paypal and required insurance for ebay payment

jay0791

I was wondering...maybe someone has an answer.

i won an item on ebay...and in the seller payemt description it says' "if paying by paypal, bvuyer is requires to buy insurance."
I noticed this after I made a regular paypal payment and seller emailed me back sayig insurance was indeed required.

is this legal???

jamesgotpoorman

I would contact ebay/paypal. Paying with paypal should "insure" his payment.

Sounds like he is trying to recoup paypal fees. Although, if he stated that that is his requirement to buy, you may not be in the right. What he is doing is not right, but he stated that he does that in his auction.

grote15

Sellers can add insurance costs to their shipping charges, but I don't believe they can require it solely based on the payment method. He'd have to require insurance for any other payment method, too.

MeteoriteGuy

As long as he is not trying to profit from the insurance....I think you should pay it.

262Runner

Sellers often try to profit from requiring Insurance. I have paid the cost of required insurance many times and had the package arrive un-insured, when that happens and your package has arrived safely, what can you do?

Insurance is really for the protection of the sender, not the receiving party. If a seller believes insurance is needed, than he should just include it in his shipping charges and purchase the insurance.

Archaninator

..

gaspipe26

He can do it as long as he states it in the listing. Paypal does not protect the seller from bad buyers.

262Runner

<< <i>simple...the seller requires insurance due to possible chargebacks or paypal claims. paying via check or money order means no protection for the buyer so the seller has nothing to worry about. the seller is charging insurance for paypal payments to make sure he does not assume any risk which makes perfect sense to me. pay the insurance fee via paypal or send a check without it and roll the dice. >>



I don't understand how adding insurance to a paypal transaction removes any risk for the seller, I always thought as long as you had delivery confirmation with a paypal payment the seller had no worries. It is my understaing that insurance only protects the seller from shipping damage or lost items. If the buyer is unhappy with what you sent, insurance will not help unless the item had been damaged in shipping and it was noted when delivered by the postal worker.

I am only a small time seller on ebay, about 50-100 items per month, and I always ship with delivery confirmation no matter the method of payment received. On higher priced items I have offered insurance as an option to buyers, it is very rare for a buyer to pay that extra cost. I have never had a problem since becoming an ebay member in 1998.

TWINRON

Talk about expensive S/H add ons. I had to pay $82.47 for "Shipping and Handling" for only 2 PSA cards in the last Mastro Auction.

envoy98

GULP! WHAT!??!!

$82 shipping?

Gerry

Talk about expensive S/H add ons. I had to pay $82.47 for "Shipping and Handling" for only 2 PSA cards in the last Mastro Auction

My experience has been that the shipping charges from Mastro are always negotiable to some degree. Call up and complain about those charges in a polite way and they will often reduce them, especially if you are a good customer.

jay0791

thanks for the replies.

$82.00 now I don't feel so bad....there are a few auction houses that have kinda high s/h and no cap........I paid $45 for a mile high win.

However it was shipped very well, fast, and insured.

Did you buy the Mona Lisa ????????

cameocards

I require ins. for Paypal payments if I am asked to ship to an unconfirmed address. Paypal won't help me, but the post office frowns on fraud. Delivery confirmation to a confirmed address protects the seller against scam buyers only up to a value of $250. Over that, you need ins. to protect yourself.
Since we are beefing about shipping, I have a couple as a seller. Here is one of my favorites. I love buyers who move and don't update their credit card info with Paypal. Last week, I got a neg. from an idiot for shipping to the "wrong" confirmed address!!?? The package went to his parents house and not to his new digs. I have also had a few situations where I didn't do delivery confirmation [lesser amount of value]. I shipped to the confirmed address, but later find out that the address is an old one.
I find that if you really try and run a professional operation, communicate with your customers [especially if you run into a problem], and deliver a product as described; 99.8% of deals go just fine. It also makes a personal meeting at a show something to look forward to.
Greg
Cameocards web page

1954

Jay,
I don't blame him one bit. There is no protection for the seller and all the protection for a buyer. Recently I sold some items and the buyers did not want to pay for insurance. One of the items was lost and the buyer went back against me as the seller. Paypal never protected me nor asked me to prove that I had sent the item. The only way you can protect yourself is to have it insured and I as a seller will not pay for it out of my money.

Shane

RedNeckBilly

Sorry in advance for the rant: jay0791 has a point. If he's willing to accept the risk of shipping uninsured, Paypal shouldn't penalize the seller if the item gets lost, damaged, etc.

I look at paypal as a convenience for buying. As a seller, I think it's painful as hell. IMO, it's the buyers choice as to whether they want their item insured. It's also their responsibility for whatever decision they make. I keep the shipping reciept as proof that I shipped in the manner and cost that the buyer paid for.

I don't usually take paypal that much anymore except to pay for stuff. I don't advertise that I take paypal but when someone asks, I let them know that I have a personal account that they keep trying to upgrade me out of. The last representative I spoke to even tried to trick me into upgrading the account. The personal accounts don't let you accept credit cards anymore. They have gone so far as disabling the deny a credit card payment option on my account. This means that when someone pays with a credit card that the seller can't deny a payment and the buyer cant retract it. This results in the credit card transaction just sitting in limbo for 30 days.

The problem is that many buyers don't know the difference in funding a transaction.

Gerry

Sometimes eBay auctions state:

Shipping insurance - Included (in the shipping and handling cost)

while others state:

Shipping insurance - Not offered

I've always assumed that (the latter means the same as the former from a buyer's point of view. Am I correct? Fortunately I've never had anything lost so I haven't tested this assumption.

Tabe

<< <i>Jay,
I don't blame him one bit. There is no protection for the seller and all the protection for a buyer. Recently I sold some items and the buyers did not want to pay for insurance. One of the items was lost and the buyer went back against me as the seller. Paypal never protected me nor asked me to prove that I had sent the item. The only way you can protect yourself is to have it insured and I as a seller will not pay for it out of my money.

Shane >>


Tough.

Insurance protects the seller, not the buyer. If the item gets lost, it's your fault, not the buyer's. Why should the buyer have to pay extra just to get the item he's already paid for?

You don't feel like paying for insurance to protect yourself? Well, that's what insurance is for, isn't it? If you don't feel like paying for it, well, you're rolling the dice on having to make good out of your own pocket.

I don't feel like paying for health insurance for my wife either - but it sure would suck to not have it when I need it, wouldn't it?

Tabe

RedNeckBilly

<If the item gets lost, it's your fault, not the buyer's.>

Actually, it's neither the buyer's or the sellers fault. It's actually the shippers fault if they lose the item. Taking your logic a step further, why should anyone have to pay a shipping company to insure that they actually perform the service you've already paid them to do?

The reason is because those are the terms they agree to ship under. Nobody forces you to use their service. Similarly, the seller in this case (I assume), has provided his terms up front.