effin eBay (OT)

I spent about 2 hours crafting a really nice listing for a camcorder I am selling. I uploaded it last night and (unusually) it didn't appear in the search pages after a couple of hours. This morning I have 2 nasty emails from eBay saying the item has been cancelled, because a) I suggested cash was acceptable in payment, and b) that I had the item advertised elsewhere.

Apparently, you have to say "cash on collection", otherwise you are encouraging buyers to send cash by post, which isn't allowed. All I said was "cash or cheque would be fine". Not allowed. I can see why they object to b), although I've seen many listings with this in.

I wonder if it was anything to do with my saying "I will reluctantly accept Paypal, but due to high charges I would prefer other methods of payment"? It looks like you can no longer delete Paypal as a method of payment - it's by default, and you can't uncheck the box.

Anyway, they seem to have deleted it completely, so I have all the work to do again. Why couldn't they just suspend it, allow me to make two minor changes, and then re-list?

Sorry, I'm a bit grumpy. Nothing to do with any New Year resolutions, promise.

Reply to
Richard Brookman
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Likewise.

I shall have to check before I do another run of sales.

Reply to
David G. Bell

|| I don't expect anything for free - I've been in business too. But || the last large item I sold raised about £160 from the auction, and || by the time I had paid eBay fees and Paypal charges, I got just over || £100 back | | I can't believe they took £60 on a £160 sale, that's way more than | I've ever paid.

£54 in fact. I wish I could explain the charge(s) to you, but since I couldn't make head nor tail of them myself I can't. I just resolved never to use Paypal to sell again - but it's not that easy.

| He would have been shown his listing to check before accepting it, so | there are no excuses. We entered a legal contract, including the | acceptance of paypal

You should have dealt with the delightful lady I bought the camper van from. She listed the item as "Paypal accepted", and I decided to go for it on that basis (cash-poor at the time, but plenty of credit on the CC). After I won the item, she contacted me to request cash as she hadn't realised she needed a seller account (with the associated charges) to accept payments. I told her I had only bid for the item because she accepted Paypal, and she gracefully gave in and took the unexpected hit. The cost to her was about £40, and I was so impressed with her integrity that I offered to split the charges - she refused, so I made an equivalent donation to her son's piggy bank. One of those transactions that leaves you feeling better about human nature.

| Yes it is always in their favour, of course as they have the market | sewn up they can, just as any business in the same position would do. | What would be good is if the government recognised such organisations | as PayPal for what they are, banks, and regulated them accordingly.

Agreed. If you bought something in a shop and they insisted that you paid them with their own store card (with extortionate charges) you would have a good case to take to Trading Standards I think.

Reply to
Richard Brookman

Whilst I wouldn't want to detract from your point as a seller, I've found Paypal to be absolutely useless to me as a buyer: In the two disputes I've had (from over 500 otherwise faultless transactions, I should say), I've not managed to get any money back without a real fight.

The first dispute was over "not as described" - when the article of clothing, which my wife had persuaded me to buy for her (mistake!), was plainly of a different design, texture, colour and size to that in the photo on the site and Paypal wouldn't accept any photographic or written evidence from myself. We went to Trading Standards and eventually got a full payout - and I got my only negative feedback for being a "bad buyer". Given the outcome of the dispute, that was grossly unfair feedback but, despite all my efforts, E-Bay wouldn't remove it.

In the other one, the seller didn't send the goods (and didn't reply to anyone's e-mails etc.). Although the facts in this case were indisputable, I got nothing back, as the seller didn't have any money in his account.

The staff at Paypal are not at all helplful, they've got sham systems which appear designed to fob you off, rather than help, and Paypal itserlf appears to take no risks at all for the fees it levies.

About the only thing that it is useful for is on overseas transactions which can be an incredible faff, if you have to pay by other means.

- Tom.

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Reply to
Tom Bennett

My only claim on PayPal wend perfectly smoothly and I got every peny back, even the postage. The goods arived damaged and the lack of packaging damage made it plainly obvious they were in that condition when packed, the seller wasted my time getting me to return the item to his premises (a lockup) in person but did not show up himself. The chat to his neighbours was enlightening, so I made the claim and after due process got a refund. Greg

Reply to
Greg

They'd be braking the law - M&S used to do that ("our card only"). You either accept cards or not these days (though you can be picky about which ones).

