Quick eBay/Paypal question - update, I'm all set

[caleymama]

I am hoping some of you more seasoned buyers and sellers can give me some advice:

I won an auction last night and paid via Paypal immediately. The auction stated that Paypal was preferred and payment was expected w/in 3 days. According to the auction, the seller also accepts money orders and personal checks. This morning I noticed that my payment had been denied. I had a pleasant email from the seller apologizing for the confusion, but she does not in fact accept credit card payments via Paypal and could I please re-submit payment using a bank account or existing Paypal funds. ETA: The invoice I received from the seller states "You can pay me securely with any major credit card through PayPal. I accept the following payment methods: PayPal, Personal Checks, Cashier's Check/Money Order."

Long story short, my bank doesn't have a good relationship with Paypal and won't allow me to add my bank account and become verified (went through trying to figure that out when I signed up last year) and I don't use eBay enough to warrant getting another bank account. Also, I don't have any funds currently in my Paypal account. I am careful to only bid on auctions that DON'T require funded payments, so I am a little annoyed that she didn't state it up front and now expects a change. It's only $10.50, so I don't want to create headaches for anyone, but I can't transfer $$ in to Paypal from my bank account (I don't think) since it's not "added." I can and have transferred $$ from Paypal to my bank account, but when I went to add funds this morning I would have had to go through the whole adding my bank thing and that didn't seem right. Is that normal? That leaves me with the MO option, even though she didn't state it in her email. Then I have the eat the MO fee and the stamp to mail it. In the whole scheme of things not a big deal, but it doesn't seem fair now.

How would you handle this? Thanks so much!

ETA: My sister had the bright idea to just Paypal me the funds to cover this transaction. It's paid for and done now. Thanks so much for all of your feedback.

[Imperia]

She should have told you upfront, but you should know that this is VERY common with sellers on eBay now. In fact I actually state the opposite in mym auctions (that I take ALL forms of paypal payements lol).

Here is a possible solution: ask her if she will accept a CC payment if you pay the fees for her (this should be about 50 cents or so). It would be easier for you than doing an MO (and probably cheaper if you have to buy the MO).

HTH

Imperia

[caleymama]

Thanks for your suggestion. I had thought about that and wasn't sure if sellers couldn't or wouldn't accept credit card payments. I know there are more fees involved if they do but I seem to remember different kinds of Paypal accounts or something and I thought maybe some didn't allow it. KWIM? I've just never run into this in the transactions I have done (as buyer or seller), so I wasn't sure how to handle the discrepancy.

[Imperia]

You can accept the CC payments most people just won't because they don't want to loose money on fees, and it's against eBay policy to say you charge extra for people paying through PP with a CC! There are two types of PP accounts and so some people only accept CC payments through one account and other payments through the other. I forget exactly how that works.

Imperia

[egoldber]

ACtually you are right that there are different types of PayPal accounts. With my account, I literally CANNOT accept CC payments, even if I wanted too. I wouls have to upgrade my account to a fee account, which I am not personally willing to do. This seller probably has the same type of account.

HTH,

[Kate888]

Yes, there are differnt types of accounts. Mine can not accept CC either unless I want to upgrade it (with fees). How about explaining the situation to the seller and ask her if you can pay with a personal check? Tell the seller that she can ship the package after the check is cleared (if you don't need it immediately). A reasonable seller should be willing to work with you. Good luck :)

Kate
Mama to Maya 2-17-02

http://instagiber.net/smiliesdotcom/kao/otn/ptrose.gif

[westchicagomom]

The same exact thing happened to me and I also don't have a funded paypal account. I too avoid auctions that don't accept credit cards, so I was a bit annoyed.

I sent her an e-mail stating this. Actually this is exactly what I sent her:

"It is unfortunate that you do not list that fact on your payment instructions as I would never have bid on your item. Since the item page has the credit card icons and says pay w/ your credit card on-line, I think it behooves you to state (as so many other sellers do), that you do not take credit cards. Though I have only been ebaying for a few months I spend hours a day bargain hunting and in my experience I think most buyers assume that if you say you take PayPal you take credit cards, unless you state otherwise. In fact I think ebay even defines PayPal as such (from the ebay seller's PayPal help page:::::"Important: You should only select the PayPal option if you are willing to accept credit cards through PayPal. If you would like to accept PayPal through your personal account, you should include this in your item description.") So I don't know if this constitutes a violation of ebay policies, but it seems like a type of false advertising/fraud to me because in my experience those sellers who list that they do not take credit cards almost always have lower final auction prices than do sellers who take credit cards even when the exact same items are up for bid..

