Dear Paypal, I hate you

Pokermandude

Buyer with ~45 feedback wins a coin I sold for under $9. Writes me a day later saying Paypal flagged the attempted transaction when he tried to pay with his credit card. He said he's paid other sellers fine with this same credit card. He requests a week to get funds from his bank account into Paypal to be able to pay me.

2 weeks go by and I politely just resend the same invoice. He pays promptly, and sends a note apologizing for the delay. His address shows as confirmed and Paypal says go ahead and ship the item.

A few hours later, Paypal emails me saying they have flagged the transaction, is holding my funds and has requested more info from me. They asked what address the buyer requested that I ship to (I guess they are thinking possible fraud?), even though it's the address they have as confirmed on his account.

So what's Paypal's deal here? Doesn't seem to me like this buyer is trying to defraud me out of a few bucks, his address is confirmed, Paypal let the transaction through but then later decided to flag it.

I haven't run into an issue like this before. Seems mostly just a headache and waste of time on my end :S

Any bets on what (if any) the issue is here?

Edit: Paypal is calling it a "potential unauthorized payment", even though it looks like he paid through Ebay's auction link, auction title and number is showing up fine for the payment

MsMorrisine

random paranoia?

give 'em a call.


politely comply.


just don't be negative with them in any way. No one has a problem with paypal until paypal has a problem with them. Don't aggravate the issue by speaking negatively with them.

melvin289

And people are always giving me grief because I refuse to have a PayPal account? My personal checks are always good or I won't write a check

Ron.

goodmoney4badmoney

Did I read correctly?....this transaction is under $9? Consider yourself lucky.

coirn

$9. or nine thousand, Paypal is going to extra effort to protect you.
That warrants hate?

Tiny

Had a guy want to buy a car I got on eBay motors and wanted to send 23K
through the P P Ran his email address with Google and it came back many
hits about P P fraud. They are a tuff bunch at Pay Pal but I think sometimes
they are trying to look out for us.

OzzyAndy

Are you sure it's paypal? If they want 'more information', check you're on paypal's site before giving it, don't respond to direct emails.

Pokermandude

<< <i>Are you sure it's paypal? If they want 'more information', check you're on paypal's site before giving it, don't respond to direct emails. >>



Yep, definitely paypal. By more info I don't mean my credit card info or personal info. Just a form mostly asking about the buyer and what the buyer has said.



<< <i>$9. or nine thousand, Paypal is going to extra effort to protect you.
That warrants hate? >>



True, I should probably be grateful that my massive fees are going towards something. Even if it seems like a totally random enforcement of a perfectly normal payment.

GrumpyEd

They should change it.

Make it so payments do not show up until they decide it's safe to ship.
Now that would be simple!

ctf_error_coins

I for one LIKE PAYPAL. What a great service they offer. The easiest way to buy and sell. They do charge for their service

Barry

<< <i>They are a tuff bunch at Pay Pal but I think sometimes
they are trying to look out for us. >>


No, they are just trying to look out for themselves and often cause a lot of grief to us innocents in the process.

TwoSides2aCoin

Pay Pow is not as bad as eBay's feedback system. I got the funniest "neutral" feedback ever on a coin in a broken PCGS slab.

Tiny

<< <i>

<< <i>They are a tuff bunch at Pay Pal but I think sometimes
they are trying to look out for us. >>



No, they are just trying to look out for themselves and often cause a lot of grief to us innocents in the process. >>



True, but the key word is

"sometimes"

Bochiman

<< <i>

<< <i>Are you sure it's paypal? If they want 'more information', check you're on paypal's site before giving it, don't respond to direct emails. >>



Yep, definitely paypal. By more info I don't mean my credit card info or personal info. Just a form mostly asking about the buyer and what the buyer has said.



