Using Paypal on e-bay

jos28

Just a word of warning to anyone shopping on e-bay. Never pay a seller directly, always use Paypal. If the seller does not accept Paypal then don't buy the item. I bought a set of DVDs(Sopranos boxed set-28 discs) for €150. The seller had all positive feedback, but I never got my dvds.I made several attempts to contact him with no luck. I rechecked e-bay to find 37 negative feedbacks, all the same story. Paid the money, no dvds. I lodged a claim with Paypal and just got an email saying I have received a full refund. Happy days !

Ruu_Old

There are a few cases where I've paid via bank draft or bank transfer (to German sellers where Paypal hasn't taken off). Definitely stay away from sellers who want payment via Western Union (even eBay advise against it!). I had trouble a few weeks ago where an item never turned up, no communication from seller but as soon as I got onto Paypal then I had my refund shortly after. Glad it worked out for you.

Passenger

Aye, good advice alright, PayPal claims is a great feature of the service and definatley enhances consumer confidence on ebay.

ejmaztec

Passenger wrote: »

Aye, good advice alright, PayPal claims is a great feature of the service and definatley enhances consumer confidence on ebay.

Except on smaller value items where the postage and packaging is ten times the item cost or where the seller has zeroed their Paypal funds.

Toots

Paypal is just brilliant, couldn't reccommend it enough! I'd use it for everything, not just eBay! Most sites take paypal and it means you don't have to give ur card details to the seller!

Cabaal

I've used bank drafts for payments back in the mid-90's before the days of paypal and it was only ever for small payments of less then $30, I;'ve used paypal for the last few years.

All in all I've never had any issues with any ebay seller over all the years I;'ve used the service

yaynay

Ruu wrote: »

There are a few cases where I've paid via bank draft or bank transfer (to German sellers where Paypal hasn't taken off).

Germany is one of PayPal's biggest markets is Europe, however, they are limited by the (slow) German banking system. This will become a lot easier with PayPal now having a banking licence from Luxembourg.

Timmaay

My only problem with paypal is the rubbish exchange rates, its basically a hidden charge. Paypal charge the seller anyway, don't they?, so its a bit unfair to have such a bad exchange rate.

dudara

Moved to Online Buying & Auctions

dudara

smellyanus

Not sure if anyone cares about my story but I shall tell it anyway (even if I just help one soul it willbe worth it).
Last night my girlfriend discovered her hotmail account had been hacked and someone had mailed all her contacts a link to a site for getting bargains online. I followed it up and checked the details of the site ----gelishi.com. It was newly set up and it turns out that it is some chinese guy setting up fake sites and bogus selling on ebay that has been doing this for ages.
Search the ebay forums for gelishi and you will find a lot of people have been caught by this crook....including one fella who's paypal account had been drained by this person, even though he had never bought anything off him! Dont know how. As I said I am just being a friendly neighbour and saying be careful with your paypal and beware gelishi.com

Fajitas!

Hmmm, I find Paypal an awful hindrance to deal with.

workaccount

I never really took a hell of alot of notice about the exchange rate. I'm really annoyed now. Paypal is not all it's made out to be.

yaynay

Timmaay wrote: »

My only problem with paypal is the rubbish exchange rates, its basically a hidden charge. Paypal charge the seller anyway, don't they?, so its a bit unfair to have such a bad exchange rate.

PayPal is bound by the credit card associations. Therefore, if you pay through PayPal using your MasterCard, you will be charged the MasterCard exchange rate on foreign currency transactions, etc.

yaynay

smellyanus wrote: »

Not sure if anyone cares about my story but I shall tell it anyway (even if I just help one soul it willbe worth it).
Last night my girlfriend discovered her hotmail account had been hacked and someone had mailed all her contacts a link to a site for getting bargains online. I followed it up and checked the details of the site ----gelishi.com. It was newly set up and it turns out that it is some chinese guy setting up fake sites and bogus selling on ebay that has been doing this for ages.
Search the ebay forums for gelishi and you will find a lot of people have been caught by this crook....including one fella who's paypal account had been drained by this person, even though he had never bought anything off him! Dont know how. As I said I am just being a friendly neighbour and saying be careful with your paypal and beware gelishi.com

The moral of the story is; if you receive an email claiming to be from any financial institution, it's fraudulant if you are not addressed by full name. These fraudsters generally ask that you 'update' your financial information, they then use this yo hack into your online banking, etc. I believe this is what happened in the above instance.

A Dub in Glasgo

I generally only send to buyers who have a paypal confirmed address. If the buyer does not have a confirmed address, the buyer should get it confirmed or pay by another method.

Unfortunately, paypal does not allow sellers to automatically reject payments from accounts that have unconfirmed addresses - as they do in the US.

jor el

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

I generally only send to buyers who have a paypal confirmed address. If the buyer does not have a confirmed address, the buyer should get it confirmed or pay by another method.

Unfortunately for Irish people, it's impossible to confirm our address with Paypal.

If a seller wouldn't accept my Paypal payment, I'd just use a different seller. Paypal is instant and handy, also gives protection. Other methods, cheque, bank transfer, cash, etc have many drawbacks including no protection against fraud, delays, and so on.