Please advise whether you want to take a personal check (I refuse to pay money order fees) or want to cancel the transaction (this would be my preference as I really don't like sending personal checks for payments)."

Well lo and behold I get an e-mail that night w/ an account to send credit card payments to. I didn't respond immediately. The next day I get another e-mail from her saying that I can just pay through the ebay checkout since she had changed that account to accept credit cards. Obviously she was trying to get out of paying the extra fees, but wanted it to seem like she took cc so more people would bid.

She apologized several times and left positive feedback for me before I even got the item. It all worked out - it was just a hassle.

Good luck!

[caleymama]

Update: I emailed the seller asking if I could send a Money Order today. "Would you accept a money order instead? Long story short, I have no existing funds in my Paypal account and due to issues between my bank and Paypal (that was a fun surprise when I joined Paypal) I am unable to fund a payment directly from my bank account. Since your auction did not indicate otherwise I thought I would be okay to make a credit card payment. I have to go to the Post Office today so I could get the MO in the mail to you right away. Please let me know if that is acceptable and if it is not, let me know how you would like to proceed."

She did say in the auction that she would accept a MO, so hopefully she still will. Thanks for your help. I am learning about eBay and Paypal as I've started buying and selling and I want to do the right thing when these new situations come up.

[caleymama]

We were posting at the same time ...

Thanks for your input - I'm sorry you had to deal with this too. I was originally thinking I'd take a hard line and do something like you did. That was my gut reaction. I decided, though, that for this item right now it's just not worth it for me. I hadn't thought, however, about the fraud issue you brought up and about the final auction price. Interesting! If it happens again I'm not going to be so relaxed. Overall, it's a good eBay lesson for me.

[ShayleighCarsensMom]

That is very frustating! I sell quite a bit on ebay and do not accept credit cards via paypal because the fees from ebay and the fees from paypal (owned by the same company, charged twice!) eat away all my profit!
BUT, paypal is constantly trying to get me to upgrade (to make money!) and their way of doing this is to allow customers to pay via credit card..which I in turn have to deny...
So, I fooled them and created a new credit card paypal account that I will give people if they are willing to split the fees with me.

Sorry, so long, but yes, paypal is very confusing!!!

[ShayleighCarsensMom]

Unfortunatly you cant take a "hard line" if it clearly states in the auction that no credit cards are accepted.
I guess you have to double check the auction to make sure that the payment forms are okay with you before you bid.

[caleymama]

It didn't state that at all. I never would have bid if it had. I realize the limitations of my particular Paypal account (due to my bank's issues) and don't bid on auctions that don't accept forms of payment I am able to use. Everything in the auction (and later the invoice) stated that Paypal was acceptable with no mention of funded payments only. I guess it just irks me that the seller was given ample opportunity to list the payment methods they will accept (which I read carefully in all the places they are listed because there are often inconsistencies), and then after the fact said that they would not accept the credit card payment.

[westchicagomom]

But what is the lesson? That you have to specifically ask each seller if they take credit cards when they say they accept PayPal and the credit card is plastered all over their auction page?

I have had this happen 2x already and I didn't push on the first since it was only my third transaction and she accepted personal checks and actually sent the item out before she had the check (way too trusting IMO). But on this one my first thought was that she did this because the item price was too low. It was a high end boutique dress that went for under $10. I thought for sure she was going to offer to cancel the transaction because she wanted to re-list it. Well I was wrong on that, but I do think she definitely knew what she was doing. And in fact she didn't say she took any other form of payments other than paypal - thus the reason for "the hard line".

If a seller wants me to pay or split the transaction fees for credit cards, I better be getting an awfully good deal on the item from them to do so. To me, those transaction fees are just the cost of doing business.

I have found that most sellers do not respond quickly to e-mails (I ask about combining shipping or shipping costs when they don't list it) and I won't bid on an item if I don't get a reply. I just really don't have the time or desire to e-mail each seller and ask them if PayPal means credit cards when according to ebay it should.

I have just recently run into several sellers who are doing things they shouldn't be doing on ebay and one who was just really wacky - I guess that is why my tone is as such as I have been soured on Ebay. Please don't take it personally! I hope the transaction works out for you.

[caleymama]

I agree wholeheartedly with everything you've said. The lesson for me was all of the feedback I received about how eBay and Paypal works. For me to have sent a MO this time wouldn't have been that big of a deal and so far the seller has been responsive and pleasant to deal with. I am able to avoid that by having my sister just Paypal me the $$ to cover the transaction (why didn't I think of that sooner ...). Now that I know more about how eBay works and about others' experiences, I will feel more comfortable holding a seller accountable for their error(s) in the future. I appreciate your candidness and hope that you too have better luck with eBay.