eBoy Seller...Dang it...

[bmattock]

OK, I guess I had it coming...

Bid on an item from a seller with one feedback - positive, but still only the one. Won.

Not for much money - $15 plus shipping.

The listing said Paypal accepted. I paid via Paypal as soon as I won, since the shipping amount was known.

Seller rejected the payment, no comments as to why.

Wrote to him and asked what was up. He explained that the email account he has set up with Paypal for the auction is not a 'premium' account and therefore gets charged 3% to receive credit card payments. He has another email account that IS a 'premier' Paypal account and could I please re-send my payment to that email address?

Both addresses are similar - joe.blow@yahoo.com vs. joe.blow@gmail.com. I checked the headers in the emails I got - they are official eBoy emails, not some faked up phishing scheme thing.

I checked with Paypal - they indeed have sent the credit back to my credit card company. However it has not yet shown up on the CC account - and according to them, it takes awhile to get the amount put back.

I've got alarm bells going off here - something does NOT seem right. It is only a small amount, but I'm paranoid.

I wrote back to him again and offered to send him a US Postal Money Order for the amount of the sale plus shipping, if he'll give me his mailing address, but I'm not going to send a Paypal payment to an email address that is not linked to the auction in question.

Am I being outrageous here? Does this whole thing sound a bit suspicious to you? I can't even imagine what harm the guy could do to me if I *did* send the payment a second time to the different email address, other than rip me off for the amount of the sale, which would make me unhappy but I'd get over it.

Any thoughts on this?

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[ch1]

It is possible for a Seller to set up PayPal that does not accept CC's. If you see the PP logo w/o the usual CC masts that is a clue.

I do not think you are being scammed. But you are learning a lesson. Seeing the PP logo is the first step. But unless it is "flagged" with the CC logos - Seller may be refusing CC payments.

Odd thing is, if Seller's PP account is "restricted" against CC's, why did PP let you use a CC to begin with? Using a CC requires three (or is it - four) extra clicks.

 

[schmoozit]

I may not understand this perfectly, but here is what I'd try: Go to Paypal and login. Go ahead and start the process of making the payment and enter the desired email for the seller. After entering that and proceeding (not hitting the "make payment" button), you should have another confirmation page that shows all the details. If he does have another email registered with Paypal, it should show as such. There should be some way that Paypal says, "oh, okay, that seller", and you can determine that Paypal is cool with everything.

If things don't work out like that, however, you'd be in the same boat and nothing lost... yet ;-) Anyway, is losing your money via a postal money order more comforting than losing it via Paypal. Either the guy is or isn't going to rip you off, I don't see the difference as long as you are making sure that you are not entering your info on some spoof site.

I personally don't think there is any problem here, but then it's not my $15 either.

 

[bmattock]

It is possible for a Seller to set up PayPal that does not accept CC's. If you see the PP logo w/o the usual CC masts that is a clue.

I do not think you are being scammed. But you are learning a lesson. Seeing the PP logo is the first step. But unless it is "flagged" with the CC logos - Seller may be refusing CC payments.

Odd thing is, if Seller's PP account is "restricted" against CC's, why did PP let you use a CC to begin with? Using a CC requires three (or is it - four) extra clicks.

Apparently, the email account he used to list the sale is not restricted, but in order for him to 'receive' my payment after I made it, he would have to convert the account to a premier account, which then costs him 2.9 percent on ALL sales from then on, even cash sales via Paypal.

You could be right that I'm not being scammed, but the whole thing still doesn't seem to kosher, ya know?

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[bmattock]

I may not understand this perfectly, but here is what I'd try: Go to Paypal and login. Go ahead and start the process of making the payment and enter the desired email for the seller. After entering that and proceeding (not hitting the "make payment" button), you should have another confirmation page that shows all the details. If he does have another email registered with Paypal, it should show as such. There should be some way that Paypal says, "oh, okay, that seller", and you can determine that Paypal is cool with everything.

If things don't work out like that, however, you'd be in the same boat and nothing lost... yet ;-) Anyway, is losing your money via a postal money order more comforting than losing it via Paypal. Either the guy is or isn't going to rip you off, I don't see the difference as long as you are making sure that you are not entering your info on some spoof site.

I personally don't think there is any problem here, but then it's not my $15 either.

Yeah, I hear ya. I tried the Paypal thing again and tried to choose a different payee - no dice. He has two accounts that are not related to each other as far as Paypal is concerned. I guess you're right about being ripped off either way, via money order or via paypal to a different email address. Hmmmm.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Kim Coxon]

Hi Bill,
I don't think there is a problem here. It is quite easy to have 2 Paypal accounts for this reason but you have to keep them separate as Paypal don't like you doing it as they loose 3.2% for each sale. I can understand it for CC items but it is a rip off for cleared funds along with some of their other rip offs. (After all, they are owned by eBay so what can you expect.) Perhaps a reason why they accept funds and then hang on to them while waiting for clearance and other such things. They must make a fortune from all the "holding" funds they have in interest.

