Any eBay "Why?"

Compa

A seller has this in his auctions:


SHIPPING & HANDLING TERMS:

We require ALL orders paid for with Paypal to include postal insurance as listed in these terms. Only 1 insurance-registration payment is needed per shipment that may contain multiple lots. Orders paid for by cash, check, money order or Western Union Auction Payments may omit insurance at the buyers risk of loss.

Winning U.S. bidder to pay $1.50 S/H and $1.30 optional postal insurance to a U.S. address.


A 'Power Seller' with good feedback ... why in the world would he REQUIRE insurance based on your method of payment. I wrote him and he responded:

You don't have to purchase insurance if you don't want to. I don't have to
accept Paypal if I don't want to. If you don't want insurance you can just pay
by cash, check, money order or Western Union. If you want to pay with Paypal I
will only accept the payment if it includes postal insurance.


Maybe his way of punishing people for using PayPal or am I missing something?

He isn't making a profit on $1.30 for 'postal insurance'.

He does have some things that interest me but I don't want to do business with anyone stranger than myself.

ajaan

Just guessing here, but it may have to do something with PayPal's buyer protection program?

CIVITAS

Maybe not "punishing" paypal users so much as "encouraging" payment by checks, money orders or cash. A little strange, as you said, but perfectly legitimate.

It may also be necessary for the Seller Protection Program to ship insured/registered to prevent fraud and have proof that the buyer received the item and is just trying to cheat PayPal should he make a claim with the Buyer Protection Program.

danglen

As a seller who has been through this with PayPal, I can empathize with the seller on this one. If someone pays you with PayPal, and then they claim they didn't get the goods, unless you can PROVE that they did receive them, PayPal will debit your account. Doesn't matter if you have 2,000 PayPal transactions under your belt with no complaints and the buyer is a newbie with 3 positives and two negatives, they will still dock you account on the buyer's sayso. On overseas transactions, you really have no protection at all as a seller. Even if you sent the item Registered Mail, if the buyer claims he didn't get the goods, you can expect a chargeback. For this reason, on the more expensive items, unless I know the buyer from multiple previous transactions, I won't accept PayPal from overseas customers. What PayPal calls a "Seller Protection Program", ISN'T.

Aethelred

Between eBay and Paypal, it seems like the seller is always the one taking the risk!