Richard

Reply to
beamendsltd

I absolutely agree with the above too! Which just makes me even more nervous of the eBay/PayPal pair (I'm sure PayPal were much more helpful and constructive before being bought by eBay - that may just be rusty memory though).

Richard

Reply to
beamendsltd

So what's the alternative? If competition is what makes a healthy economy where's the competition?

AJH (wife just bought two new SAGs off ebay for me and paid cash)

Reply to
AJH

I've paid for items by cash but I usually don't tell seller I'm sending cash. They're just surprised when they find it in the envelope. Even if they don't accept other methods of payment other than PayPal, I will send cash if it's under $20. Then I'll usually send a MO.

Reply to
Just Me

eBid?

Richard

Reply to
beamendsltd

I would be very surprised to find it in the envelope!, the post office metal detectors spot the metal strip and alert the oh so honest staff that they employ to the presence of cash. I've 'lost count of the times my family has had a note nicked from a birthday card, and long since given up any hope of sending cash in the post. I've even had parcels opened up, the present removed and the parcel neatly sealed up again with nothing inside!. Greg

Reply to
Greg

On or around Tue, 2 Jan 2007 10:39:48 -0000, "Richard Brookman" enlightened us thusly:

you'll definitely get pulled for "paypal payment invokes a surcharge" in any shape or form.

it don't work like that. They pulled one of mine, for the reason above. Since when I refuse to acc pet paypal for vehicles, and add "If for some reason you HAVE to pay by paypal, email me and we can discuss it."

but you're wasting valuable finger-energy arguing with 'em, I'm afraid. Not seen "unable to delete paypal as payment method" yet.

since eBay now own Paypal, I reckon there should be an anti-trust suit in there somewhere for an enterprising american lawyer.

Reply to
Lord Austin the Ebullient of Happy Bottomshire

On or around Tue, 02 Jan 2007 11:34:54 +0000, Tim Hobbs enlightened us thusly:

My principal objection is that the sellers pay all the fees. If you do a mixture of buying and selling, that's fair enough, but if you mainly sell it's unfair.

Reply to
Lord Austin the Ebullient of Happy Bottomshire

Don't give up hope personally I only have 152 feedback and am far from expert but SWMBO is a deal more expereinced having 900+ and she says with effort you can omit Paypal from your auctions though she has not done so recently low value etc etc. Frankly I think the paypal "no funds" excuse is a crock since they insist on access to a valid account in order to maintain an Pp account and they are more than capable of making charges - if they can pay in they can also withdraw funds .

Derek

Reply to
Derek

They can know it's a valid bank/card account account, but they can't know if it has any funds in it or credit left, until they try to draw funds. At that point the bank/card issuer will simply refuse the attempt, even though they will still happily accept a credit to the account. When I made a claim against a seller they were able to take the money out of his account and pay me, no excuses, I got every penny and was pleasantly surprised that they made no deductions, presumably they charged him though.

The only gripe I have ever had with PayPal was when a recipient refuses a payment they hold the money in limbo for a couple of weeks, this seems to be a simple ploy to gain interest. But bear in mind that banks do the same for up to 3 days every single time you make an 'instant' electronic transfer so PayPal isn't exactly alone in this trick. Greg

Reply to
Greg

I didn't realise your banks were so backward in the UK. I'm used to electronic transfers arriving instantly between accounts at the same bank and gripe about them only happening overnight between banks here in NZ. Even credit card transactions thru my business are credited to my account overnight (in their entirety, the commission is debited from my account monthly).

Reply to
EMB

I don't think it's a case of being backward, just that people are letting them get away with a blatant con. My partner just transferred from one account to another within the same bank on-line and was told it would take 3 days, of course in those 3 days the money is not earning her interest but obviously is earning the bank interest so basically it's a con. PayPal have simply stretched this con to weeks!. Greg

Reply to
Greg

Is your banking "free"

Steve

Reply to
steve Taylor

Depends on which bank you use, and how large your relationship with them is. Our personal banking costs us a flat $10 (about 3 quid) a month in fees. My business account costs me nothing (after a bit of negotiation along the lines of "play ball or I'm off elsewhere"). If you've got any sort of a mortgage with the bank they will normally waive all the fees on your accounts.

Reply to
EMB

Ah that's perhaps the difference, all private banking and some business banking is "free", only, of course, it takes 3 days to clear anything, if you're lucky.

Steve

Reply to
steve

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