A Dub in Glasgo

You should be asking paypal why you cannot get confirmed as paypal remove seller protection for shipments to unconfirmed addresses and they still take their cut of the money received therefore sellers are at a disadvantage when accepting payment from unconfirmed addresses as well as out of pocket!!

yaynay

As a seller, you do have the option of refunding a payment, if you only ship to confirmed addresses. When a seller refunds a payment, the PayPal fee is automatically refunded also.

A Dub in Glasgo

You certainly do although that tends to piss the buyer off.

It would be nice if paypal gave the seller the option of ticking a box saying 'Do not accept payments from buyers with unconfirmed addresses'. The buyer would then contact the seller to discuss other payment options. This should not come as a surprise to the buyer as it will be stated in the listing.

yaynay

jor el wrote: »

Unfortunately for Irish people, it's impossible to confirm our address with Paypal.

If a seller wouldn't accept my Paypal payment, I'd just use a different seller. Paypal is instant and handy, also gives protection. Other methods, cheque, bank transfer, cash, etc have many drawbacks including no protection against fraud, delays, and so on.

Irish buyers can confirm their address through the expanded use process. You do this by going to the credit card section on your profile, and initiate the process. This basically confirms that the credit card is yours and the details match, thus confirming you PayPal account details.

Timmaay

yaynay wrote: »

PayPal is bound by the credit card associations. Therefore, if you pay through PayPal using your MasterCard, you will be charged the MasterCard exchange rate on foreign currency transactions, etc.

I dont think so, after checking up the paypal website, it states the following

** If your transaction involves a currency conversion, it will be completed at a retail foreign exchange rate determined by PayPal, which is adjusted regularly based on market conditions. This exchange rate includes a 2.5% spread above the wholesale exchange rate at which PayPal obtains foreign currency, and the spread is retained by PayPal. The specific exchange rate that applies to your multiple currency transaction will be displayed at the time of the transaction.

To me that says they charge 2.5% on to of what they detemine to be the exchange rate. This is crazy in my view, recently I bought stuff from the uk in GBPs and was amazed when I was given an exchange rate of about £0.74 to the euro. The very same day I bought something on ebay and was given a rubbish rate of about £0.71:mad::mad:

majiktripp

yaynay wrote: »

Irish buyers can confirm their address through the expanded use process. You do this by going to the credit card section on your profile, and initiate the process. This basically confirms that the credit card is yours and the details match, thus confirming you PayPal account details.

Unfortunately this is not the case, that process confirms your account as verified but because we live in Ireland our addresses can never become confirmed even if you follow the details you gave (Which I have done a good while ago, and yet I still have an unconfirmed address)

yop

thats true, until we have postcodes we are unverified

yaynay

majiktripp wrote: »

Unfortunately this is not the case, that process confirms your account as verified but because we live in Ireland our addresses can never become confirmed even if you follow the details you gave (Which I have done a good while ago, and yet I still have an unconfirmed address)

Actually you are 100% right. It seems PayPal are a bit lax for the Irish market, what with no debit card facilities, etc. :rolleyes:

majiktripp

It seems at bit weird that eBay have a corporate office here (and as far as Im aware so does paypal) yet we cannot have confirmed addresses?! We are close enough to Britain surely (who can have their addresses verified) to warrant us having the facility surely?

A Dub in Glasgo

They are in Ireland for tax reasons. The important thing is address confirmed.

yaynay

majiktripp wrote: »

It seems at bit weird that eBay have a corporate office here (and as far as Im aware so does paypal) yet we cannot have verified accounts?! We are close enough to Britain surely (who can have their addresses verified) to warrant us having the facility surely?

Correct PayPal and eBay do have buildings in D15.

Irish user's can verify their account, but they cannot confirm their address. Which is two different things.

manicmonoliths

I'm just annoyed that they wont take debit cards! Amazon wont take mine either!

Fajitas!

I've said it before, they're scum.

I've had to keep on using them, and tonight's the final straw - Just went to put through a large transaction, and they've decided my card is fake, and have cancelled my cards.

Now I'm expected to send 2 bills via land mail to their office, along with a copy of ID, for them to let my transaction get through. I may aswell be sending them to the some kings long lost son from South Africa, who'll pay me back 1 millions euro's when he's reinstated.

Pile of ****ing ****. The sooner there's some competition for them the better.

yaynay

Fajitas! wrote: »

I've said it before, they're scum.

I've had to keep on using them, and tonight's the final straw - Just went to put through a large transaction, and they've decided my card is fake, and have cancelled my cards.

Now I'm expected to send 2 bills via land mail to their office, along with a copy of ID, for them to let my transaction get through. I may aswell be sending them to the some kings long lost son from South Africa, who'll pay me back 1 millions euro's when he's reinstated.

Pile of ****ing ****. The sooner there's some competition for them the better.

What reason did they give, I might be able to help? They don't do things like this for the good of their health, they'll be a good reason for this.

Fajitas!

They said there was suspicious activity, the strange thing is, the message that came up is gone now, with no details of sending my bills, but also, no details of any credit cards on my account, as if they were just removed?

yaynay

Are you sure this wasn't spoof? sounds like it to me.