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Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

codenerdz.com

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Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#171

Post by Karunamon »

gnosis wrote: post #136

The OP says he "Only sells to people with significant positive feedback", "Only ships to CONFIRMED Paypal addresses", and "Requires Signature Confirmation for items over $250" Does ebay policy allow this? I thought the seller had to sell to the winning bidder, regardless of buyer's feedback, etc.

Those are flags you can set in your sale, regarding feedback at least. If someone has negative feedback, or lives outside of a list of countries, or has unpaid item strikes, the user won't even see your sale.

Confirmed address is a paypal policy you can also turn on, which forces the seller to use their paypal confirmed address when checking out or none at all. If someone wins and they ask you to ship elsewhere, you say no. Which sucks because the buyer might ding your DSRs (detailed seller ratings), which determine your ebay privileges, search ranking position, fees...

(Whoever decided that buyers should be exempt from negative feedback needs their fucking head examined)

Signature confirmation is an option you set with your shipper.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#172

Post by URSpider94 »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #103
codenerdz wrote: post #38

OP here. Interestingly enough, my conversations with Paypal became more and more surreal and I felt more and more powerless with every one in the end. I had a trail of information and there was evidence of multiple fraud, but I never felt as powerless as I did after my phone calls with Paypal. I am in contact with the police captain in the small town where the item was shipped, but I have very little faith in their a…

Have you tried contacting the PostMaster for that city? They should be able to assist you in finding the owner of the P.O. Box. From there you can start the motions for filing charges or a lawsuit.

It's not a PO Box, it's General Delivery (https://www.usps.com/manage/forward-mail.htm). There is no owner, but you may be able to get the info they recorded when the person showed up (undoubtedly fake).

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#173

Post by _delirium »

ZoFreX wrote: post #112
brk wrote: post #11

I stopped selling things like this on eBay a long time ago because I do not sell things frequently enough to keep up with the scams du jour. My local craigslist is where my for-sale items now go. Sure, I may get a little less than top-dollar for an item, or it might take a little longer to sell, but I'm never left with some after-the-fact dispute where I have no control (note: I'll only accept cash). eBay was fun whi…

> A true "amateur to amateur" auction type sales website is an area begging for competition... Really? Because this is the area eBay started in, and they pivoted to more "online retail" than "online yard sale" because (surprise!) there is a lot more money in retail. Really, eBay is more today's Viaweb than an evolution of either p2p sales or auctions.

While it's true that eBay pivoted to a more profitable niche, their original niche was still quite profitable: they were a successful IPO and pulling down cash back in the days when most sellers were regular people. So if they're abandoning that market to focus on a more lucrative one, it might [1] leave an opening for someone else to focus on it, and make good, even if not eBay-sized, profits.

[1] With all sorts of uncertainties I haven't properly investigated, such as whether there's been a significant shift that would make old-ebay-style auctions much less profitable today than they were 10 years ago.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#174

Post by agumonkey »

Vivtek wrote: post #128
agumonkey wrote: post #23

No group action possible ? such a pattern can't be left unprotected ...

Have you seen the updated PayPal terms of service? Claims to group actions are automatically relinquished.

Nope, as lame as it is, I didn't read them and I find this rule very surprising.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#175

Post by Firehed »

ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #159
joonix wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chargebacks are a part of doing business any time you accept credit cards, whether paypal is your merchant provider or not. The problem here is Visa/MC/Amex etc. Since you almost have to accept credit card payments these days, you're stuck with their terms. Since the banks all provide credit through these card providers, there's very little competition. There are numerous ways to virtually eliminate CC fraud but the…

What we need is a competitor that disrupts credit cards altogether http://www.dwolla.com

ACH chargebacks are even worse than CC chargebacks, from the perspective of being able to fight them.

As soon as a payment touches any of the existing networks, it's at risk. The only way to fix it completely (or at least significantly improve the situation) is to have a system that's completely isolated and properly secured; i.e. every payment authorization requires true multi-factor authentication.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#176

Post by jakejake »

ZoFreX wrote: post #115
rorrr wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ebay works great for buyers now, it just sucks for sellers. I buy on Ebay all the time, you can find all kinds of things there really cheap.

Have you ever tried to get your money back after getting scammed as a buyer?

"Item not as described" is the secret passphrase. Seller has absolutely no recourse. I've never tried it as a buyer, but as a seller it's been 100% effective in the scammer getting their money back from me.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#177

Post by codenerdz »

mcherm wrote: post #140
joonix wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chargebacks are a part of doing business any time you accept credit cards, whether paypal is your merchant provider or not. The problem here is Visa/MC/Amex etc. Since you almost have to accept credit card payments these days, you're stuck with their terms. Since the banks all provide credit through these card providers, there's very little competition. There are numerous ways to virtually eliminate CC fraud but the…

If the OP were the merchant for the credit card transaction, he would have provided the extensive documentation described and I have no doubt at all that the chargeback would NOT have gone through. (The evidence of previous fraud would probably have led to closing the card account also.) But the OP is NOT the merchant... PayPal is. I do not think that the fundamental problem in this case is the credit card system. (A…

Exactly! Paypal is the middleman here and they are preventing me from going directly to the credit card issuer and providing them with extensive documentation proving fraud.

Not only that, they are making it extremely inconvenient to have any sort of communication with them

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#178

Post by sixothree »

brk wrote: post #11

I stopped selling things like this on eBay a long time ago because I do not sell things frequently enough to keep up with the scams du jour. My local craigslist is where my for-sale items now go. Sure, I may get a little less than top-dollar for an item, or it might take a little longer to sell, but I'm never left with some after-the-fact dispute where I have no control (note: I'll only accept cash). eBay was fun whi…

I think a marketplace that you could plug into an existing website would be incredible.

Eg. If you have a website / forum devoted to say knitting, being able to simply plug in an auction commerce application would be quite nice.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#179

Post by kamjam »

DanBlake wrote: post #125

The absolute, 100% way to solve this is to let sellers decide who can bid/buy on their items. If I can say "Only users who have been on ebay X months/years with Y feedback" that is such a major awesomeness. It also puts the control back in my hands. Maybe I dont get as much money when I sell a item, but I have way less risk of getting fucked. Also, it would not stop new ebayers from being able to buy things. eBay cou…

You can already do this on eBay, the sellers with Y feedback thing

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/buyer-requirements.html

More specifically: http://imgur.com/xvAYd

But it still doesn't get round the way this specific scam works, see post from Spooky23 above for a great explanation.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#180

Post by dpark »

Karunamon wrote: post #151
VMG wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that it wasn't actually stolen makes this seem a little risky.

It would be considered a form of shoplifting wouldn't it? (Honestly curious here)

It's not shoplifting. It's fraud. But yes, this phone was totally stolen.
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