<< <i>$9. or nine thousand, Paypal is going to extra effort to protect you.
That warrants hate? >>



True, I should probably be grateful that my massive fees are going towards something. Even if it seems like a totally random enforcement of a perfectly normal payment. >>



If you hate it so much, do without it. Go off ebay with the guy. Don't sell on ebay. Get your own electronic payment (ie....take credit cards).
There are ways to do it without paypal. Sure sounds to me like you have no patience or understanding though. Dollar amount shouldn't matter. What should matter is that paypal has flagged something and is trying to protect you.

mbogoman

Same thing happened to me about a month ago. The buyer had a good track record (over 200 feedback, all positive). Apparently Paypal was doing some random transaction security checks. Unfortunately for my guy, he was out of town and working from a different computer (different IP addr) than his home computer. Paypal wouldn't release the funds to me until the buyer could confirm something from his home computer. To make a long story short, the buyer got home 4 days later, he cleared up the security issue (it took a couple tries) and our deal was consummated. We had good communications all the way through. I had to respond to some questions about the transaction on Paypal, but other than that, it wasn't too bad. A PITA, and very frustrating for the buyer, but not too bad...

notwilight

Paypal for some reason has concerns that the credit card or account has been stolen or hijacked. They treat $9 like $9000. This is one of the issues with selling low value coins on ebay. I wouldn't even give it a second thought and certainly wouldn't waste my fingers starting a thread about it--except for one thing--make sure your buyer knows paypal is holding you up. If they ding you for slow shipping on stars it will take 1 year to get it off your record. I just got "Top rated seller" back after 1 year ago I got dinged by two buyers for slow registered mail. It has cost me several hundred $ in fees over that year.

--jerry

coirn

And as soon as the OP is ripped off $9. due to his and/or paypal's laziness there will be another level of hate, detailed in another thread. . .

notwilight

<< <i>And as soon as the OP is ripped off $9. due to his and/or paypal's laziness there will be another level of hate, detailed in another thread. . . >>



I recommend doubling your meds. That amount of negativity can't be healthy. --Jerry

SeattleSlammer

kudos for one of the funniest thread subject lines!

Pokermandude

<< <i>kudos for one of the funniest thread subject lines! >>



Thanks, I thought so too




<< <i>If you hate it so much, do without it. Go off ebay with the guy. Don't sell on ebay. Get your own electronic payment (ie....take credit cards).
There are ways to do it without paypal. Sure sounds to me like you have no patience or understanding though. Dollar amount shouldn't matter. What should matter is that paypal has flagged something and is trying to protect you. >>



I guess tongue in cheek humor doesn't travel well over the internet. FWIW I do think Paypal's fees are reasonable for the service they provide. Ebay FVFs are another story and not for this thread.




<< <i>Same thing happened to me about a month ago. The buyer had a good track record (over 200 feedback, all positive). Apparently Paypal was doing some random transaction security checks. Unfortunately for my guy, he was out of town and working from a different computer (different IP addr) than his home computer. Paypal wouldn't release the funds to me until the buyer could confirm something from his home computer. To make a long story short, the buyer got home 4 days later, he cleared up the security issue (it took a couple tries) and our deal was consummated. We had good communications all the way through. I had to respond to some questions about the transaction on Paypal, but other than that, it wasn't too bad. A PITA, and very frustrating for the buyer, but not too bad... >>



Thanks for this reply, I was hoping someone had a similar experience and that it turned out to be (essentially) nothing at all.

Russ

PayPal's fraud detection system is completely automated, so the dollar amount doesn't really matter. No humans are involved to exercise common sense.

Russ, NCNE

gsaguy

I used to rag on PayPal a lot. Don't recall what they did, but they really aggravated me last year. Perhaps it was their fees or some other policy I considered silly.

This year, as I look at how quickly folks pay via PayPal, how quickly I can move funds from them to my bank, how much of my time and gasoline is saved by not driving to a post office or a bank and standing in line, I'm starting to think the cost of the freight might be worth it.

ctf_error_coins

<< <i>This year, as I look at how quickly folks pay via PayPal, how quickly I can move funds from them to my bank, how much of my time and gasoline is saved by not driving to a post office or a bank and standing in line, I'm starting to think the cost of the freight might be worth it. >>




Bingo!

ianrussell

I have a love-hate relationship with Paypal. At the end of the day, they certainly want to approve every transaction (because that's how they get paid).

- Ian