Question
First, Happy Valentines Day!
I am dizzy from reading mounds of info on the Paypal issues surrounding Canadians. Any help would be appreciated! BTW, I AM Canadian (like the beer commercial says).
I have mainly read that Canadians CAN be verified by Paypal but this is different than having a “confirmed address” which Canadians apparently can’t obtain. This means that anyone selling on eBay to a Canadian using Paypal wouldn't be covered by Paypal's sellers protection.
To confuse matters, I recently read the following on the eBay Canada forum: “some Canadian members can have a confirmed address, depending on their credit card and how their address is recorded”. Has anyone heard of this?
The irony is that as a Canadian SELLER, I can be covered by Paypal’s sellers protection for items shipped to the States but not those to Canada. Go figure.
Is there anything that I can do as a Canadian buying on eBay to make a seller feel more comfortable in dealing with me (other than the obvious of good feedback)? I have also read that many International sellers are not aware that Canadians can’t obtain a Paypal confirmed address status. Would you guys agree with this statement or do most of you know about this?
Thanks for taking the time to help.
Answer
Finally, an official "canuck" on the board Welcome!
When I buy I always use Paypal. If the seller says "will only ship to confirmed addresses" I e-mail first and explain that as a Canadian I will ALWAYS show as unconfirmed, and ask if I can still bid/buy.
No one has turned me down (oh, except for the raving looney who wrote back and suggested that I READ THE FREAKIN' AD) Too bad for him/her... lots of sellers are HAPPY to take my Paypal money
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That is a good way of handling the issue and I'll borrow that idea if you don't mind.
I am not yet registered on eBay and therefore can't post questions on the Canada eBay forums so this is great for me!
I am guessing that you are a Westerner? Are there not very many Canadians here?
Thanks
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Are there not very many Canadians here?
There's the "odd" one sprinkled in here and there. BTW, all the good ones are in the west.
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I take it you are a Western sprinkle?
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I've been called a lot of things in my life, but never a Western Sprinkle.
Yep, I'm one of them.
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canuck, a belated welcome and a question for you. You've mentioned a couple of times not being able to post questions on eBay boards because you haven't registered yet. I believe you are giving careful thought to what your eBay ID should be, and that is a very wise course of action.
However many many eBay members register more than one ID. Some even register separate IDs for the sole purpose of participating in eBay forums. Have you thought of doing this?
(Of course you'll get plenty of good eBay advice right here on here, but if you do want the option of asking questions on the eBay boards right away this is one way to do it.)
Ms. C.
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Canuck...
I am a Canadian seller as well. Ummm... to be brief... Stop over-analyzing this. I have a verified Canadian seller status with PayPal. You seem pretty worried that people aren't going to want to deal with you because you're Canadian, and that's simply not the case at all. I post on eBay.com in US$ and have never had a problem at all. My auctions end at the same $ amount as other similar auctions, and sometimes get bid for more. My auctions are a lot of times scooped up at nice BIN prices. Mostly American buyers. All perfectly happy to buy from a Canadian seller. Stop worrying so much and just jump in. The water's nice and warm. You're not in enemy territory. You just gotta pick that ID and jump in. You'll learn as you go. It's really not this complicated!
If you need anymore help with anything, let me know. Email me.
Debra
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It is my personal opinion that far too many sellers make a big deal over Paypal's "confirmed" addresses and seller "protection" plan.
At its core, these policies are not in place to "protect" you the seller at all, but to limit the liabilities and responsibilites of Paypal.
But people who have no experience in direct marekting and retail operations take these phony rationales and let them dictate how they are going to sell. Indeed many sellers limit their sales by refusing to sell and ship to "unconfirmed" addresses.
We are all aware of the possibility of fraud, and if I were selling items worth hundreds of dollars each, I would certainly be far more cautious. But I do not care if an address is confirmed or not, and in fact none of my international sales have ever had a confirmed address.
I am a double Power Seller, albeit only Bronze level, but have processed thousands of Paypal transacaations, and only once has anyone challenged a transaction. As it turned out it was to a confirmed address and I had the eDelivery Confirmation number, and that was that. But I would have eaten the loss if need be, since in the overall scheme of things, to have prevented the loss would mean I had turned down some tens of thousands of dollars in sales.
In my case, I consider the confirmed address business a distraction from the real task of generating sales and profits.
Your miles may well differ, of course, but just wanted to share the perspective of a lifetime direct marketer and former chanin store operator.
Larry
Answer
Larry - Here, here! You are so right. I don't get this confirmed address thing either. It doesn't make any sense. If you go to a website and buy something, do you ever here from them "is your address verified??" No. You buy the item, tell the website your address to ship to and they ship. I think you have a good theory. Just another way for them to say "sorry, not covered".
I have had U.S. buyers' addresses come up unconfirmed but it doesn't matter to me. If PayPal is so worried about it, then why do they accept the payment? If it's such a security issue, why don't they say "sorry, can't accept the payment, your address doesn't match your CC address"? It always comes down on us sellers. We have to take all the risk for everything.
But you know what? Never had a problem, and by the sounds of it most of us have never had a problem. Ship to the address your buyer gives you. They paid, they get the item, end of story.
Oh, and CANUCK, forgot to mention, I have 0 negatives and 0 neutral feedbacks... Stop worry about that too. Just describe your items very accurately, quote shipping costs in the auction so there are no suprises.
Debra