sad to say I see it alot, I back out and try to find the original
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That's some ad. Well done. I almost want to buy one