At least with Paypal, if nothing comes through, you have them on your side which is more than you would get with a money order.

Regards
Kim

Yeah, I hear ya. I tried the Paypal thing again and tried to choose a different payee - no dice. He has two accounts that are not related to each other as far as Paypal is concerned. I guess you're right about being ripped off either way, via money order or via paypal to a different email address. Hmmmm.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[popitz]

Hi Bill,

I also have two Paypal accounts. One premier and one regular. Just like what the others wrote, I think the seller is just trying to avoid the extra Paypal fees by using the regular account for pre-funded payments and the premier account for credit card payments.

Anyway, here's hoping you don't get ripped off.

 

[schmoozit]

Yeah, I hear ya. I tried the Paypal thing again and tried to choose a different payee - no dice. He has two accounts that are not related to each other as far as Paypal is concerned. I guess you're right about being ripped off either way, via money order or via paypal to a different email address. Hmmmm.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

Ummm... No, I think you should do it differently. You'll have to just go straight to Paypal by yourself, and not through Ebay. To make the payment, choose the "Make a Payment" tab, and then do it all manually. If you start through Ebay you'll likely only be able to change a very few variables.

I didn't know there were ways to make my Paypal experience cheaper, so I'm glad for this post! Thanks.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

How about sending a Bank Transfer to the original account so that he does not pay the 3%. Saves you the cost of a stamp and money order, saves him the 3% surcharge. Then the account is linked to the auction.

 

[Solinar]

I wrote back to him again and offered to send him a US Postal Money Order for the amount of the sale plus shipping, if he'll give me his mailing address, but I'm not going to send a Paypal payment to an email address that is not linked to the auction in question.

Am I being outrageous here? .............. Any thoughts on this?

At best, this seller is going through a learning curve. Based on the single feedback, I'd say go with the money order on this one. * Make sure to let him know that having more than one PayPal account is highly irregular and most sellers have their proverbial whatever more together than this.

Outrageous is when you are me and ask the seller for his phone number should he or she be a bit email challenged as well.

 

[bmattock]

Ummm... No, I think you should do it differently. You'll have to just go straight to Paypal by yourself, and not through Ebay. To make the payment, choose the "Make a Payment" tab, and then do it all manually. If you start through Ebay you'll likely only be able to change a very few variables.

I didn't know there were ways to make my Paypal experience cheaper, so I'm glad for this post! Thanks.

Thanks for the info - I tried that, but it doesn't work. Yes, I can do a payment to the seller's 'other' email address, but I can't 'connect' that to the eboy sale. If I click on 'pay for anything' I can specify whom to pay, but I can't say it is ONLY for the eboy sale. If I click on 'pay for eboy sale' I can't specify the alternate email address.

So yes, I can pay him as he wishes to be paid, but no, I can't make it show that it is for a specific item on an eboy auction.

Frustrating. In my paranoia, I could see a crook saying to paypal - oh yes, he sent me some money, but it wasn't for any eboy auction, so I owe him nothing.

I'm not saying that's what is happening here, but it makes me uneasy.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[bmattock]

How about sending a Bank Transfer to the original account so that he does not pay the 3%. Saves you the cost of a stamp and money order, saves him the 3% surcharge. Then the account is linked to the auction.

I think I have to have money in the checking account to do that. I gots none. I gots credit. Well, I used to have credit. Now the amount is somewhere between paypal, who says they have returned it to my cc company, and my cc company, who says they don't have it yet. Maybe in a week or so, they say.

To clarify - I have a checking account with money in it, but that is not connected with my paypal account - and it never will be. Had a bad experience with them freezing my checking account once - never again. I have a checking account that I use only for eboy and I keep funded and use to pay for auctions - but it happens to be tapped out at the moment.

The seller did not say in his auction that there would be a hassle if I tried to pay via credit card, just that he took paypal.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[wierdcollector]

I buy too often on Ebay Bill, but having had exactly this situation happen at least twice now, I always send the seller a letter asking if they'd prefer to be paid by money order or credit card funded Paypal. Since I live in Canada and Paypal's payment protection doesn't extend there (for whatever reason) I find that 40 % of the time (approx.) sellers prefer the money order so they'll either have protection or as you said, because they're not set up to accept credit cards or credit card payment costs them too much profit. You'd think that when they check your feedback it would prove you're not out to rip them off but it's amazing to me how paranoid a lot of sellers are becoming lately.

 

[Flyfisher Tom]

Bill,

It is quite normal for sellers to have two Paypal accounts, one to accept non-credit card payments (which incurs no fee) and a second to accept credit card payments (which incurs a 3% fee).

Normally, it is good practice for the seller to specifically state whether he takes credit card payments via Paypal (or can only take non-credit card payments). YOur seller should have stated this specifically. But he sounds very inexperienced in the art of 'customer service' 🙂

Doesn't sound like fraud, just an inexperienced and less than good customer service seller.